YMI Blog

CPH has done it!  A sure fire way to get kids in Sunday School.  Put up this sign and the kids will be flocking to your classrooms:

‘Nuff said…

I just went underground for the last two months working on the NYG. 

Wow!  Was it ever a lot of work!  But it was well worth it in the end!  The main sessions worked out so well - I am still in awe of how God brought everything together - and for all the awesome people I got to work with!  Here is a pic when our main session planning team first got into the theatre:

What a theatre!  We suddenly felt like we had moved into the big leagues!  And for 5 days, our day job became theatre production.  So fun - but definitely not a career option for me!  I’ll keep the day jobs!

We were worried how the youth would take the sessions.  Many stories were shared that all pointed to Jesus as the great I AM in our lives who gives us value, loves us, gives us a community and sends us.  However, many of the stories were about the tough stuff in life: addictions, sexual sin, broken relationships…  Many of the adults were concerned that the gathering was going to be too dark for the youth.  Interestingly, what the youth saw in the stories was very different than what the adults saw in the stories.  The youth saw hope, not despair.  I think that is really cool and also really shows something about youth culture today.  Youth today understand hurt - they live in it and see it everyday.  What they need is to see how Jesus takes the hurt and pain and brings hope out of it.  That is our call as youth leaders: to point to Jesus in the midst of the trials of this world!

Yes, so I am officially addicted. 

It happened very quickly…just 48 hours ago facebook was just something a friend would mention once in a while.  Now I can’t stop checking it.  I’m really impressed with the abilities of it…email, messaging, finding old friends…even blogs!  It also completely eliminates the need for gossip…now you always know exactly what’s going on in everyone’s life.

I also wonder if it leads to a lack of intimacy.  This is something I’ve read about lots about in youth culture.  On facebook, I can connect with people, but not really have a relationship with them.  It’s not like having to see them face to face or talk to them on the phone…

At any rate, I’m loving it! It’s a great place to connect…consider making a "youth group" page for your youth ministry!  It’s a great way to advertise your youth events, chat with youth and see the world they live in! 

Well, I’ve started into the busyness of doing all the training sessions for this year!  Calgary & Vancouver are finished…so far, it’s been great!  I love to get together with other youth leaders and talk about issues facing youth ministry today.  We’ve had some interesting conversations! 

The sessions this year are all about youth culture…and I’ve learned so much in my research.  I read the book "Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for the Passionate Church" by Kenda Creasy Dean.  I’d heard lots of good things about it…and it is an interesting book.  She talks about how teenagers are wired for passion - and how that passion is only quenched through Jesus’ passion.  Some really interesting stuff about youth!

I’ve also done lots of surfing on the net to find media that shows what youth culture is like today.  In my search, I came across this PBS documentary:

It’s a really fascinating documentary that asks the question: who creates youth culture - youth or corporations.  I highly recommend all youth leaders to watch it!  You can download it and watch it for free at their site.

One thing they mention in the documentary is the "characters" that the media has created of the typical guy and the typical girl.  The typical guy is called the "mook" and is characterized by crude, obnoxious behaviour.  An example of a mook in media would be Tom Green - known for his crude humour and outrageous stunts. 

.

The typical girl is called the "midriff" (popularized by Britney Spears) and is characterized by her sexuality (even if she doesn’t understand it).  Take Paris Hilton - why is she famous anyway?

I think these stereotypes are pretty accurate…this is what the media tells us about guys and girls.  Guys are arrested in development and never pass the teenage years.  Girls are prematurely adult.  Guys don’t care what anyone thinks of them.  Girls are consumed by their appearance.

How have our youth bought the stereotypes that media gives us about what it means to be male or female?  How have we bought into them?  I think it’s a question worth thinking about!

I’ve noticed alot of stuff in the news lately about how the youth and young adults of today are becoming narcissistic people who only care about themselves.  Comments like that can really bother me…just because I don’t think we can throw all the problems on to youth.  I believe that youth today have been abandoned by the people and institutions that need to be caring for them.  If youth are turning out narcissistic, I think we need to ask ourselves - as parents and society members - why that is.

On Oprah today they also addressed the issue of overindulged kids.  Most of the blame for overindulged children was heaped on parents.  What I thought was really interesting though, was why they say parents overindulge their kids:
1. Sheer Exhaustion - Parents are so tired today from all their career & home responsibilities, that sometimes they just take the path of least resistance and say "yes" to their kids because it is easier than having to deal with alot of conflict.  (I’ve learned about this in parenting!  When you are tired, it’s so easy to ignore bad behaviour instead of addressing it - but then you have a consistency problem!!)
2. Guilt - Parents are busy and feel guilty because they don’t get to see their kids much.  Saying "yes" to their kids soothes their guilt.
3. Wanting to be loved - Because so many parents came from broken homes or exist in loveless marriages, the only genuine love they feel is from their own children.  Not wanting to risk losing that love, many parents overindulge their kids.

I thought these were really interesting.  It gave me so much compassion for parents today (maybe partly because I am one!).  But it also really made me realize how much the world needs Jesus - he is the one who gives us rest (and helps us let go of our clamouring and just rest in him and his trust that he values us for who we are - not what we do), He is the one who takes away our guilt and He is the only one that we can experience true genuine unconditional love from.  What a message we have to share!  Now it’s making sure we’re not too exhausted or too preoccupied to see the opportunities God gives us to share it.

Say hello to Nathan - the race car driver!

Nathan is my little boy. He’s two years old (three in May) - and he is teaching me more about myself and about God than anything I’ve yet experienced.

One thing Nathan loves to do is play…and I’ve discovered that I can be really bad at playing. Who would of thought? Fun loving me bad at playing? I just find that I can get so distracted when we play. Instead of focusing on the car I’m supposed to be driving around the town, or the train I’m supposed to be acting out, I find my thoughts drift - to what I should be doing, what is on my to-do list, what I should make for supper…

I recently read Mark Yaconelli’s Contemplative Youth Ministry. In the book, Yaconelli claims that adults make teenagers just as anxious as teenagers make adults. I thought that was really interesting. One youth in Yaconelli’s book says; ‘Adults have no friends, adults have no passions, adults are stressed out.’ Sometimes I think I am one of those adults.

I think God loves play. I love watching Nathan play. He is so free and open to be himself, uninhibited by the worries of this world…that’s what I want to be like. Free and open to God’s agenda for the day. Jesus said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 18:3-4)

So I’m going to keep learning from Nathan - and learning from the youth that I hang around - what it means to have a child-like faith…what it means to play. I want to learn how to play better. But it’s going to take some practice…I’ll let you know how it goes.

I just wrote a big entry on this movie…and it disappeared!!  So I’m going to see if this is working….

So my new year’s resolution is to actually write on my blog. Imagine that. It’s funny that I find it so hard to write…I have lots to say, I just don’t think of saying it on a blog.

My new year’s resolution is to be less critical. It’s something that I have noticed in myself…I tend to be very critical. Perhaps it begins with myself - and that I am quite critical of myself.

In becoming less critical, I think I must see myself more and more as God’s child - loved and accepted by him - a new creation in his sight. It’s funny how God keeps trying to teach me this and how I just keep not getting it. Guess that’s where the Holy Spirit’s transformation of me comes in…

And speaking of the Holy Spirit…wow! We had an awesome Survivor retreat this year! Our planning committee was blown away by the things that God did through it. I will write a bit more about it soon (because I’m going to write more this year).

So I was looking up confirmation ideas on the web when I came across this site: http://www.partypop.com/Themes/party_themes_confirmation.html

Take a look…it actually has themes and party plans for confirmation. For instance, after the old confirmation church service, celebrate with a Hollywood or Baseball-themed party for your confirmation day. I just thought that was funny…I mean, isn’t confirmation the theme for the day - confirming your faith in Jesus? I guess it just goes to show that the meaning of confirmation has been lost to people today. It’s just another reason for parties & gifts.

Now, this is a Catholic site…but this has happened in our church too. How can we recapture what confirmation is really about?

I got to go to the District Youth Gathering in Three Hills, Alberta a few weekends ago. Now, Three Hills is certainly not a booming metropolis (although there were some great places to eat! mmmm…), but boy did we ever have a super time! I loved meeting so many top-notch youth leaders from our district. We had some good discussion and sharing time of joys and struggles…and also enjoyed learning from Lynn Hemming (a high school counsellor and youth leader in Drumheller) about the issue of cutting and how many youth are affected by it. Scary stuff…but good to be informed.

Read the rest of this entry »