Weekend Update April 6

The Week That Was - This was a strange and varied week. Beginning with the bad news on Monday morning, it moved on to be frantic and fun and wonderful. So it was an interesting experience. Because I was on a short week getting the first two batches of camp apps had to be a priority. And against the odds I got them out. I should get the final batch out first thing this week. But it was fold, fill, fold, close, address and stamp over and over and over. When that was done I moved on to the Province II youth ministry network meeting in Buffalo. It was the first time the network had met here and I wanted them to enjoy the city that has become very special to me. A great group of folks - Pat Mitchell from NY, Ron Rhodes from Long Island, Kep Short and Debi Clarke from New Jersey and Roger Speer from the Virgin Islands (Kai Alston from Newark is also a great person but couldn't be with us). So we got our work done (we're looking at some leading edge stuff as goals), had meals at great restaurants (Anchor Bar with Bishop Garrison, Towne Restaurant (greek) and the Pearl St Grill), checked out Niagara Falls, got some walking in and shared lots of ideas and stories. Everything you could hope for from the group. Drove home on Friday feeling like the Queen City had be well represented (and the Diocese of WNY too)

Saturday was a great feel good day. I went out and bought some new clothes - in a SMALLER size!!!! Dropped a size in the waist and the old pants were just hanging on me. So 3 new pair of pants, new shorts for the summer and a new swim trunks. I'm not really that into clothes but the smaller size just made it feel great.

My lady wife and I scoped out a new restaurant just up the road (Sapore in Westfield) and came away very impressed. Palm Sunday at church, home for the Formula 1 race in Malaysia and a quiet evening the rest of the way. Baking some bread, movie night. Very relaxing.

The To Do List - I'm in a To Do List crisis and I need to confront that. It's been a month since I updated it and I'm losing track of projects. Seems like as soon as I sit down to work on the list I draw a blank on what needs to be added. Bad sign. I know I need to add the program stuff for Senior High since I will be leading that this summer.

What Am I Procrastinating About? - The To Do List mostly.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Stephen King's Duma Key, is now done. An excellent read, I really enjoyed it. Plus it's made me thinking more about creativity issues again. Now I'm working on two books - Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations by David Warsh. The first is a radical, new, faith based way of approaching politics that is very different from the current faith based approach. The second is a history of economic theory. I'm reading it on a bit of a whim but it got pretty good reviews. I'm trying to fill in some gaps in my education.

Movies - Nothing this week. "Grapes of Wrath" is up next and I'm told I MUST watch "Say Anything". Been watching old Lovejoy episodes and the first installment of Ken Burn's "The War"

Music - Been hearing a lot about the group "The Decemberists" and got a chance to hear a little bit. Sounds like very much my kind of stuff. I'll have to dig around some more and find more to listen to sometime soon.

Next Up Final camp mailing, To do list update, some other camp related stuff and start thinking about Credo (less than a month away)

How Am I Doing The visit with the P2 folks was a great balm for me. I'm doing better. And that feels really good.

Peace

Youth Ministry Rant

I'm so...(well I can't really use the word here that I'm thinking so fill in the blank yourself). Let's just say I'm not a happy camper.

I spend a bit of time conversing with other folks on various blogs. By and large I get along pretty well, even with the folks with whom I disagree. But every once in a while...

The discussion that has gotten me cranked was started by a post referring to "unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity" by David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group, and Gabe Lyons, founder of the Fermi Project. The book looks at the attitudes of 16-29 year olds toward the church, especially those who are outside the church. I don't think any youth minister would be surprised by the results. This led to a discussion on the comments thread about youth ministry, mostly the question of what are we doing wrong?

I believe we have been doing some things wrong. I also believe that a lot of us are working VERY hard to correct that. As always with youth ministry the fruits of our work may not be seen for a while.

But two responses astounded me. The first amounted to "Well youth ministry is probably a good idea but really it doesn't matter one way or the other. The kids either get it or they don't. We just need to leave it in God's hands". I don't know if this one makes me more angry or sad or frustrated. I do not deny the central role of the Divine in the process of growing in faith. I'm just here to try and water God's garden and provide some of the earthly things each plant needs to thrive. In real terms that's relationship, teaching and listening.

That brings me to the second poster. He sees teaching as a very limited tool, all the current models of youth ministry as completely failed and youth ministry simply as a tool of the institution to perpetuate itself. Sunday school, youth group, failures. Not worth discussing. The first poster mentioned her concern with "forcing Jesus down(the youth's) throat". I'm sure no one will be surprised that the second person has nothing positive to offer, just a dismissive attitude toward everything we try to do. Quite simply if we don't have something brand new to offer then it's just SSDD and therefore automatically bound to fail.

Needless to say my doctor would not approve of my blood pressure right now.

Don't get me wrong. I don't live in a fairy tale world. I'm well aware of the shortcomings of youth ministry. The spectre of ministries that rely on "magic box" programs, unimaginative teaching, lack of building relationships with the youth, lack of resources and/or dedication from the congregations make what we do almost impossible in some places. But more and more we are recognizing that and making changes. Sadly the most visible elements in the church too often make the rest of us look bad. Spending massive amounts of time and energy arguing the fine points of worship style or fine points of theology while the world is hungry and naked and in prison makes us all look like hypocrites.

But having to fight both the cynicism and defeatism embodied by these two folks just makes it so much harder.

Maybe I'm kidding myself. Maybe I'm just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The only problem is that when we do it right I see a difference being made in the lives of young people. Not as many youth as I'd like at any given moment but then I'm not supposed to be playing the numbers game.

And the numbers are betraying us. People forget that statistics only measure the past. They can be used as an indicator for the future but the accuracy of that indication relies, nay REQUIRES, that all conditions remain the same as before. If what we're doing now is right we won't know for at least a decade. It the curse of youth ministry. That the harvest almost always comes after they're gone. We plant the seed and we often get to see it bloom. But the full harvest, the fully developed person of faith, is truly a rare thing for us to see. And that's probably as it should be since when they leave our care they're still in the final stages of growth.

The recurring challenge was don't tell me about how kids show up or continue to go to church. Prove to me that they are growing in their faith, that they "get" it. I just want to scream "You're the idiots who don't get it!!! What you want isn't measurable. By your carping and defeatism you make this even harder than it is."

I have managed to refrain from actually calling anyone an idiot.

This really comes at a tough time (or maybe a good one). I'm struggling with the ideas in Loren Mead's book "The Once and Future Church". I'm struggling to find the wheat among the chaff. What is good and useful for my youth from that which is just "we've always done it that way". I think I'm making progress too.

I read what these people say and I wonder why should I worry about it? If they're right then I'm spinning my wheels. If they're wrong they represent a real voice in the church (which I've heard in other forms before) and if the church doesn't care any more than that then what do I owe it?

Yeah, yeah, I already know the answer to that one. I owe the institutional church a return on what they've invested in me, I owe the spiritual church a return on my gifts, and I just owe God. Period. Oh yeah and I owe my kids for the love and trust they put in me.

So I guess I can't pout and have a pity party or throw a tantrum.

As I said on the thread - youth ministry is harder than it looks.

(Editorial Note: After I posted this the first poster mentioned above and I had the chance to exchange some e-mails. I understand where her point of view grows from and know that she was not attacking me or youth ministry per se. Rather the frustrations we all feel about how hard it is to make a difference in the lives of young people had just taken her someplace I'm not ready to go. I hope that we've made our peace personally now. And I'll keep fighting the good fight knowing that while she hopes I'm right she reserves the right to wonder if I'm wrong)

Peace

An intersting weekend

Kept very busy this weekend. The most interesting bit was probably the parish visit with the Bishop. I had driven up to his house then we car pooled to Trinity church in Albion. A beautiful drive up through the country side.

When we pulled it was a little surprising to see TWO police cars parked outside the back door of the church. Turns out they'd had a break in the night before. A total of 11 doors (every locked door in the church) was kicked in. And I mean KICKED in, door jambs shattered, parts of the dead bolt locks lying on the other side of the rooms, pieces of door frames all over the floors. Bizarrely almost nothing was taken. A video camera, a couple of small checks and the roast beef intended for the luncheon with the bishop. That's it. The wine was left, the various silver untouched, all the VCRs, TVs, boom boxes etc. right where they belong. There was no vandalism other than kicking in the safety door of the small elevator. It's a small congregation and the repairs are going to be a bit of a financial strain.

Beyond that they were a wonderful host! At the peace young and old greeted each other usually by name. And they did one thing that I thought was really cool. Many of our parishes will have members who for one reason or another find it difficult or impossible to make it to the communion rail. So commonly (in my experience) Communion is brought to them at the end of the process. Not at Trinity. They serve those folks FIRST! It was one of those "BOOOOOIING!" moments. It seems so obvious that we should serve our eldest and our infirm members FIRST and ourselves SECOND.

DUH.

Meanwhile it's the sprint to Diocesan Convention at the end of the week. I have lots of stuff to get done. Then when I get there I get to be the "media expert" or maybe it's "media peon" for not only the sound system this year. We're also going high tech with multiple projectors and computers for Powerpoint presentations etc. So I actually arrive a day in advance of most everyone else.

So it'll be a busy week. Keep our brothers and sisters in Albion in your prayers. Pray also for the person or persons who felt compelled to break in.

Oh yeah and pray for yr hmbl srvnt.

Peace

Back after a brief but busy bit

Wow, it's been a busy week. I've been on the move so I'm a little behind. I mentioned in the last post about my schedule from last weekend. It was every bit as difficult as I expected! Lots of driving but lots of time with some really great people from all over our diocese and province. So it was good but I am TIRED.

Something of note on the trip. I stopped at a rest area and ran into something I've never come across before. In the rest room were the usual blowers to dry your hands. Except these were larger and much noisier. Like a jet engine taking off! And they blew so hard that it made ripples in the skin of my hands! If you remember the films of the jet acceleration sleds from back in the 50's and 60's you remember the guy whose skin gets pulled back in waves from the g forces. That's what it looked like on my hands! Really weird. Didn't hurt but it threw me for a loop.

Otherwise the week went very well. It's good to be home though.

Peace

A Full Weekend

So that you may be suitably impressed with how hard I work:

Saturday - Diversity training (I'm co-leading) in East Aurora
Sunday - Speaking at Adult forum at 9AM in Jamestown
Helping out at D House Open House 11-1 (Buffalo)
Youth Commission 2-4 (Orchard Park)
Niagara Deanery Youth group meeting 5-7:30 (Burt)
Monday - drive to Binghamton for a Province II meeting, spend night,
Tuesday - drive home.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Peace

Just dragging

I finally finished updating the youth ministry website. New look, great new logo, checked the links to weed out the dead ones (hope I got them all), add some new content, make sure the calendar is up to date. The whole deal. Took me a lot longer than I thought but one change led to another which made me realize that THIS was stupid and should be changed and THAT was now totally useless.

So it's done. And I'm excited. And I have several other projects just screaming for my attention.

But I have no motivation at all at the moment. Does anyone else get post project let down? It's like my body and brain just say "That was really good work. Now we need a wee lie down". I know this will pass quickly. It always does. Besides it HAS to since I have all this OTHER stuff to do. But it's frustrating at the moment. I'm keeping busy by doing some simple things, finally putting things away after camp. Generally cleaning and sorting, throwing out junk, trying to remember what I've forgotten.

Hi Ho.