We had revival services friday, saturday, and sunday. Sunday after church we all had a picnic in the park and that was a lot of fun. It was a great opportunity for the different ages to mix together. I was actually part of a football game that had college age vs elementary kids. they were allowed to tackle us, but we weren't allowed to tackle them, i don't think this is fair, but whatever?
Monday i was able to take some of the college age to cedar point, that was pretty fun. Tuesday was a think day. I had to come up with about two hours of games for our day at camp (which is coming up soon). I think were going to have some water balloon launching competitions, and then the biggest water balloon fight this world has ever seen!!! it's going to be sweet!
Yesterday (i know my blog is late, i forgot) i had to video tape our pastor's bible study, i got a parking ticket for being at the building so long. (the church paid for it) I had lunch with pastor ben and madison and then we went down to church to start setting up for our 2nd summer night which was Wild Western Night. There were quite a few kids that dressed up in their cowboy and cowgirl outfits, so that was cool that they went along with it. We had opportunities for the kids to win money for camp, games, free food, water melon eating contests, music, bobbing for apples, anything you can thing of, it was probably there!
Clean up didn't take that long and some of the kids helped, so it was a successful night.
I'm learning a lot about youth ministry as we go. Something i learned last night is that giving away a cooler full of jones soda doesn't make you money, in fact, you'll probably lose money. I had some questions: When doing fun night stuff (summer nights) where is the balance between having worship and presenting the gospel vs having a good time? I've noticed that when there is fun stuff planned, the kids have a hard time paying attention to the sermon and during worship. How do you handle a situation where a new kids is smoking at youth group? Last night there was a new kid smoking when we went outside, he was probably 14 years old. I saw pastor ben approach him and the kid put the cigarette out, but i'm not sure i could find that balance between getting him to come back and still getting him to quit smoking?
My spiritual life is going in new directions, I'm trying to walk in this new boldness that i have, i'm trying to stay pure, i'm trying to serve without complaining, all of these things are works in progress. I'm still blown away at the response i'm getting for this mexico letter. It sounds bad, but my heart is getting ready for mexico already (it's still a month away) I sent my letters out about three weeks ago and i have about 1400 which is about half way to what i need, so that's pretty good. I'm still wrestling with God about my future and His plan for my life.
teen services/preparation - 11 hours (supervised)
revival services - 9 hours
picnic - 3 hours
cedar point - 24 hours
video taping bible study - 3 hours
1 comment:
hey josh!
that's a really good question - finding the balance between having a good time and worship/presenting message is really difficult sometimes. i'm not sure how i would handle, to be honest.
i would probably talk to the teens about it, in a way that pastor ben does, sincere and to the point.
on the other hand, does it have to be balanced? are the summer nights more about getting teens to come for fun or to come for the word?
about the smoking - you've got to have rules, and those rules have to be respected. if a teen is smoking, he needs to be told to stop, that he isn't allowed to smoke there. simple as that. if the leader doesn't make a big deal about it while still making sure the rules are followed, chances are the teen would still come back.
have a great week!!!
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