What I’m Not Going to Miss About Summer Camp

So for the time being I am not doing “full time” ministry. Now before anybody throws out the, “Doesn’t every disciple of Christ do full time ministry?” card let me say clarify that I am not working full time, or part time, on paid staff for a group of evangelical believers who meet regularly in a building. (Just decided to cover the “church” card too).

Now there is only two perks to the current predicament I find myself in. The first is that I have no responsibilities whatsoever to the congregation when I show up on Sunday mornings. The second is that I will not be spending the next two weeks at a camp being driven mad by the swarming and sonic chatterings of the plague of thirteen year cicadas our part of the country is currently being exposed to. If it wasn’t for this “blessing” I would actually be pretty bummed at the fact I’m not getting to experience the beauty and fun of summer camp ministry.

While trying to stay on the “bright side” of things I began to think of anything else that I don’t mind missing out on because I’m not going to camp this summer. That’s when I came up with this list for you: The “Five Things I Won’t be Missing, but You are Going to Have to Put Up With While You Take Kids to Camp” List.

1. Missing Family – Ok, this one is a given. If you have kids it can be hard to be away from them for this long, but the truly hard part is not getting to see that special someone. Unless your spouse is a co-director you won’t be seeing their face for nearly a week, and even if they are you can kiss smooching goodbye for the next five days. Until then life is some strange episode of the Twilight Zone where you have somebody else’s kids and you sleep in separate beds like Ozzy and Harriet.

2. Repeat “Talent Show” Acts – I have said it before and I will say it again: These things could use a lot more talent and a little less show. Some of the things we will come up with are just ridiculous excuses for both talent and entertainment, like boys dressing up in girls’ clothing for a drag fashion show (which baffles me that we keep getting away with this due to Old Testament commands against it – Deuteronomy 22:5). But even if the “talent” is genuine it rarely ever seems original because I know that cabin is reproducing a Skit Guys skit or that I’ve heard someone sing “Jesus Take the Wheel” every year for the past five camps. I’m sorry, I’m just saying…

3. Sleep Deprivation – Here is a simple formula for you: Take the ages of all the junior high students in your cabin and add them up together and then divide by sixty. That is the number of hours it’s going to take for you to get everybody quiet before you can even think about going to sleep. If you only have a room with half a dozen 6^th grade boys you may get a decent night’s sleep, but if you’ve got a dozen 8^th graders, well let’s hope somebody has a fresh pot of coffee on in the morning because there is no nap time in the afternoon when you are supposed to be manning the Ultimate Frisbee game.
4. Awkward Crushes – If you are a young male counselor who still has most of his hair you will undoubtedly have a female camper develop a crush on you. Whether you find out about it first or one of your campers tell you that they heard from their friend during swim time that Jackie told them during morning worship that she thought you were cute…you have some careful stepping ahead of you. A couple of summers ago I had a camper come up to me and asked me if I knew who their friend “so-and-so” was. After acknowledging that I knew the student she said, “Well, she thinks your cute” to which I quickly responded, “Awwww, that’s so creepy” and then proceeded to run in the opposite direction.

5. Awkward Romances – The only thing that is more prevalent than, and equally disturbing as, the previous confession is the actual summer camp romances. I’m talking about the kids from separate youth groups who meet at camp and by the third night’s worship service are all the dining hall gossip because Bobby let Suzy draw their initials on his hand with a heart around them. The only thought that saves me from gagging up my chocolate pudding from dessert is that I know in a week they are going to break up over Facebook anyways.

So there you have it. That’s my list of things that I’m not missing out on this summer. Did I miss anything? What is your least favorite? Drop a comment or Tweet to let me know.

Angry Birds Party

It's summer time, which means it time to take advantage of good weather and go outside. To celebrate the end of the school year our on-campus ministry had an out of school bash where we had free food provided for the kids. The real draw for the event was in the activity, a real life Angry Birds game.

First off, let me tell you that the kids had a blast playing this, and with minimal effort you can recreate it too. Just follow these simple instructions.

1.) Go to your local Wal-Mart(s) and you will find the summer fun and toys section already set up. On one of the endcaps you should find these giant inflated rubber balls that go for just under $3 a piece. I would suggest picking up four of them, and get them in green if at all possible. While you are at the store you will want to pick up as many large cardboard boxes that they have to spare (going early in the morning or late at night are prime times to catch boxes that are about to be tossed). Also, if you don't have any black and white acrylic paint at your church you should pick up some.

2.) Drive back to your home/office/whatever and start painting. At first I was worried how these would turn out because I have no art skills, but when I realized it's all basic shapes and lines it ended up being a lot of fun. I would suggest making all the appropriate shapes in black on your piggies and after they have dried fill in the eyes with white, and if you plan on making a pig with a helmet mix the white and black together to get grey. While you still have the paint out you will want to pick out two cardboard boxes and paint "T.N.T." on the side.

3.) Now its settup time. The key is to make a structure in such a way that the pigs won't be blown over by a gust of air, but can still be knocked down. By keeping the tops of some of the boxes open we were able to make nice settings for our sneaky swines. Here is how we set ours up:

4.) Now you are ready for game play. What we did was divide teams based on gender and class, but you can do whatever works for you as long as you keep the teams small (this way everyone gets a chance to participate). As each team gets ready to take the mound give them one of those three person water balloon slingshots and ten tennis balls (sorry, I didn't tell you to pick those up at Wal-Mart, but most likely your youth ministry already has these). Put the playing team approximately 50 feet away from the structure they will be firing at at then let birds fly (Not in that way! This is a church function after all.)

We used the following point system to tally scores, but feel free to make up your own:

King Pig: 1,000 points

Helmet Pig: 750 points

Regular Pig: 500 points (each)

T.N.T. Box: 250 points (each)

Regular Box: 100 points (each)

After everyone has had their shot add up the scores and see who won. The kids will have a great time doing this, but the excitement will be even better if there is a prize to be awarded, for us it was an extra load of water balloons for the fight we had at the end of the BBQ. Over all it's an excellent event. One more thing you can do to make it even greater is to provide themed snacks. We had a particularly crafty relative make up these cool cupcakes (These were done with fondant, but you could have it done with regular icing).

There are a couple of things you may want to think about as far as running a timely game is concerned. Teams will over shoot their target and they will have to be replaced, so have other teams designated as offical ball shaggers for particular rounds. Also some kids may get bored waiting for their turn so if you have lots of teams and  the means to do so you may want to think about setting up a second structure so two teams can participate at once.

Well thats all I got for you all. I hope you can use this event for your group. Feel free to use the event image at the top of the screen  for advertisement (there is a nice space for you to enter in a date and other info).

The Future of Youth Ministry

Someone recently asked me, "What does the future of youth ministry look like?"

It’s hard to say where youth ministry is “going” It would be impossible to tell you exactly what the next fads are going to be and what programs everyone will be running. What I can say however is what is going to be necessary for youth ministry to have a future.

Long ago youth ministry left the realm of hay rack rides and singing “Kumbaya”. Kids needed something more lively and in the 1990s we saw an explosion of Christian rock bands, crazy clipart filled newsletters, and wild games. Yet again youth culture has shifted and now Facebook reigns supreme while high school students could care less about watching their classmates eat baby food blindfolded. We are finding that students are entertained less and less by simple and more and more by flashy. The good old wholesome fun has died and hype is the new king.

How do we combat this? What should be our response? Should we make flashy programs that depend on an over the top budget? Should we compromise our own character to be “relevant”? Do we need a really cool youth building?

No, the answer is in authenticity.

Youth ministry has come to the state where the only thing that is really going to successfully reach kids for Christ is real people advertising a real Christ and offering a real gospel.

This means leaders not trying to entertain kids by being characters or trying to catch their eye by dressing and talking any younger than we really are. We need to stop trying to be interesting and just be interested in kids. There are enough posers in the world, but not enough people that genuinely love these kids on a daily basis.

This means teaching students who Christ really is, (not timid Jesus “meek and mild” that they learned about in Children’s Ministry). Ask any teenager at your local high school what they think about God and they will say things like, “boring”, “outdated”, and “for old people”. Kids need to know that Jesus is a brave and brilliant person worth studying, a rally point for change in their world, and a radical model to live by.

This means offering teens a real message of good news, not just feel good candy. Today’s youth need to hear how the Bible can actually be applied to their lives rather than another rendition of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Our kids need to desperately know about a faith that can help them instead off how Jesus is like a bottle of Coca-Cola.

Kids can smell fake from a mile off , but when they see people being real, something that makes real sense, or a catalyst making a real difference, they will realize it is something that the really want to be a part of. If that’s what our ministries were like we would see far less kids getting bored and walking away from them.

The point I am trying to get at is that authentic is infectious, and if we are entering into an age where we are fighting against hype, the only choice I see is to identify our ministries in one of those two fields. If you choose to go with hype you will run the risk of loosing kids because the allure has worn off and you can’t keep up with what’s “in”. But if you go the route of authenticity you will live to see the future of ministry, and by that I mean kids taking ownership of their faith and sharing it for generations.   

Dead Terrorists

I remember 9/11...I remember sitting in my first hour class and watching live as the second plane came out of nowhere and crashed right into the tower. I remember how emotional everyone got and how Osama bin Ladin became the most wanted criminal in the world.

What some of you may know is that Osama bin Ladin was responsible for other terrorist acts including the 1998 bombing of a U.S. Embassy in Africa. What I would dare to bet not many of you are aware of is that on Christmas Eve 1979 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. The United States, and other groups, wanted to support Afghanis in defending themselves so they provided local militias with money, guns, and military training. One of the leaders of that group was Osama bin Ladin.

What makes atrocities like 9/11 worse is that they were organized by someone we once tried to help. It's like we've been betrayed.

Rewind things almost 2,000 years to the time of a man named Jesus. He lived during a time when his home country was occupied by a foreign military. Romans oppressed his people. It was these same soldiers that nailed him to the cross. If Jesus had an enemy it would have been the Romans.

Or even better yet, the follower Judas who betrayed him, turning him over to the guards when they were looking for him.

Jesus knows how it feels to have someone do terrible and unspeakable things to you. God in the flesh knows what it's like to come try to make things better for the whole world, His children, and end up being betrayed by them.

But here is the thing...When Judas committed suicide because he couldn't live with the guilt of what he did, God didn't celebrate yelling, "Justice has been served". And when the Roman empire fell, Jesus wasn't up in Heaven saying, "Serves them right".

You may ask, "How do you know this?"

- I know because on the cross Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)

- I know because when Jesus taught he told people to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44)

- I know because Ezekiel 33:11 says 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live."

- And I know because the Bible teaches us, "Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, or the lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them." (Proverbs 24:17-18).

I believe that people can be really hurt by a catastrophic event. It can scar them, change their lives, and cause them to carry around a lot of baggage. I also believe that often people don't know what to do with their hurt and so they jump on the bandwagon of hatred, trying to find solace in all the wrong places.

There are a lot of similarities between 9/11 and the crucifixion, but the major difference is where the people put their trust. I ask you, do you wait on and live for revenge or do you do as Jesus did and "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." (1Peter 3:23)

Only one of these routes will lead to true justice being fulfilled, and its not the one with hatred, slurs, and ignorant Facebook statuses.

 

Martin Luther King Jr is credited with saying, "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an anemy. Returnign hate for hate multiples hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

You may not feel like agreeing with me, but the truth is that we should reflect who God is with our actions, and God isn't happy that Osama is dead, He cares for each one of His children, hoping that they would all come to Him.

4 Things To Do WIth Your Youth Group As Halloween Approaches

Already had that obligatory annual youth trip to the local pumpkin patch?

Want to take advantage of season for your youth group's game time?

Here are a few games to play with your youth over the next few weeks before Halloween has comes and goes:

1.) Bobbing for Baby Ruths
A twist on the old classic that has long been labeled as "good clean fun" - a.k.a. "boring". Go to the store, buy a pack of Baby Ruths (or Snickers if you can't find them) and throw them in a toilet (or a large bucket), and see which kids have the gumption to go bobbing. For a little extra flair pour in a can of Mt. Dew.

2.) Halloween Word Scramble
I do a couple of these each year, and my kids really get into them. Print off a couple dozen of these (make sure the kids have room to write down their answers) or put them up on a power point, and had out pens or pencils. Give a candy bar to whichever kid gets them all right first or gets the most done in the alotted time.

1.)    OECRTOB             __________________________________________

2.)    IHWTC                  __________________________________________

3.)    SHTGO                  __________________________________________

4.)    LOGIBN                __________________________________________

5.)    OETSMUC           ___________________________________________

6.)    YCRNCADNO      __________________________________________

7.)    CALTCKAB          __________________________________________

8.)    NPKUIPM             __________________________________________

9.)    MOSTRCOBIK      __________________________________________

10.) CITRREOKATTR __________________________________________

11.) DTOHNEUUASHE_________________________________________

12.) OBZIEM               __________________________________________

13.) TRCANKNJAELO __________________________________________

14.) LEPAMCAAELRP _________________________________________

15.) BSWRISPEDE      __________________________________________

16.) EIASVRPM          __________________________________________

17.) EOKTNESL          __________________________________________

18.) LFONMULOO      __________________________________________

19.) RACSWCERO      __________________________________________

20.) OLFRWEWE        __________________________________________

BONUS WORD:

IVCYTA          ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_________________________________________

ANSWERS: OCTOBER, WITCH, GHOST, GOBLIN, COSTUME, CANDYCORN, BLACKCAT,  PUMPKIN, BROOMSTICK, TRICKORTREAT, HAUNTEDHOUSE, ZOMBIE,  JACKOLANTERN,  CARAMELAPPLE, SPIDERWEBS, VAMPIRES, SKELETON, FULLMOON, SCARECROW, WEREWOLF, BONUS WORD: CAVITY

3.) Choose Your Own Adventure Scary Books

Junior Highers will still think this is cool. Go down to your local library and pick out a "Goosebumps: Reader Beware You Choose the Scare" book. Read aloud to the group untill its time to make a page turning decision and then have the kids vote on what they want to happen in the story. Make one or two choices in the story and then hold off on telling them what happens next as a cliff hanger till the next week.

4.) Halloweenies

Another classic game with a twist, this one is like "I have never" only you are focusing on how lame the kids Trick or Treating pasts are. Open up a big bag of candy corn, and give a piece to everyone that answers yes to each question, give the person with the most at the end a prize (maybe the rest of the bag).

□       Ever had your pumpkin smashed

□       Had to take your little sibling trick or treating

□       Your parents made you wear your winter coat over your costume

□       You own Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin

□       Bought a super hero costume that looked more like pajamas than the super hero itself

□       Ever dressed as a food item

□       Had your mom make your costume

□       Your house gives out non-name brand candy

□       You have been TP/egged on Halloween

□       You have ever bobbed for apples

□       Your parents still won’t let you carve a pumpkin with a real knife

□       You have to stay home on “door duty” instead of go out with your friends

□       Have worn an older siblings costume from previous year

□       You and a sibling dressed up as the same thing the same year

□       You and a friend/sibling have dressed up together as some kind of theme (i.e. – Jack and Jill, Wizard of Oz troop, Thing 1&2 from Cat in the Hat, etc. )

□       You have dressed as a clown

□       Instead of walking around your neighborhood your parents drive you to all their friends and relatives houses.

□       You have dressed as a Disney character

□       Instead of using fake blood or costume makeup you used ketchup or a red magic marker

□       Made up your costume the day of Halloween

□       Gone trick or treating as yourself

□       Your parents made you put on those flashing reflectors or tape so you wouldn’t get ran over

□       Took a roll of toilet paper and made a “mummy” costume

□       Your parents check your candy for razor blades

□       Found out you lost part of your candy stash on the way home because of hole in bag

TIE- BREAKER QUESTION:

□       Parents enforced a rule about how much of your candy you could have each day

Alright, thats all I got for now. Hope these games are useful to you all and provide some fun for your kids.

Welcom to the Blog!

This is my blog site associated with the Twitter "You Might Be A Youth Pastor" or "YMBAYP". I will post thoughts and things here that can't be expressed in under 140 characters...