Student Ministries ever evolving

We've made a hard decision to halt the weekly Sunday evening meeting for Junior High and Senior High students. They're not coming. Well, precious few, anyway. Considering the amount of time needed to plan and prepare for a two-hour session, the dwindling trend has frustrated all leaders.

Are we throwing in the towel? No. Just admitting that the changes we tried this year still aren't addressing the needs (known and unknown) of the kids and their families. So I talked with the SH leader and asked him if he'd be terribly upset if we stopped "banging our heads on the wall" and pulled the plug on the current program. Nope, no problem.

When I served in Connecticut, kids travels up to 20-30 minutes to get to church for meetings. NO brainer. But up here, that kind of travel means you pass through a mountain notch, or several towns. Roads lack street lights and guard rails. Moose and deer amble at will across roads at the most inopportune times.

So now we're trying to think more radically. Why does our ministry meetings have to convene at the church? Does the venue scare off non-church kids in the community? What about the meetings prevents kids from inviting their friends? How can we encourage and build small groups in the various towns? How can we build on the strengths of the leaders we do have, rather than try to fit them into a ministry paradigm that looks good on paper, but has delivered woefully inadequate results? I should note we've tried for the 18 months I've been here to solicit and encourage people to give youth ministry a try. I've extended open invitations; specifically asked individuals to pray and get back to me. Nada. No one.

Almost all the parents who adamantly claimed, when I arrived, that we had to get the youth ministry off life-support, did not commit to support the ministry in practical terms: making sure their kids showed up!

We'll meet next Sunday, then take three weeks off (Palm Sunday, Easter and the church's quarterly business meeting). Then we'll meet one final time for this year (April 30). I've scheduled a parents' roundtable discussion for May 7 and plan to invite all parents.

Perhaps we can finally build a family-based support ministry that reaching teens and helps their parents in raising them.

Are memorial services really worth it?

Found myself in Connecticut last weekend for a memorial service. Not one I especially wanted to attend. A ten-hour round-trip drive is not high on my list of recreational pursuits. Though we held a funeral for my mother-in-law the week before Christmas, the folks attending the service were my brother-in-law’s family’s friends and acquaintances, not my father-in-law’s. Dad needed to process with his friends in the Connecticut church he and Mom attended for years.

Three pastors participated in the service. Friends from three churches attended. Sounds like a lot, but there were about 100 people who came to support Dad and the family. One of my nieces needs to talk to someone: she’s still stuck on the day of her grandmother’s death.

Grief takes time to work through, and we exhibit it in different ways. Most people think of the deceased in the post positive terms possible. I found myself wondering (at times) who the speakers were talking about! They all assumed the best of Mom. And I don’t want to take away from their memories. But the person I grew to know exhibited two personas: one in public and one in private.

Mom is now completely healed of her physical ailments as well as the emotional wounds she never addressed. The result is her children and grandchildren must now face the legacy of those scars.

On active duty (and I don't mean the US military)

The elders and deacons convened this weekend for a "retreat" of sorts. It was a time to get away from the business of church leadership to consider some strategic issues. And to think about spiritual matters that sometimes get thrust aside by the fire fights of every day.

Our first discussion (Friday evening) centered on spiritual warfare. Not theory, but practise. We reviewed the theology of spiritual warfare first. Anyone who thinks a follower of Christ is settling for "wimpdom" doesn't understand what we're called to be: soldiers engaging a spiritual enemy who seeks our destruction.

Against the backdrop of our military presence around the world, mitigating conflicts in several countries; we agreed we face principalities and powers. The armor of the God, interestingly enough doesn't really cover our backs. Which means two things:

1. We must face our enemy face-on. We don't dare turn our back on it.
2. We must cover each others' backs: that's where prayer comes in.

Satan and his followers (demons) are not omniscient, they are very legalisitic, and they are out-numbered by the angels and followers of Christ. And if we follow through on our battle orders from our Lord and Commander, they number even less than when they started out.

A recent discussion with my Junior-High class shocked the kids when they realized that God and Satan are not opposite co-equals. God created Satan (he was originally the archangel "Lucifer"). So there's no way he can be considered an evil version or side of God. We're not talking light and dark sides of some force.

Spiritual warfare is not something openly taught or discussed much in sophisticated, cosmopolitan, southwestern Connecticut where I formerly lived and served. Most problems were attributed to "psychological" and "emotional" problems which were addressed by "therapy."

I've discovered in my 18 month-tenure, that this church takes spiritual warfare seriously. I truly believe its much healthier for it.