If you know anything about me or Kenny, you probably already know that we are big fans of having tons of fun. From the time our middle schoolers walk through the doors of our church, to the time they leave, we really want them to enjoy being there.

For our ministry, having fun isn’t just an afterthought. It’s a priority and a strategy.

But you know what? Sometimes I come across people who really don’t like this idea. As Reggie Joiner said recently, “I am shocked at how many people are bothered by children and student ministries having fun.”

I’m shocked too. And I’m also a little sad. Because when we fail to prioritize having fun at church, I’m convinced we miss out on something vital to the development of a middle schooler’s faith.

Yeah, it’s that serious.

Here’s why.

1. FUN ENVIRONMENTS HELP MIDDLE SCHOOLERS SEE WHAT JESUS IS LIKE.

Having fun is a powerful expression and working-out of the joy and freedom and abundant life we find in Jesus. So having fun with our students isn’t trivial or irreverent or a waste of time. It’s sacred and holy and it makes Jesus smile. We’ve got to model this for our middle schoolers. As we create environments that are jam-packed with Jesus and amazing, hilarious, super fun memories… we’re teaching them that God is the God of whimsy and smiles and laughter and all things good, and that it’s a joy to follow Him. I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty compelling.

2. FUN ENVIRONMENTS CONNECT THEM TO A COMMUNITY.

We all know how important it is for middle schoolers to feel they belong. If we want to help middle schoolers build a strong community with their peers and trusted adults, then laughing, playing, sharing jokes, and making memories together are vital. So when our middle schoolers are sticking their feet in Jell-O, launching giant Angry Birds from a volleyball net together, or helping their blindfolded friend guess what mystery ingredient we put in their bowl of cereal… well, in the words of J.K. Rowling, “There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other.”

3. FUN ENVIRONMENTS HELP THEM NOT TAKE THEMSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY.

Middle school has to be the most awkward time in all of human existence. Our students are plagued by insecurities and the need to be liked and accepted. But is it possible to simultaneously be having an insane amount of fun and also feel awkward and self-conscious? No. No, it’s not. When we manage to coax middle schoolers into having fun, we’re also coaxing them into letting down their defenses and forgetting, even if it’s just for a moment, about their insecurities and fears. It’s good for their hearts.

4. FUN ENVIRONMENTS CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DISCIPLESHIP.

Trying to create fun environments for middle schoolers can be an interesting social experiment. Our middle school friends are cute little bundles of insecurity and immaturity. And, because of that, sometimes our super fun plans go up in smoke and the awesome environments we’ve tried to create… well, implode. Someone gets an attitude. A guy gets too aggressive. A girl gets insecure. Someone gets teased. A joke goes too far. It happens. Conflict happens. But you know what? That’s ok. Because when things get messy, we get the opportunity to coach them through it. We shouldn’t run from creating fun environments because we fear the conflict that might happen as a result. Let’s run toward the messiness, embrace it, and then leverage those moments for discipleship.

**What do you think? How have you seen fun environments make a difference in the life and faith of a middle schooler?**

About Elle Campbell

Elle is doing Middle School Ministry at The Chapel at CrossPoint in Buffalo, New York, where she focuses mostly on creating great small group environments and leading volunteers. She blogs about youth ministry stuff at ellecampbell.org and creates and shares original youth ministry resources at stuffyoucanuse.org. She is married to Kenny and loves coffee and making things and reading as many books as possible. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

View all posts by Elle Campbell →

August 28, 2012December 15, 2016 Pastor B Fall, My Life, Parent Cue, Students

Three Benefits of Overcoming Fear

2Tim 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self‑discipline.

I have been thinking about this verse and what it means to us in this time of change. With change, there will always be unknown and unknown can lead to anxiety, self-doubt, and FEAR. I want to challenge you as a follower of Christ in the midst of all that change to look past the fear and enjoy what 2 Timothy says are three powerful things in Christ.

Pastor Ray has been talking about what leads us to a High Level on Sundays, and that is definitely a SPIRIT of POWER from Jesus Christ. You have the power to overcome sin, move past failure, and influence your family for the Kingdom of God.
This leads to the BEST LOVE we could ever imagine. LOVE from Christ is totally selfless, full of POWER in JESUS, and seems to connect us in ways we never would have expected. Power to OVERCOME, LOVE to connect, and lastly
Self-Discipline to actually make GOOD happen. We can become our own worst enemies as we try to set goals, check off tasks, or in my case, look at the sheet of paper a month later and throw it in the trash… AGAIN. What Self-Discipline from Jesus does is give us the power and Supernatural Wisdom to accomplish the life God is dreaming for us to pursue.

BE ENCOURAGED by GOD’S WORD and move past the fear of the unknown in the midst of the change.

Go to God and ask Him to fill you with POWER, LOVE, and SELF-DISCIPLINE!

July 9, 2012 Pastor B Culture, Students

Paying the Penalty « Keith Carpenter – Scribblings of a Dreamer

Shout Out to Epic Life Church and Oakwood High School Ministry!

Paying the Penalty « Keith Carpenter – Scribblings of a Dreamer.

Paying the Penalty

Posted: June 22, 2012 in Uncategorized
Tags: grace, epic life church, Aurora Avenue, homeless, vomit, liquor, drinking, returning, emergency, theft, Jack Daniels, soul

Last night at 8:30 I was called to pick one of my friends up at the emergency room. He had walked north on Aurora, way north, entered a local drug store and swiped a half gallon of Jack Daniels and started drinking straight away until he passed out on the sidewalk. A passer-bye called 911 and he got a ride in the ambulance that he won’t remember as they brought him back to this world in the emergency room.

When he came to and became a bit coherent the nurse gave him a phone to call for a ride; my number was lodged in his brain. He wasn’t sure if I would answer the call and even if I did, would I drive to the hospital and get him?

I kissed Kristine goodbye and drove north. On the way I picked up my buddy, Brent, who is the youth pastor at Oakwood Baptist in Texas and was visiting the city with a group of high-schoolers. He and I walked in the emergency room where my friend waited to be released.

I knew what I was about to do and it was going to be hard. I would take him from the emergency room back to his home…the park, just off Aurora Ave and 97th. He has been living in the park most of the winter and before that wondering the city for about four years.

As we drove south last night he told me he had stolen the liquor. The $40 that it would have cost to purchase the bottle was not something my friend had on him or would any time soon. I felt God’s direction. So I turned into the parking lot of the drugstore and told my friend that we were going to walk into the store, and I was going to pay for his crime. This kind of surprised me but that is what God wanted me to do.

My friend got very scared, agitated, verbally abusive and almost violent. His sin was surfacing and he could see it, taste it, touch it. He threaten to jump from my moving truck, right in the middle of a busy Aurora Avenue. Great fear confronted him as he was confronted with his sin and the payment for that sin.

Then the reason for this decision came out. I explained to him that God knew that we, too, couldn’t pay for the sin in our lives, we don’t possess the ability or the desire to pay it back. But, God knew this and so he paid the price through Jesus; the ultimate sacrifice to pay the ultimate price.

Oh how I needed to be reminded of this. My friend lived in fear, but he could be living in the freedom that comes through Jesus.

The night didn’t get much better for him, I bought him a pack of cigs and dropped him off at the park. He thanked me, was apologetic, embarrassed, ashamed. I prayed he would not drink more tonight, but would find himself too tired and would sleep. As we drove away, he was curled over dry heaving, sucking on a cigarette and I know wanting another drink, of which, if he indulged that soon he would be dead in the morning.

There are so many levels of struggle in this story…

What happens next?

What does his future look like? As long as he is on the streets, no job, no options, no home, he will return to the emergency room again and again.

His bad choices took him from an RN job to the streets in less than five years. Can it be reclaimed?

How do I continue to sleep in my warm house, soft pillow and bed and behind locked doors, knowing he, and many others, are living where he is?

What can we do? What has been done for him hasn’t worked. What’s next?

How does God continue to restore us even when we continue to run after the entertainment of our Self.

Can I continue to do this long term? Can my soul take this?

The truth is, the more I walk with people like my friend last night, the more I realize my own depravity and see the amazing amount of Grace my Savior has had on me, an undeserved Grace, paying a penalty that I could never pay. Jesus even paid for my return to my own vomit.

Thank you!

May 7, 2012May 7, 2012 Pastor B Culture, Students

Loki vs. Jesus – Soul Fuel – Dare 2 Share Youth Ministry Resources

Loki vs. Jesus – Soul Fuel – Dare 2 Share Youth Ministry Resources.

Loki vs. Jesus

Welcome to the Whendonverse my friends! Joss Whedon the Buffy producer has created a film that will move even the non-geekiest folks to get their geek on… (And yes, I’m one of the geeks. For example, I know the name of Thor’s Hammer…“Mjollnir”…Yikes!)

Loki vs. Jesus 1 Six superheroes who you would think have zero reason to be working together are forced to unite in the face of a threat that’s too big for any one of them to handle. So throw in sarcasm slinger Stark, silver tongued Thor, old school patriot Captain America, stone cold assassins Hawkeye and Black Widow, and top it off with some HULK SMASH! – and you’ve got yourself a movie that causes one to simply marvel in amazement.

And as an added treat, The Avengers also features one of the better bad boy villains we’ve seen on the screen in a while. Loki, the loco bro of Thor, definitely does not stay low key in this film. His smoldering angst ridden expressions and goth rock star look (except for the reindeer helmet) make an impressive show of eeeeevil and villainy.

I’m quite certain you’ll enjoy The Avengers, but you can take even greater gratification in the fact that the spiritual world created in the Marvel film series is about as real as a ginormous green guy in purple pants. It’s more of a “reel” reality based on Viking mythology, where Loki is a “god” of sorts. The problem with all these “gods” is that they act just like sinful humans with superpowers.

At least Captain America proclaims this truth when he’s getting ready to jump out of a plane to pursue an escaped Loki. When he’s warned that he’s about to go after a god, he replies, “There’s only one God, ma’am… And he doesn’t dress like that.”

Loki vs. Jesus 2 And I would add that He doesn’t act like Loki either. This Norse god is a power hungry and insecure being trying to force everyone to worship him. He displays his might and power in an attempt to subdue the cowering masses in obedience, but that’s not how the one true God won us over:

Jesus had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion (Philippians 2:5-8, The Message).

Jesus could have come to earth and put on a demonstration of power that no human could ever imagine. Instead He “humbled” Himself by completely limiting His power and voluntarily pouring His immortal Being into finite and mortal flesh so He could die and save our eternal lives.

And p.s. – Jesus vs. Loki? Oh Puh-lease! Over before it started – right?

But back to my point. You might guess that at the end of the film, the world doesn’t end up becoming little Loki-ites, but it sure is a fun ride getting to that part!

And in the real world? Well you don’t have to guess, because the Bible gives us a clear picture:

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).

Quite simple, isn’t it? Jesus Christ is the Lord of all – and that is an objective reality. Every man, woman, and child who has lived, is living, and will live must proclaim that truth at some point. Christians do so while on earth, and because of that, we will share in Jesus’ eternal rule and reign.

Loki vs. Jesus 3 Everyone else has a choice to reject Jesus’ offer of salvation and claim over their lives – but that defiance can only last during this lifetime. Hell itself will be filled with those separated from God – yet eternally acknowledging that He is Lord.

This is why we have to look at the world as if it is facing a global destruction – because it is! There is a real version of Loki named Satan who is desperately attempting to take as many souls with him as possible. In light of this, don’t be low-key when it comes to sharing your faith in Jesus with your friends.

Let’s avenge the works of the devil and shield our friends from the coming devastation, and let’s make it an exciting ride all the way to the end!

Flashpoint: Ignite into Action

It is safe to assume that most, if not all, of your friends will be seeing this movie at some point. Given that possibility, think of ways today that you could bridge a conversation about the gospel into one of the concepts of the movie. Pray for God to open doors to use The Avengers as a catalyst for THE Cause of Christ!

Accelerant: Feed the Fire

THE Cause Circle graphic

Jesus, it is overwhelming to think about how much You gave up and the extent to which You humbled Yourself when You came and died for us. Enable us to take that truth into the world so You can win over those who don’t know You as their Savior.

Isaiah 53:3. He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Have you ever wondered what the Bible has to say about Judgment Day? Check out Your Judgment Day is Confirmed.

March 28, 2012March 28, 2012 Pastor B Culture, Students, Uncategorized

The Hunger Games, God, and Teenagers

Guest post: The Hunger Games, God, and Teenagers

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Sheridyn Williamson

Editor’s note: We asked several of our regular Resource Book writers to share their thoughts on this weekend’s release of “The Hunger Games.” This post is by Joshua R. Ziefle at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington

This weekend marks the long-awaited premiere of The Hunger Games, the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling young adult novel of the same name. The book, its sequels, and forthcoming movie adaptation(s) have followed in the footsteps of both Harry Potter and Twilight as literary juggernauts and likely box-office blockbusters.

Having painfully struggled through the Twilight series (books and movies), I can honestly say that The Hunger Games is a superior piece of young adult fiction and, based on the movie trailer, looks to be a much more engaging film. Gone are the days of watching Bella Swan stared longingly at a wall. In the place of the turgid Twilight films the drama—and yes, violence—of The Hunger Games has the potential to draw in both males and females by the droves.

The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian North American continent at some unknown point in the future. The world as we know it is gone, replaced by the land of Panem and consisting of 12 “districts” that labor mostly in poverty in order to serve the needs of the central “Capitol.” These sending districts rebelled at some point in the past, but were brutally repressed by their overlords. In an effort to remind them of their subjugated state and keep them in line, the Capitol (a decadent, media-obsessed city) decrees that each year two teenagers (male and female) be chosen at random from each of the districts and forced to fight to the death while the whole of Panem watches on television. The lone survivor is declared the winner and gets to retire in comfort. The rest of the districts mourn their losses and move on.

The hero of The Hunger Games is Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl who volunteers for the games after her 12 year old sister is chosen in the lottery. Her emotional journey through the novel–and the Hunger Games themselves–make for compelling reading and offer some clear points of identification for our students.

Katniss and each of the teenagers selected as “Tributes” reveal the adolescent sense of insecurity in all its immediacy. For many teenagers high school really can feel like a battle to the death. Yet in the face of this struggle many adults—just like Katniss’s upbeat and empty handler Effie Trinket—simply pat them on the head and send them on their way. The adult population of The Hunger Games is also sadly suggestive of today’s reality, for nearly all of the book’s grownups are absent, inaccessible, or failed human beings. Katniss’s father is dead, and appears only in flashback. Her mother is a shell of a woman that has little impact on her life. Effie, her advisor from the Capitol, is profoundly superficial and oblivious to the world around her. Her coach, Haymitch Abernathy, is an alcoholic veteran of the Games who very often treats her poorly. In the wake of these retrograde examples of adulthood, Katniss the adolescent is often forced to make her own way and create a world divorced from the adults around her…much like many of our youth.

Concerning adults and adolescents, what does it mean that the solution to the adult problems of Panem involves forcing their children to fight? Just as adolescents today are often (sadly) pawns in the machinations of adults, so too Katniss is in many ways not her own. Her fight in the arena, as much as it is to survive, is also to “stick it to the man” who has been trying to co-opt her agency as a human being.

The Hunger Games is therefore a coming-of-age story that simultaneously inverts the whole idea. As a teenage girl whose father died in a coal mining accident and whose mother slipped into a debilitating depression not long after, Katniss was forced to grow up on her own years before the Games. This is similar to the plight many teens face today. By the time their societally-sanctioned rites of passage arrive, they have already grown up much more than we know.

Though Suzanne Collin’s books operate in a relative religious vacuum (God is never mentioned), the themes and ideas contained within are deeply theological and worthy of probing with our students. Take, for instance, the situation of the degenerate leaders of this failed society. Time and again, Collins describes the Capitol as an image-obsessed and vapid society whose desire for artifice, style, and image knows no bounds. There is a persistent sense in the midst of this decadent city that citizens are even beginning to deface even the image of God in their persons…perhaps a final sign of how truly lost they are.

More immediate is the present of death. The Games are violent. They are graphic. People die. They die not because they have to, but because they are forced to. From the Capitol’s point of view, they die in order to keep the population in bondage. They die, then, as a symptom and result of this society of sin. They die not to erase the results of this sin, but to cover it over for a time and patch things together. But just as Cain’s murder of Abel caused the very ground to cry out at the injustice of it all (Gen. 4), so too this adolescent blood points towards a reckoning. There are many opportunities here for enterprising youth workers to use the film as entree to deep conversations about God’s call on our lives in the midst of a world of war, peace, violence, and a society that cares very little for “the least of these” (Matt. 25).

There are plenty of additional opportunities for theological reflection and youth ministry application in The Hunger Games. Indeed, I strongly encourage youth ministers to take advantage of this “low hanging fruit” (as a friend calls it) that our culture has made available. Rather than reinventing the wheel, why not use the lingua franca already available to the teens under our care? One youth pastor I know has adapted their group’s 30 Hour Famine this year with a strong Hunger Games theme. I made the book assigned reading for my “Foundations of Youth Ministry” course this past Fall. Another ministry colleague has reminded me that the main theme of The Hunger Games—being forced to maintain yourself and your vales in the midst of heavy societal pressure to do otherwise—has deep ties to the ideas in the book of Daniel. This sounds like the beginning of a wonderful teaching series to me! Like the ancient prophet, Katniss Everdeen presents a helpful model of “third-way” resistance in the face of oppression: neither 1) violent resistance nor 2) capitulation but rather 3) a different and more measured stand that silently and slowly subverted the whole system.

Whether you are a Hunger Games fan or not (and I think you should be), you owe it to your students to understand the culture in which they are located. By all indications, it is the Hunger Games’ world now; we’re just living in it. More immediate than Harry Potter and more broadly engaging the Twilight, The Hunger Games has the potential to be a cultural touchstone for students who feel disenfranchised, powerless, fragmented, abandoned, and alone. In the midst of that world, we who are called to share good news have been given yet another way to speak a message of life and love to those students under our care.

January 17, 2012May 26, 2020 Pastor B Culture, My Life, Oakwood, Parent Cue, Students

Love At Last Sight Challenge: BE ALL THERE

The Love as Last Sight Challenge has begun at Oakwood Baptist Church. For 30 days we are going to focus on adding value to our relationships using the practical insights Kerry and Chris Shook have given in the Love At Last Sight Book. I like the fact that we are taking a look at this challenge as an ART and not a SCIENCE. Relationships are messy and one relationship is not exactly like another because we are all uniquely created by God.

Check out this link for more details

Three Stages of Love – We have discovered in the book that there are three stages of love when it comes to the deep relationships around us.

First Glance or infatuation stage – The Monkees added a great musical touch to this first stage of love. Here are the lyrics: I thought love was only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else but not for me.
Love was out to get me
That’s the way it seemed.
Disappointment haunted all my dreams.Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
I’m in love, I’m a believer!
I couldn’t leave her if I tried.I thought love was more or less a given thing,
Seems the more I gave the less I got.
What’s the use in tryin’?
All you get is pain.
When I needed sunshine I got rain.
Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
I’m in love, I’m a believer!
I couldn’t leave her if I tried
Second Look stage – you take a second look and usually it’s a harder second look and that’s the time where you ask, ”What did I ever see in you in the first place?” All you can see is the glaring differences you have. You say, they’re not like me at all. We’re just opposites. You see all of their annoying habits. I think Pop Stars and the Media-type relationships make it right up to this stage and BAIL!

3. Last Sight stage – Then there is the tried and true Love Stage. The goal is to think this, “The last time we see each other we will be more in love than ever before.”

I believe we are all looking for Last Sight Stage people to have in our lives. We crave people that really “get” us and know who we are. Someone that knows my heart won’t misunderstand me as much, right?

Think about it: What deep relationships and friendships do you have right now? Are you deeply hurt by someone close to you? Has your marriage lost that loving feeling? Maybe we all need a lesson on what it takes to reach the Last Sight Stage, where we are actually growing in our close relationships like never before.
If we are going to learn to love at last sight, a great place to focus is on Ephesians 5:1-2.

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2 (NLT)

Kerry Shook says, “The highest goal we can have this side of heaven is to love like Jesus Christ.
That’s a life-long journey of growing and developing rich, meaningful relationships. Jesus shows us what it will take to live a life of love. That’s why we’re told to follow the example of Christ if we are to live a life of love, a love that lasts. He paints a portrait of what God would have our relationships look like. Relationships are an art and the master artist who offers us the clearest picture of love is Jesus Christ. When you look at His life, His character and the relationships He shared with His Father and others, you see a perfect picture of love.”

This love at last sight thing is all about the art of relationships. The first art is The Art of Being All There, Wherever You Are – the Bible tells us that Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. You’ll never have to worry about Him not being all there for you when you call out to Him. Following His death and resurrection, He gave this assurance to His disciples and to us in Matt. 28:20, “… And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He wanted them and us to be confident, “be sure of this” so that we would never doubt His presence. Even though we may not be able to see Him, He wanted us to know that He was with us. Faith simply believes that and says thanks! You’ll never have to pray what I’ve heard prayed so often in churches growing up, “Father, be with us today…” Why do we ask God that? Wasn’t it God who said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Heb. 13:5 (NIV)

So the first week challenge is to BE ALL THERE in your relationships each week of this Love At Last Sight Series. Something that has been helpful to me is the following scripture on love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It is not rude, it is not self‑seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

This is ultimately Last Sight Love. When we focus on the love of Christ, we put away our selfish pride and begin to focus on others.

How are you doing with the art of BEING ALL THERE?

Category: Students

Why Fun Environments Matter for a Middle Schooler’s Faith | Uthmin