Middle School Camp: Centrifuge
Below is an excerpt from a guest blog post that I wrote for the FUGE blog a couple of months ago.
Someone once said to me, “More ministry will happen for your students and leaders in one week of camp than will happen throughout the other 51 weeks of the year combined.”
That is a statement that I have seen to be true over and over throughout my years in ministry. Not only does a week at camp allow our students to experience Christ in fresh, exciting ways, but it also allows me and my other leaders to focus on building stronger relationships with our students without the distractions of life. Working in youth ministry since 1999, my wife and I are proud to say that we have been to Fuge camp eleven times. The first eight times we took 6th-12th grade students to M-Fuge, and we loved it. When I began my current position as middle school pastor at Prince Avenue Baptist Church, I really began to pray that God would show me the camp that would be the right fit for our specific age group of students. It was during this time that Fuge decided to debut their middle school only week of Centrifuge at Carson Newman College. Though we had never been to Centrifuge ourselves, we felt confident that Fuge would provide a quality camp experience for our students.
You can read the full post here.
An Intentional Break
It’s been a while since I last posted anything on my blog, and it’s been nice to have a little break. I really needed to take some time off from posting so that I could refocus on some things. Everything is continuing to go great for me here at Prince, and our ministry has really seen a lot of growth over the past couple months. I just needed to take some time off to think about where I wanted to take this blog from here. I love sharing what’s going on in our ministry, life, and what I’m learning, but I was putting too much pressure on myself to post regularly. I had started to really not like posting at all.
So, here are my new guidelines to the way this blog is going to look over the next few months.
1. I will be sharing things that I’m learning in ministry. This could be something that I’ve learned in our ministry context, something that I have been reading, something that I’ve been thinking a whole lot about, or a video that we made in our ministry.
2. I will be sharing things about our family. We have a lot of exciting things going on in our lives right now, and I can’t wait to share our lives with you.
3. I will share our Uprising Recap. Every Thursday I will share a brief overview of what we are teaching our middle schoolers, and what went down in our weekly program.
I am not promising three posts a week or even two, but I am ready to start posting again. My break has been good for me, and I kind of feel like I’m starting over. I am excited, refreshed, and ready to learn together.
I hope that you will continue to join me on this journey as we make our way through middle school ministry!
Uprising Recap (12/05)
Here’s what went down at Uprising last night:
- We played a Christmas trivia game that I got from simply youth ministry and their 12 days of freebies.
- Set List: We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad
- This was the second week in our Christmas series called Christmas Gift. In this series we’re challenging students to look at the gift that God has given us of His Son, and asking them to share the gift to others.
- Main Text: Luke 2:8-20
- Main Point: Share the LIFE-CHANGING Christmas gift.
- We have challenged our students to over the next few weeks give money so that we can buy some goats through Samaritan’s Purse. UPDATE: So far we have raised enough for one goat, and we are on our way to buying a second one!
Uprising Recap (11/29)
Here’s what went down at Uprising last night:
- We started celebrating Christmas last night!
- We played a Christmas version of Gorilla, Man, Gun called Santa – Rudolph – Frosty last night. I got the idea off Dan’s blog.
- Set List: Feliz Navidad, Silent Night
- This was the first week in our Christmas series called Christmas Gift. In this series we’re challenging students to look at the gift that God has given us of His Son, and asking them to share the gift to others.
- Main Text: John 3:16 and Matthew 28:19-20
- Main Point: Jesus is the gift that won’t DISAPPOINT.
- We have challenged our students to over the next 3 weeks give money so that we can buy some goats through Samaritan’s Purse.
What Do You Want To Talk About?
Over the past few years, on this blog, I’ve been writing about middle school ministry, my experiences, the things I’m learning, and my life. I’ve shared what I thought was important and asked for dialogue from my readers. It has been fun, but I think that it is time for a change.
I would like to open this blog up to you.
What are some questions, concerns, struggles that you are dealing with in ministry to middle schoolers, or any students?
Here’s the thing. I’m not a conference speaker, published author, guru, etc. I’m just a guy that has been in the trenches of student ministry for 13 years. I don’t promise to have all the answers, but maybe all of us together can help.
I am not starting a coaching program, I am not going into consulting, and I am not trying to get anything from you. I just want you to know that you are not alone in student ministry and I would like to help.
So, what do you want to know? What are you struggling with? How can we help you? Leave a comment below or send me an email.
Three Things I’m Learning
This won’t be a weekly post, but one that will come up from time to time. These are just some random things that I’m learning about ministry, students, life, etc.
1. Slow Down. This time of year is about the only time of year where I get to slow down a little. With the Thanksgiving holiday, and then Christmas not too far behind we don’t have a lot of “extra” stuff planned. This gives me a break from the usual break neck pace of middle school ministry. It’s nice to slow down, take some time to read, listen to God, and pray.
2. Be Intentional. I sat down a couple of weeks ago with some students after our Wednesday night worship and really focused in on them. In our ministry our small group leaders are the heroes who are really getting to know each student and minister directly to them. I made sure I sat down with one student and just listened to his story. It was amazing to hear him share about his family, and a lot of other things in his life. The other student I recognized as a young leader and challenged him to step up and lead the other guys in his small group by staying focused and participating in the discussions. My relationship with both of these students has continued to grow over the past couple weeks.
3. It takes time. I suffered an Achilles injury on September 21st that put me out of running for 8 weeks. I started my training back some last week and this week, and ‘wow’ am I sore and out of shape. My mind wants to pick up where I left off 8 weeks ago, but my body is telling me otherwise. I have to remember that it is going to take time to build back up to where I was.
That’s my three! What have you been learning?
Uprising Recap (11/7)
Here’s what went down at Uprising last night:
- Lots of first students bringing friends last night. Real excited to see our students invite their friends!
- We played a quick game of Bronco, Baby, Backpack that was led by one of our leaders!
- Set List: Like a Lion, Happy Day
- This was the third week in our series Big Deal. In this series we’re taking a look at things that some people would say aren’t that big of a deal, but really are a Big Deal in a Christians life. This week we talked about Dirty Words. We weren’t just talking about profanity, but also words that cut people down.
- Main Text: Ephesians 4:29; and Luke 6:45
- Main Point: Our words have POWER.
What I’ve been Reading
Here is a list of a few books that I’ve been reading or have just finished.
- Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley
- Twisdom by Matt Lawson (currently reading)
- The New Breed by Jonathan McKee & Thomas McKee (currently reading)
- What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter
- 99 Thoughts on Leading Volunteers by Kent Jullian
- Forgotten God by Francis Chan (currently reading)
Just curious…What are you reading right now?
