NCBC staff & Geocaching

I've shared about some fun stuff we have done as a staff here at NCBC on this blog. I've also shared about the different geocaching fun that I've had (click here and here to read about that). Today I got a chance to put it all together and we did some geocaching as a staff together. You can click on the picture to see some of the adventures we had. I really really enjoy doing ministry with these guys - it is a prayer answered over and over again.

Classic Middle School moment

Today was a great day. We got a chance to report on what happen at a number of our kids schools for SYATP (See You at the Pole). The classic moment was a 7th grade boy have a friend place firmly into his hair a big peace of duck tape. So yours truly got a chance to remove it from his hair. You can see a short slide show of the experence by clicking here. o yea! Middle School ministry it's the best.

Mag Report - simply jr hi newsletter from Group - Sep2008

GROUP puts together some great stuff, from their main magazine “GROUP” to their National Youth Ministry Conference (which I’m planning on going to this year) there are just some good material out there. But the one thing that I like the best is their newsletter for junior high youth workers. Here is my thoughts about issue 7.

What I liked: As has happen in the other 6 issues Kurt, Scott, and GROUP have put together some great ideas. One that really stood out to me in issue 7 was Sean Meade’s thoughts in “the Veteran’s Voice,” “Capitalize on trips by programming time to debrief as you go,” is something that we have been trying hard to include in all of our trips. This year was the first year where I think we really did this and the results are awesome.

???: Allan Mailloux “plug ‘n play” idea didn’t click for me. I don’t think that having kids over to the “older folks” of our church body would “allow them to remain comfortable.” I think the opposite would more likely happen.

Key statement: Scott shared this in “Chew on this,” “when students are with a leader they know and trust, it definitely lowers the disruptiveness quotient.” Though there are some big words in there Scott I really liked and agreed to this statement.

Something creative: Blake Clevenger’s “explosion tag” idea is just brilliant. This really could make a fun game into an memory making game – thx Blake.

Mag Report - GROUP (Sep-Oct 2008)

The new GROUP magazine has a lot of great ideas and thoughts. I’m putting down just a few of them here:

What I liked: There was a number of articles about the importance of relationships and spending time with kids. Doug Fields’ interview with Megan Hutchinson had this, “spending time hearing their stories is big.” Jeanne Mayo’s thought in the article “musings from the emergency room” was brilliant, “All the important things in life pivot back to relationship, not accomplishment.” In Michelle & Deanne Sherman’s article “family trauma” they point out that kids who don’t have good relationships with families are negatively affected. There was just too many good articles to pick one. Side note – the Shermans article is going to be something I read again and again as our flood damaged city goes into our first winter after the flood with many people still without their homes.

???: Dr. Christian Smith’s article “stop calling kids ‘students’” was just interesting to me. The article did make me think more about the terms we put on our kids and how careful we must be about that. I don’t like the idea of calling our youth “students” but I don’t think that it is a “travesty” that we use this term.

Key statement: In Rick Lawrence article “Fuel for Discipleship” he quotes Brennan Manning and it is powerful, “It must be noted that Jesus alone reveals who God is. We cannot deduce anything about Jesus from what we think we know about God; however, we must deduce everything about God from what we know about Jesus.”

Something creative: Also in Rick’s article he suggests that we “invite passionate Christ followers of all ages to tell their stories,” and I really like that idea & can see how it can impact our kids. – Thx Rick!

Simple Thoughts

I have a sick son and have been up since 3:30am. That isn't so bad but I really don't like seeing my kids go through sickness. As I was helping my son through his last round of yuk I thought of a few things:

1) I've really enjoyed this recent series "It's Super Simply" it's one that I really think the kids need to hear.

2) Having a middle schooler in my home has been something I've been looking forward to since Lindsey came into our lives. This next 3 years is going to be a ride.

3) I'm reading through a book series called "Dragons in our Midst." I'm on book 2 (The Candlestone) and I'm enjoying it. But I've found a lot of my regular middle schoolers love it.

4) NCBC has been going through the book of Romans in a series called - Exchange and it has open my spiritual eyes to things I've never thought of before.

5) Sep, Oct, & Nov is suppose to be our "ez" months - but I find it is more of a shift from a summer of being with kids to a fall of being with kids.