I have a tip for all those youth pastors out there, struggling to find a way to gain renown on the school campus nearest to you. this single, revolutionary idea has created and developed more of my relationships with high schoolers than any other single idea. i'll write a book about this someday, but for now, i'm content sharing my brainchild in this small, backwater arena. get ready and strap yourselves down, cuz this is gonna rock your world.


Date a teacher.

Seriously, guys. i hung out on campus anyways, just in general, but now all these kids want to be my friends because i'm their teachers' boyfriend, and my relationship with their english teacher is an easy, safe, and fun topic of conversation. also, due to my association with her, i am invited not only to attend, but also be involved in, various student body activities. most recently, there was a mid-evil themed banquet, and the ladyfriend and i were asked to be the "king and queen". decrees were issued, knighthood bestowed, much merrymaking was had, and i am now in about 2,000 pictures- some of just the queen and i, or of various groups that thronged our thrones wanting their pictures with the royalty. all you youth pastors out there looking for a way to get known on the campus of a school take note!


In other news, just last sunday was the JAM end-of-the-year party. this is to celebrate the end of the school year, as well as to give the 5th graders a chance to come for their first time. it's a 4-hour long event, with pretty much no down time, which means it's a challenge for the leaders- we have to be thinking at least 1 event in advance so that everything will be ready when the kids are. we played all our favorite games, we had a time of worship, we had 8 costco pizzas, we had a sharing time, and we ended with capture the flag. this is only the 2nd time i've done this event (it's a once-a-year thing), and since the average weekly attendance has been less than last year, i felt pretty confident that this years' party would be about the same as last years- about 35 people total, which last year meant about 25 kids. this year, we had about 40 kids, and less leaders than i had last year. PANIC!! especially considering that i, and i alone, was in charge of a total of over 50 middle and high school kids. we had a great time, though.

My leaders really showed what they were made of- they totally stepped up and made sure that everything was running smoothly, that the kids were having fun and being impacted relationally. there were about a thousand details that were taken care of, and all i had to do was pull someone aside and give quick directions, and they'd get it done, even if i'd been unclear, or they had to be creative or change a few things to get it to work. basically, they are awesome.

If i may digress for a moment, i feel really sorry for any youth pastor that doesn't think that HS kids are capable of being responsible, role modelling, leaders. obviously, not all of them are (i certainly wasn't when i was a teen), but it's just amazing to see them step up to the responsibilities given them. it's not all cheese and crackers all the time, but i've found that if you trust the kids, they will prove that they are trustworthy. if you give them responsibiliy, they will prove themselves responsible. either that, or they'll go down in flames! because of that, there is more risk running a youth group with teens as the main leaders, as well as more work on my part, but i consider them to be my primary ministry, and i'm convinced the middle school group is way better with high school leaders. i mean, come on. i'm old (almost 26!), and i don't see the MS kids much in the course of a normal day. So, Incandescence- I salute you: Blake, Emily, Maika, Josiah, and Amanda. you are proof that quality wins over quantity, every time.

Back to the party. rather than have a single person give the "message", we chose to each prepare testimonies, and invite the kids to share anything they learned from God, or ways that they grew, through the year. it was a little awkward for a while, and i worried that none of the kids would speak out, but once the dam broke (a tiny 5th grader was actually the first to go), they started lining up. very little is as encouraging as hearing the kids sharing. they talked about some obscure illustration from a talk during the year, and how it revolutionized their walk with God. they talked about how they grew in their morning small groups we orgainzed for them. one 6th grader shared, at the point of tears, how he had been reading how Timothy was telling people to be like him, since he was like Christ, and he wanted to encourage us- HE wanted to encourage US- and tell us that he wants to be like us because we are like Christ. i required all the leaders to go, too, and it was amazing to hear them put their own words and personal application on lessons, ideas, and talks that God has used me to put into their lives- ideas of spiritual disciplines, servant leadership, trust. it's humbling, and also scary, to see how i really do affect and teach them. don't get me wrong- i'm not trying to brag about what a great youth pastor i am. usually, in fact, i feel i'm doing a second-rate job. but this really showed me that God really can, and does, use me.

Here's some evidence of the JAM party. for the capture the flag game at the end, we used glowsticks to differentiate between the teams, since we played at night. made for some awesome pictures, and turns out that to middle school kids, glowsticks are hard currency, man. they might have been happier if we'd just passed out glowsticks and let them play with them for an hour, rather than use them to play a game. either way, it made for some pretty awesome photographic opportunities: