Losing Jennifer

One night (I think it was Sunday) while in NYC on the 1994 United Nations Seminar we went walking, winding our way from the Milford Plaza Hotel on 45th and 8th to Rockefeller Center, roughly 10 blocks away.  We saw Radio City Music Hall (where we would later see the Christmas Spectacular) and then walked over to see the famous ice skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza.  It was a walk I had taken many times before, and one I would take many more times.  But none ever had been or ever would be as memorable as this one...

We started the walk back to the Milford, and everyone was in a great mood.  We were having a blast, plus Jill Painter was due to have arrived in NYC by the time we returned.  Our group would be complete.  As we were leaving Rockefeller Plaza, Jennifer Johns stopped at one of the food carts on a street corner to buy a Sprite.  She didn't tell anyone, thinking it would be a quick stop.  The group kept walking.  It is important to remember that this was in the days before cell phones.  We arrived at the Milford excited to see Dr. Jill, when suddenly we came to the realization that we no longer had Jennifer with us.  Panic immediately set in.  We could not remember where we had last seen her.  The girls checked her room, but she was not there.  It was quickly decided that a small group of us would back-track and see where we could find her.  Matt Schmidt and Brian Watson had grown up with Jennifer, living in the same general neighborhood.  They were as close as any friends can be.  As we started back across town, Matt was on a mission.  He was not speaking, and he was walking so fast the rest of us could not keep up.  We arrived back at Rockefeller Center, and after some questioning of New York's finest who are always in that area, we discovered what had happened and that they had directed her into a nearby building to wait for our return.  They had offered to bring her to us, but in her panic she didn't remember the name or address of our hotel.  We went into the building and found Jennifer, safe and sound.  At least at first.  After many hugs and prayers of thanksgiving for finding her unharmed, Matt Schmidt let loose!  He yelled at her for not staying with the group, listing all of the horrible things that could have happened to her.  He was so angry and so emotional;  he was truly afraid we had lost his dear friend.  I think Jen may have been more afraid at that point that at any other moment of the evening. She was shaken, but she was a trooper.   We walked back to the Milford one more time and had a happy reunion with rest of our youth family. Jen stayed very close to us the rest of the week.   It makes for a great story now, but at the time it was one of the worst nights on my ministry life.

The trip continued, and there are a few more stories to tell.  In the meantime, have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and don't forget the reason such a weekend exists.  And tomorrow, be sure to visit the house of worship of your choice and get your praise on!

Because of Jesus,

The Mystery Man

The group that was part of the first New York trip I led from Kissimmee was made up of students who had been a part of the youth ministry of FUMC-K long before my arrival.  They were very excited about this new opportunity, so excited that when the pilot announced that we were beginning our decent into Newark Airport that several of them panicked and wanted to know why we were not landing in New York.  Newark, of course, IS a New York area airport!  It was the start of a wonderful 5 days in the city.

The participants included (pictured, back row) Hamp Sessions, Connor Lewis, Jocelyn Sessions and myself; (second row) Jill Franklin, Sara Thacker, Brian Watson, Jennifer Johns, Marilyn Jones, Sharon Lynes; (front row) Todd Willis, Ben Thacker.  Not in the picture are Angie Whalin, Matt Schmidt and Jill Painter.  This was a great group, and each of them were very important to the trip.  But if you look closely at the picture, you will find an unlisted person.  This picture was taken outside the U.N.  There is an older black man on the back right;  we have no idea who he is or where he came from.  After I had the picture developed, I asked around and no one remembered seeing him. He is standing right next to me and I never knew he was there.  He just joined in our group picture for reasons we don't know.  It is one of the great mysteries of all my years in student ministry.  If you know this man, please contact me immediately! 

Another first for this trip was temporarily losing a group member, which led to total chaos.  It also almost resulted in great injury to her- AFTER we found her!  Tomorrow that story can be told...

Because of Jesus,

CCM Countdown: 1

We have reached the end of my countdown of the 50+ Contemporary Christian Music projects that had the most impact on my life and ministry through 2006.  I have had a blast looking back at some incredible music, and I will continue to revisit some great music each and every Thursday.  To see the entire countdown, simply click here.  And now it's on to Number One!!!

1)  JESUS FREAK-  dc Talk-  1995
I had become a dc Talk fan in the early 1990's with their Free At Last album, and I had seen them live and found their mix of hip-hop, rap and rock to be unique.  I felt like Toby, Mike and Kevin were leading us into a new era of Christian music.  But even as a fan, I was totally unprepared for what I would hear when the song Jesus Freak hit Christian radio in August of 1995.  The song blew everyone away, both with the music and the message.  When the album dropped in November of that year, Christian music changed forever.  The music was current, the messages were bold.  I think the majority of the youth in Kissimmee knew many of the songs by heart, and we used the theme of being "Jesus Freaks" over and over again.

FEATURED SONGS
From the opening dis-chord of the electric guitar, this album took CCM songwriting to new levels.  So Help Me God rocked as an opener;  Colored People talked about how we focus on skin color when in fact we are all colored by sin.  The title track (see video below) is still amazing 15 years later.  What If I Stumble? and Day By Day would have been the standout cuts on many albums.  We met the neighbors of the "Gotee Brothers" for the first time, as Mrs. Morgan recounts the time she threatened to kill a drummer for playing too loud at Toby's house.  Between You and Me was a huge hit, as was Mind's Eye.  Their cover of Charlie Peacock's In the Light is one of my favorite songs ever.  And who can forget the lounge lizard version of Jesus Freak; "How many are here from Shelby County tonight?  I see that hand..."   Every song was a classic, and every song was a sermon.  A great album of musical diversity and faith, and for me, the most influential album of my lifetime...so far!  It is a question all Christ-followers should answer in their own lives:  What will people think if they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak?  What will people do if they know that it's true?

OTHER RECOMMENDED ALBUMS FROM DC TALK
Nu Thang-  1990
Free At Last-  1992*
Supernatural-  1998*
*indicates album is also on this countdown

A New York State of Mind

Once I had been harassed by some students into taking a group from FUMC-K to NYC in November of 1994, I had to get serious about planning in a hurry.  I was used to having at least a year to put such a trip together; it was already July of 1994 when I started planning this one.  Transportation was a major issue; we had always taken buses from NC to the Big Apple, but from Florida we would need to fly.  I was able to secure rooms with my old friends at the Milford Plaza Hotel (the Lullaby of Broadway) with the same rates I had secured several years before.  We would once again use the United Methodist Center at the U.N. to plan our seminar;  it would be my first time using them as a Methodist, not a Quaker.  Everything came together rather quickly, and soon we were able to announce that we would be taking a group to New York the weekend before Thanksgiving, just in time to see NYC all decorated for Christmas!

The fact that we were flying was not the only thing that would be different about this trip.  I knew that the topics and discussions about world politics would be very "foreign" to some of the Kissimmee kids.  They had grown up is an environment that taught them that USAmerica is always right.  The seminar leaders at the United Nations would push their buttons in some major ways.  Another change was that I would be with an entire group that had not been on such a trip before, so keeping them safe and giving them a great trip was all on me.  It was going to be an exciting trip, but a bit stressful- and that was if I could get anyone to actually go!

It seemed that many of the parents were a little hesitant to sign their students up for a $500 excursion to a big, scary city on a trip led by a guy they had known about 3 months.  In the end, we would take 4 adults and 12 youth on what would be a landmark trip for our student ministry.  We would discover Broadway, see the Rockettes, do some great shopping, learn about foreign policy, see the sights and lose a group member along the way.  But first, we had to catch a plane...

Because of Jesus,

Hall of Fame: The Class of '95

Standing:  Me, Jennifer Johns, Angie Whalin, Chris Hanbery and Matt Schmidt

Kneeling:  Becca Smythe?, Carrie Morrell, Todd Willis and Brian Watson

Time can be a funny thing.  I have already written on this blog about my Youth Group Hall of Fame Class of 1996 from Springfield Friends Meeting.  Now we have moved ahead to my Kissimmee years, but we must go backwards in order to honor my newest Hall of Fame inductees, The FUMC-K Class of '95.  Confused?  Good!

By the time I arrived in Kissimmee, the students in the Class of '95 were late in their junior years, and they had been through a great deal when it came to their church.  They had begun their journey as middle school students who were part of the ultra-successful youth ministry of Jorge Acevedo.  Jorge, a brilliant youth worker and pastor, had focused primarily on high school students, a group to which the Class of''95 was just moving into when Jorge was moved by the Florida Conference in 1992.  The next guy was an excellent pastor named Kelly, but he was only at FUMC-K one year before getting married and moving on, and his primarily focus was middle school youth.  The next guy, Jim, was only around for about 6 months because he was just not very good at the job set before him. He wanted to be a pastor, not a youth worker, and it showed.   My arrival marked their fourth youth pastor in three years, and needless to say they were frustrated.  But more than that, the core of their group wanted the youth group to thrive again, to be important again.  They offered love and leadership, and as much as anything or anyone else, they brought the student ministry of FUMC-K back to life!

So who were these incredible youth?  The very active core group conisisted of Brian Watson, Matt Schmidt, Matt Wheeler (pictured with Todd on his shoulders), Jennifer Johns, Angie Whalin, Todd Willis, Brook Teoli, Becca Smythe (that may or may not be her last name!) and Steve Hollingsed (pictured).  Others, like Carrie Morrell, Sarah Dykes and Chris Hanbery were often around as well.  Brian, Matt and Jennifer were childhood friends to whom this group was of tremendous importance.  They were in my ear from day one, offering insight and opinion as to what needed to be done.  Todd was the pastor's son who fit right in with that group, and he was a true leader.  All of them helped me re-create the feeling that every week something special would happen at youth.  It was Jennifer, of course, who had changed my life with her words at my interview for the position in Kissimmee.  Brian, Todd and the two Matts were on that first epic trip to Mountain Top.  They didn't have time to wait around for me to "grow into" the job; they would be graduating in a year.  It was their faith, their desire to grow in Christ, and the urgency they brought to ministry that helped me get things up and running so quickly.  And it was their examples that set the tone for what students expected out of me and out of themselves over the years that followed.  For this and so much more, they are all deserving of a place in my Hall of Fame!

Their urgency made a major impact in another way as well.  I knew that Pastor John Willis and several of the youth and adults involved in my hiring had been very excited about the United Nations Seminars to New York I had led in the past, but I was planning on waiting until November of 1995 to plan one for my new church.  The Class of '95 let me know in no uncertain terms that November of 1994- before they graduated- would work much better!  I now had a huge trip to plan, very little time to do it, and all new transportation issues to deal with as well.  Looking back now, I know that the NYC trip happened because of how much love and respect I had for the Class of '95!  The stories of that trip begin tomorrow!

Because of Jesus,

The Breakfast Club

I tried a number of times during my years at Springfield Friends Meeting to start a before school Bible study (Breakfast Club) for high school students, but the distance from the church to the schools always made it too complicated.  The youth at FUMC-K had previously had such a program, and with Gateway and Osceola High Schools being just minutes away, I was very excited to resume the tradition.  In September of 1994 we began meeting in the Youth Room at 6:15 AM on Tuesdays.  Our crowds were never large, but they were faithful.  We moved to meetings to Thursday mornings at one point, and then back to Tuesdays, and the time changed several times as well.  But no matter when, we would gather for cereal, doughnuts, juice and Bible study, and it was always a great way to start our day.

Jocelyn Sessions (pictured on the 1996 Memphis SOS Mission Trip) was a very important and very faithful part of those early Breakfast Club meetings.  While I tried to provide a variety of cereal choices and doughnuts for our group, Jocelyn usually arrived with her own plain bagel and her own glass of water, because, quite frankly, Cocoa Krispies, Captain Crunch and Krispy Kreme doughnuts didn't fit her healthy lifestyle very well.  Jocelyn had a hard time remembering to take her glass with her at the end of the meetings.  Each week I would collect the glass and save it.  After a month or so of this happening, we set the full set of glasses out for the group to use one morning.  In classic Jocelyn style, she walked in, observed the glasses and said, "We have glasses just like those!"  I think our response was "Not any more!"   Cathy Thacker, the other adult who frequented the Club in those early days, always helped us keep a spiritual focus in the midst of such early morning silliness.  No matter who was there, it was always special.

There are many more Jocelyn stories to tell, and quite a few of them involved trips to New York.  I hadn't planned to go to New York in 1994, but the Class of '95 had other ideas.  Hang around all week to hear about them and the first NYC trip from Kissimmee.

Because of Jesus,

Night of Joy

For many years before 1994 I had dreamed of taking my youth groups to Night of Joy at Walt Disney World.  Night of Joy, a Christian music festival,  always took place in September (it still does!) and in those days was held on consecutive weekends. The same bands and artists would play 3 or 4 nights, so you would just pick a night and go.  Trouble was, I could never get my groups to Orlando and back from NC in a weekend. So my first September in Kissimmee, I was headed to Night of Joy.  The trouble was, the kids who lived next door to WDW their whole lives were not nearly as excited about it I was!  But we went anyway...

Night of Joy is really an amazing institution.  Special tickets enable youth groups to enjoy the Magic Kingdom while occasionally stopping to listen to live concerts from some of the heavyweights of CCM.  It is a Christian event sponsored by Disney since the early '70's;  odd when you consider how persecuted the Disney folks have been by some denominations.  Over the years since 1994 it became one of my favorite nights of the year.  That first time a small group of us went over on a Saturday night and saw dc Talk, Geoff Moore and the Distance, Point of Grace, White Heart and others.  I was amazed at the size of the crowd and the mob scene you encountered trying to get from the parking lot to the park.  It was a great night, and in the years that followed there would be many great nights and many great bands.  NOJ never disappointed.

There were always a couple of things about NOJ that I found interesting.  First, I always found it strange that very few youth actually cared about stopping and listening to the music.  They might pause by a stage for a song or two, but them it was off to ride the same rides they had experienced so many times before.  It was always the adults who would position themselves by a stage to have a good vantage point for seeing Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys or dc Talk.  The other odd thing was that some of my friends who were WDW employees told me that more damage was done to the MK at Night of Joy that the rest of the year combined.  I could not believe my fellow youth pastors allowed such vandalism to happen, although I am sure my own groups caused trouble I don't know about over the years.  But we talked a lot about representing Christ, our church and our faith.  And for the most part, they heard me.

In later years, NOJ became a weekend event we travelled to from Tampa and Waycross.  In every case, it was memorable and great fun.  But for me, even as much as I love WDW, it was always about the music.  I remember seeing the lead singer of the O.C. Supertones throw his shoulder out of socket while dancing.  I remember Michael W. Smith premiering his amazing song This Is the Time a few months before the recording came out.  I remember singing along with MWS the first time we heard him sing OUR song Prince of Peace and having others in the audience amazed that we knew the words.  Someone even asked me if I wrote it- I wish!   I remember being part of a few thousand people joining the Newsboys in the whistle solo from Breakfast.  I remember being blown away by lives sets from dc Talk and Jars of Clay.  Great music and great memories.

There will be more stories of Night of Joy to come.  It has lost some of its luster since Universal began competing with its Rock the Universe the same weekend.  But it will always conjure great memories for me, and it all began my first year in Kissimmee.   Have a blessed weekend.

Because of Jesus,