2009 Stuck in the Middle Recap

Last weekend we took our middle school students back to Stuck in the Middle, a GREAT conference for 6^th-8^th grade students.  This was one of the best year’s ever.  The Josh Weaver Band was a HUGE improvement over last year.  Alan Mercer, Sean Meade, and Andy Jack all did a great job during the main sessions.  The late night activities were decent.  The Comfort Inn and Suites was the best ever, right across the street. 

 

The best part:  Our kids came away with their highlight being Andy Jack’s seminar on contemplative prayer and the discovery room where they participated in a number of different prayer stations.  GREAT stuff!  Cant’ wait to go back.

 

If you’ve never been to Stuck, it’s worth your time.  For more pics go here!

 

Here is the recap article I wrote for our church newspaper:

 

First Church middle school students spent Friday and Saturday, February 20 and 21, in Kansas City for a weekend conference for 6^th-8^th graders called, “Stuck in the Middle.”

 

“I liked ALL of it!” said 6^th grader Drake Walden.  “The music, the fun stuff…I just liked it all.”

 

The main sessions focused on four chapters of God’s Story.  The first chapter was illustrated by a beautiful pot that stood for “the way things were” and how God created the world and everything was good.  The second was about “the way things are” and how sin had entered the world.  The speaker took an identical pot and broke it which gave students a great picture of our brokenness and need for a savior.

 

The third chapter had another identical pot that had been broken but was glued back together.  This was about “the way things can be” and how Jesus puts our lives together.  said, “When your pot breaks,” said seventh grader John Willome, “[God] can rebuild you and make your life better.”  The last pot was identical to the first and illustrated “the way things will be” and how Jesus will give us new bodies in the life to come. 

 

After the main session on Friday night students were treated to a concert along with a scavenger hunt and games.  Saturday was packed with more main sessions, a comedy concert, and “Learning Labs.”

 

The favorite of most students was called, “The God Hunt” where they were taught different forms of contemplative prayer.  Seventh grader Tatiana Mooradian said, “We went into this small room and were encouraged to relax and close our eyes and talk to God and think about bad and good moments in our lives.  This was a time when we could ask for help for the bad moments and thank God for the good moments.  It was really cool.”

 

A number of other students went another Lab called the “Discovery Room” that was set up with different prayer stations.  Eighth grader Bryce Saunders felt like he “was there with God in the room and that He was praying with me.”  Zack Maxwell, 7^th grader, said that when he was praying, “it felt like He was there.”

 

The last session Saturday ended with a “blessing of shoes” that no matter where these students walked, they would be ministering wherever they go, as ministers on staff at “God’s Church.”  For students at First Church, “Stuck in the Middle” was another great step in their faith journey.

 

 

 

 

My daughter had surgery today

My daughter had surgery today and a buddy of mine was annoyed that he got his update via facebook.  So I just sent him this email.

 

Everything is good.  They are home resting.  She is only having tubes in her ears so it’s not that major of a thing.  Everything went great.  Charis has been having trouble hearing since the summer.  Lots of ear infections.  Got to the point of her actually reading our lips before we said, “Frick!  This is ridiculous!”

 

Really hard for me since Jen HATES swimming and she had tubes in her ears.  I remember friends who had tubes in their ears and they couldn’t get their head wet and so they didn’t like to go to the beach or swim, etc.  I LOVE swimming and so I have been fighting this not wanting my kid to hate swimming.

 

But it was just not getting any better.  Our doctor recommended us to this doctor who she felt would be honest with us and tell us whether Charis needed tubes or not.  Really hard for me because I’m just so distrusting of doctors.  I could see some guy who is having tax issues or needs to finance a trip just telling anyone, “yep, your kid needs tubes.”  I know that is a bad attitude.

 

So we went a couple weeks ago and Charis again failed her hearing test.  (We tried to rule out anything and even went to Wichita State where they train all the Ear Nose and Throat Doctors and had Charis go there.  She failed the hearing test there and it was super thorough.)  The Dr. said that she did need tubes and if we didn’t get them there would be permanent hearing loss. 

 

Sidebar:  someone commented on my facebook that we should not ignore ear aches and that their kid has permanent hearing loss because, I assume, they didn’t treat it seriously enough.  Dude, I would never forgive myself…

 

We dropped our kids off at a friend’s house this morning and took Charis in.  90 minutes of waiting!!!!  We were there at 6:50 am for a 7 am appt.  Charis was the second one in for this doctor and she went in at 8:23 am.  The operation itself went really quick. They came and got us as soon as Charis started coming out of the anesthesia.   We walked in and a nurse was holding her in her arms (that is SO comforting to see when you are worried about your kid.)

 

We stayed in there for 30 more minutes and were discharged.

 

So all is well!  Can’t wait to see if she can hear better.  Follow up check up is in a couple weeks.

 

40+ Spiritual Experiements for Lent

Tonight we are helping our middle schoolers prepare for next Wednesday’s Ash Wednesday service by giving them a heads up of what it means a week before.

 

We’re also going to give them a handout with some ideas of “Spiritual Experiments” they can do for Lent.  I took most of them from James Bryan Smith’s book “A Spiritual Formation Workbook.”

 

Feel free to use it for your own church setting!

 

40+ Spiritual Experiments for Lent

(Adapted from “A Spiritual Formation Workbook” by James Bryan Smith)

 

 

1.                   Pray for 5 minutes before you to go to bed.

 

2.                   Try to “tame your tongue” today by only speaking when you have to.

 

3.                   Read 1 Corinthians 12:8-11.  Do you have one of these spiritual gifts?

 

4.                   Write an encouraging note to someone who needs it this week.

 

5.                   Read the Bible for 15 minutes.

 

6.                   Whatever you do today, do it for the honor of God. 

 

7.                   Pray without words (in silence) for 5 minutes

 

8.                   Don’t watch any “screens” today (TV, computer, video games).  Use that time to be with your family.

 

9.                   Read Luke 11:13 and pray for the Holy Spirit.

 

10.               Do some extra help around the house as a gift to your family.

 

11.               Meditate on the John 1:1.  Read it over and over and over and over and…

 

12.               Attend a non-United Methodist Church service.

 

13.               Write a letter to God telling how you feel.

 

14.               Say two good things about someone or something for every time you 

 

15.               Read Galatians 5:22-23.  Choose one fruit you’d would like to see grow in your life.

 

16.               Do a secret act of service.  Do a kind deed without being asked or expecting to be thanked.

 

17.               Read a chapter of the Bible before falling asleep.

 

18.               Give out flowers at nursing home.

 

19.               Tell God “Thanks” by listing out 10 things you are thankful for.

 

20.               Memorize the 10 commandments

 

21.               Read Ephesians 6:10-17.  Which piece of “armor” do you need the most right now?

 

22.               Server others with your words.  Speak well of someone today and guard their reputation.

 

23.               Talk about your faith in Jesus Christ with a relative or close friend.

 

24.               Listen to Handel’s Messiah.

 

25.               Pray for your C-Group leader

 

26.               Keep the Sabbath.  Take today and just relax.  No work.

 

27.               Ask your parent’s which Fruits of the Spirit they see in you?

 

28.               Serve others by letting them have their “space.”

 

29.               Share God’s love with someone today.  If necessary, use words.

 

30.               Invite God to your mealtime.  Don’t simply say a quick prayer before eating.

 

31.               See if you can wake up praying!  Give your day to God in that prayer!

 

32.               Write out a confession in a journal.  Be honest.  You won’t be telling God anything he doesn’t already know.

 

33.               This Sunday, really worship when you go to church.  Pray and sing with all you got!

 

34.               Serve someone else by letting them serve you.  Don’t deny someone that joy.

 

35.               Memorize a verse or passage from Scripture and recite it to someone.

36.               Go play with some little kids!  We often see God through the lives of children.

 

37.               Take a walk in a park or watch the sunset and give God thanks for his creation.

 

38.               Do a “treasure” check.  Read Luke 18-30.  What do you need to give away?

 

39.               Read Romans 12:6-8.  Do you have one of these spiritual gifts too?

 

40.               Pick up trash at a park or school.

 

41.               Read from the book of Proverbs.  There are 31 of them, one for each day.

 

 

Making Small Groups Memorable

Seriously, my wife is amazing. A-MAZING. She never ceases to amaze me.

Jen has a sweet little 6^th grade girl in her small group that is having a really difficult time transitioning from 5^th grade. We have tried all kinds of things but the little girl just doesn’t connect that well. She has checked out our Sunday morning program and our Wed night small group program, but she just doesn’t want to come. Her parent’s are pretty frustrated and feel at a loss of what to do.

And, unfortunately, this girl doesn’t connect very well at school either. She had a birthday party last month and none of her “friends” showed up.

DANG! Middle school is TOUGH!

So Jen’s small group decided to do something that I just love. They threw her a surprise birthday party last night! This girl loves Garfield so Jen bought a Garfield cake and got her a Garfield book and the other 8 girls in the small group brought gifts and a couple of them arrived early to decorate the room. The girl was truly confused, since her birthday was last month! Her mom stayed the whole time which really helped her and even dad stopped by.

I’d love for this to have a youth ministry fairy tale ending! You know, this changes the girl’s life, she feels the love of Christ, she all of the sudden has all her social skills, she goes to college, becomes the first female president, and then invites Jen and I up for the inauguration and she credits it all to Jen and that bday party. Yeah….right.

This is what makes student ministry fun, small groups memorable, and the kind of love that helps us all love our neighbor a little more.

Post Camp Letter to my Students

Last year at camp we closed our week with a time together with just our youth group. It was nice to talk about the week and what they had gotten from it. At the end, I gave them each some paper and a pen to write themselves a note that would be mailed to them in 6 months. basically a "Hey, It's been six months since camp. Remember this committment that you made. How are you doing with that?" kind of letter.

I got the idea from when I was a sophomore in HS and attended my first CIY event with my youth pastor. I was in a D-Group (ah, all the little names in youth ministry) with a bunch of people I didn't know and a youth pastor I didn't know. But at the end of the week he did this same thing. and 6 months later I received my letter in the mail.

Of course, being a dork, last year I forgot envelopes so my students just had to trust that I wasn't going to read them, which of course I did. JUST KIDDING! I even had them fold it in wierd ways so they woudl KNOW that I didn't read them. Anyway, I'm sending them today and hope they'll be an encouragement to them. And here's what I wrote to them as well:

---

February 12, 2009

 

 

Hey Camper!

 

It was only about 6 months ago that you and I were at Youthfront swimming, riding the ATV’s, eating ice cream, and playing some crazy life sized board games.  

 

I absolutely LOVE camp!  And growing up, I made some very significant life decisions at camp.  I hope you’ve been able to make some during our times together at camp too.

 

On the last night of camp I gathered you guys all together and we shared some of our highlights of the week together.  At the end I encouraged you to write yourself a letter that I would mail to you in six months or so.

 

Well….here it is!  

 

Again, I have not read any of your notes.  I don’t know whether you wrote yourself reminding you about something you learned or if you wrote that I have some seriously sweaty armpits (which is true).   The notes have stayed inside my computer bag, nearly forgotten about, until today.

 

No matter what you wrote, I hope you’ll think back to some of the things we did together and some of the memories made.  I hope you’ll remember that feeling of God’s closeness and his amazing love for you.  I hope that you’ll keep practicing what you learned at Mid-Day…to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10) and that sometimes the best way to hear God’s voice is to be silent and listen.

 

Looking forward to listening together,

 

Ken Rawson

1984 Hungry Hungry Hippo Finalist 

 

 

Dealing with Difficult People

In Doug Fields' book "Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry" he has a great chapter called "Why all the conflict? Dealing with difficult people."

First of all, Doug is easily one of my youth ministry heroes. Beyond that, this book and this chapter are so helpful. In dealing with personal conflict he offers this great outline for a face-to-face conversation:

Observation (apparant behavior)

Using "I" statements, describe the situation without labeling or defensiveness. "Hey, I'm hearing you make negative statements to our students about our ministry." Then have real examples of what they did/said. "You said things like, 'That won't work' or 'How can we do that' at two of our weekly programs."

Interpretation (apparant behavior)

Offer your own interp on why they are doing this. "i'm wondering if you you're feeling like we aren't thinking through all the details."

Feeling (how it affects you)

This is important that they know how this behavior makes you feel and how it is affecting the ministry. "I feel like you are communicating division and a lack of respect for others on this team."

Desired outcome (mutual resolution)

What is your goal? What do you want to see happen because of this conversation? "I'm wondering if you'd be willing to outline the details you think we are overlooking. Maybe we can talk about this privately so our students don't hear them first. what do you think?"


As I head into a difficult conversation with a parent, this outline has provided some great help for me today.

Recovering from an elbow in the nose

On Saturday my sweet boy Noah had his last regular season basketball game. During halftime shoot-around, he took an elbow from a team mate. You could tell it hurt but he didn't want to cry.

Coach puts him in to start the second half and Noah is out of it. He isn't hustling. He's not really paying attention to the game. He's not guarding his guy. He's checking to see if his nose is bleeding. He's kind of in the game but mostly not. He's going through some of the motions but most of his time is being spent touching his nose and checking, "am I bleeding? am I bleeding? am I bleeding?" He did this for 3 minutes of a 6 minute quarter.

Coach calls a time out to go over something and Noah emerges out of it a new man. The coach didn't call the time out for Noah, but it still provided a change of pace for Noah. Whatever coach said, Noah was back in the game and forgetting about his nose.

He was back to guarding, being aggressive, and sprinting down the court like he always does.

do you need to call a time out today? Do you need to just stop what you are doing and reassess your situation...maybe get your bearings? When are times when you find your self going through the motions, wondering if you are bleeding, checking your vitals instead of being lost in the joy of just playing?