The most spiritual thing I can do

As I'm typing this I'm yawning. I honestly don't know why I'm still up, but I figured while I was, I might as well type my initial thoughts concerning the junior high all-nighter. And listen to some John Mayer, for those of you who really want to know.

First off, it was so much fun. There were so many silly moments, so many moments of utter chaos, and so many moments of simply not knowing what to do. But it all worked out, and I live to tell the tale!

General schematics: students arrived Friday night where we played a lot of Guitar Hero (on second thought, I never got around to actually playing. oops) and some dodge ball before a worship session where I got to talk. Then we played Ooga Booga, and followed that up with about three hours of Communist Church. Though for the politically correct, it's called Persecuted Church. Then I brought Extreme Days which made for the perfect, "let's fall asleep," segue. Early morning of pancakes by Kurt before another worship session in which Kendra spoke, and then followed that up by a coat drive to help out our local elementary school families. Then major clean up. Then crashing at home. ahhh..

I learned a few things about the way I do ministry. The first is to note that I put a lot of stock in my student leaders. This is a good thing, because I feel like it is a chance to show that no one should look down on them because they are young, that they should be (or strive to be) trustworthy, that they are capable of being leaders. The problem comes when I don't nurture this leadership well. I saw many of the junior high students sitting by themselves, or hanging out with the same people most of the time. I need to be better at encouraging our leaders to not just see their presence there as enough. I want them to know that especially in ministry, we have to befriend these students, and not let a single one not feel loved. One of the purposes of using student leaders is to shorten the age gap between people like me and these 13 and 14 year olds. High school students can relate a lot better to the issues that I've been a decade removed from, not to mention the changes in societal pressures. So while I can, and do, go to the students who are quietly by themselves, it can't always be me.

I also want these student leaders to recognize that junior high ministry is all about awkward, and we have to be a lot more willing to make a fool of ourselves for the sake of the students feeling the community we strive for. I want to chant "ooga booga ooga booga" right now..

In addition to this, I have seen the need to continue to not have a tight reign over the moments when I give leadership over. I think this is easier for me, but the harder part comes when I need to help the leaders self-evaluate. To say, "You did great with this aspect, but what if..." or "I think you could improve in this way." My hesitations have to do with timing, and not sounding too critical.

Secondly, I find myself wobbling. There's a huge part of me that gets excited about going deeper with junior high. We can't underestimate them! I protest. We can challenge them, they can handle it! But then there's this fact that they have soooooooooooo much energy. One kid, whom I love, Kameron, is a fantastic example of being unceasingly energetic. I feel like I should nickname him Questions, as he's always wondering about what we are doing next. Junior high ministry must provide an outlet for this energy, not for the sake of fun, but for the sake of re-emphasizing community (one of my favorite words as of late, can you tell?). In other words, I wobble, trying to figure out when one or the other is best according to the needs of the students.

And finally (for now), I really love sleep. When some of the chaos happened due to some people unexpectedly showing up for a few hours in the evening, it probably would have been better for me to have gotten a better nap before the event. I know that in part I reacted negatively. I wonder if I should have spent more time in solitude before reacting even. In fact, during a game of CC, I "hid" in the gym for awhile just to pray and be still (Funny side story, a few students came into the gym, walked right by and never saw me. They said, "No one is ever in the gym during this game. It's like the safest place to go." Little did they know... ). I still don't know the correct response to the stress that was caused by these people coming, but the main point is we learn to roll with the punches in ministry.

Back to the sleep thing, I'm gonna take care of that now. It is the most spiritual thing I can do after all. In the right context, that is (thanks, Josh).