Last Night At Contagious

We had a great time last night at Contagious! Hang Time is always fun just hanging out and building relationships. Apparently Bananagrams was the hit game last night. We partook of some very healthy Doritos, Cheetos and cake. I got energized by the red Kool Aid, the red one always seems to give me a little extra zip!

Contagious (the band) led us in worship in music. It was great to see some new students in the band doing their thing, using the shape God has given them to serve. Some new techies are being trained to use the sound board and Mac. It will be cool to watch our new ministry teams grow and become and integral part of our youth gathering each week.

We are currently doing the study series, To Save a Life. The series is all about discovering God's love and sharing His love with others. Last night we took a look at Ephesians 1:3-6. This passage took on a whole new look for me this past week as I studied.

At the time Paul wrote this to the church in Ephesus he was writing to a hodge podge of folks that made up this church. Many were slaves and prostitutes. In the Hellenized culture that was bumped up a notch by the Romans the unwanted babies, due to some type of deformity or imperfection or blemish or parents wanted a boy and got a girl, would be taken to a certain mountain side and left to die. Then people would take advantage and go collect these babies to raise them to be slaves or prostitutes for financial gain.

So all their lives they grew up with this idea that they were unloved and not wanted. They were brainwashed to think their only worth to society was the services they provided and nothing to do with who they are. I would encourage you to read this section of scripture from the viewpoint of these "unwanted" people. Think about how they must have felt when they heard that before they were even born God loved them and created them just the way they were blemishes and all.

The point last night was to help students realize that we can't share the love of God with the hurting and lonely until we discover just how much God loves them.

We also viewed a clip from the movie To Save a Life, a scene that showed how some kids aren't accepted because they aren't "cool enough".

10 Years at Nags Head Church

Yesterday marked my 10 year anniversary here at Nags Head Church. I'm always caught by surprise by the day. I'm not good at dates, I know the month is October, but the date isn't embedded in my brain. Perhaps now I can accept the fact that I’m above average. The average stay of a youth pastor is 3.9 years. Some say it is 18 months but either way I’m above average.

I reflected some on “10 years”. With so many youth pastors lasting a short time why have I lasted at NHC? (The following are not in any certain order)

1. NHC is very patient with me
2. NHC is the church I would plug into if I lived here and were not on staff
3. NHC is where God wants me
4. NHC is a serving church with well over 90% of our partners involved on a ministry team
5. NHC has a leadership structure that brings balance
6. NHC knows her purpose and builds all she does around that purpose
7. NHC is a match for me
8. NHC has taken care of me and my family’s needs
9. NHC loves my family
10. NHC’s Youth Ministry Team is fantastic

How much longer do I plan to be at NHC? As long as I’m effective at youth ministry. I just hope I get to stay around NHC for a long time.

Thanks NHC for being the church God has called you to be. Thanks NHC’s leadership for having the guts to go with God and His direction.

Movie Night at Contagious Youth

Saturday, the 9th. 7 to 9:30 at NHC. Free for all middle and high school students.

Sunday Night at Contagious (the Reboot)

I didn't post yesterday because I was wading through the hundreds of e-mails that accumulated during my holiday.

Sunday night we kicked off the evening with a lovely and moving video from Edwin's Corner. We followed Edwin up with some giveaways from the movie To Save a Life. If that wasn't exciting enough we threw in a race game. The students were divided into three teams and cheered on their team's racing rhino as they raced across the big screen. I would say that by the amount of screaming and cheering the race game was a hit.

We talked about Reboot. If you own a PC (mac owners please excuse me a moment) you know those three magic keys to reboot your computer when it is stuck. It is easy in the Christian life to get "stuck". We talked about Rebooting our time with God in Bible reading and prayer, sharing our faith with our friends, getting involved in ministry and confession.

Part of Reboot revealed that the way we live out our faith has a direct impact on the rest of the group. Each part (tying in with NHC's Body Part series) influences the other parts. The focus was on the personal responsibility for the areas mentioned above.

We had several guests on Sunday night which is always fantastic! Much "fellowship" happened during Hang Time. More on Reboot and next Sunday night to come later this week.

Youth Group is Church

Pastors Rick and Tom are doing a series in Sunday morning worship on “Body Parts”. Rick’s message on Sunday was right on. It was good to hear what I expected to be “same old, same old” in a fresh and new way.

The text is Romans 12:4-5:

⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

This once again got me to thinking about youth ministry because Rick said, “youth group is church”.

So many church folks have the idea that church is this institutional organization that meets on Sunday mornings. The building is the church to some. Let’s go to “church”. Fact is that when your small group gets together during the week that is church. When you go and help someone in your church with a need that is the church ministering. The church isn’t the pastors/elders. The church is you the church is me.

For about 17 years those who don’t realize or understand that the youth group is church have perplexed me. When the students get together for worship or fellowship then that is the church getting together.

I know of parents who wouldn’t dream of letting their kid skip Sunday morning worship. Why? "Because that’s church. “In our house we go to church”. Let’s carry that logic on out a ways. If youth group is church why let them skip or not even attend at all, not get involved? Just curious.

Once a student in our youth group was grounded and that included from youth group and I asked the student’s father in church the next Sunday morning if he would ground his son from church? The dad replied, “No.”. Then I asked, “Isn’t the youth group the church?” He then smiled and said, “I get it”. He didn’t ground his child from youth group again.

I know that some view youth group as “fun and games”. This may be true in some youth ministries where fun and games is their focus but not in most groups. Sure we play “Man, Gun, Gorilla” followed by some worship in music then Bible study. I think some may be jealous that we don’t have a few games in “big church” on Sunday mornings. But youth group is the church doing church geared and aimed at reaching students so they can come to know Christ and become part of the church as well. Youth aren’t the church of the future they are the church today. The worst is when the pastor doesn't "get it". Glad I'm not in that church.

Contagious Reboot

My part time summer job with Tubbs Hot Dogs has come to an end. This job now becomes more of a part time part time job. I enjoyed serving up dogs to the folks who shopped at Tanger Outlet this summer but now I get to focus a little more on my passion.

Today I really enjoyed my time thinking and writing down my thoughts on the future of the youth ministry at NHC. I'm calling it Contagious Reboot. As I get more thoughts ironed out I look forward to sharing them on the blog.

In the past year we have had several students move away and graduate. It feels almost like starting fresh again. That is exciting to me! This fall Contagious is really going to focus on encouraging our students to reach out to their friends and neighbors at school, to show them the contagious love of Jesus Christ.

This Sunday our youth ministry team will be getting together for about an hour or so for me to throw some thoughts and ideas at them and then let those thoughts and ideas bounce around and see what happens. In October I will be meeting with some student leaders to get some input and ideas from them. I also plan on popping in on the Parent POD and sharing some of these thoughts with them as well. I see great opportunities for the parents to reach other parents of teens by using the Parent POD.

I'm excited about what is to come this fall in youth ministry on the OBX.

Last Night At Contagious

This morning I heard the song over and over in my head, Friends are Friends Forever...

The summer has come to an end. One of the glorious parts of what I do as youth pastor is load up the Big Blue Van of Happiness each Sunday with the food and gear we need for Contagious on the Beach. This morning I unloaded for the last time this year. I washed the table, cleaned the grill and coolers, vacuumed the sand out of the back of Big Blue. I took the volleyball, that often doubled as a beach soccer ball, and rinsed off the sand. Goodbye my friend. I'll miss youth group on the beach!

Last night we saw the return of some students who went MIA this summer. It's always nice when kids return after a long absence. We also had a couple of guests and we always enjoy having guests at Contagious. Hot dogs were consumed, large sloppy surf was observed and I showed off my volleyball skills. Red flags were flying so we couldn't go swimming. Parent Pod is still going and will continue to do so through the school year. They will be starting a series of lessons on managing anger in a couple of weeks. I'm glad we have parents who recognize the benefit of building relationships with other parents and investing in each others lives.

We have a great team of volunteer youth workers on the YM Team at NHC. I'm glad God is allowing me to work with them ministering to students. This coming Sunday they get a night off as we have our church picnic. Love picnics!!

Here is last night's lesson in a nutshell:
Colossians 3:15-17
1. Real Peace - the source of real peace and peace with each other.
2. Christ's Word Living in You - as you teach each other (students should be teaching each other and not depending on us old toots to do all the teaching) and worship together.
3. Living out your faith - whatever you say and do. Are the things you say and do done in the name of Jesus?

POD Discussion:

1. What do your friends do to try to find peace in their lives?

2. Why is it important for us as Christians to get along with each other and have peace with each other?

3. What would your life look like if you lived out this verse?

Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Phil 2:3

4. What steps can you take in your life to let God’s Word dwell (live) in you?

5. How can you teach others about Christ and His Word?

6. How would living out this verse affect your life?

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus
Col 3:17

7. Am I living out my faith, by living a life where everything I say and do is done in the name of Jesus?

Last Night At Contagious

Last night we had yet another great evening of doing youth group together on the beach. Summer is coming to a close and starting the middle of next month we move Contagious back to the church building and will say "so long" to the beach till next summer.

We are spending out summer traveling through the book of Colossians. Last night we were in Colossians 3:12-14. We looked last week of the sin stuff we need to get rid of in our lives and so last night we took a look at the replacements. The virtues we should be practicing in our lives.

We all have to replace things in our lives. Every couple of years it's time for a new cell phone so we replace it. Every couple of years, unless you own a Mac, you are replacing your PC or hard drive because it got a virus or you are tired of pressing "control, Alt, delete" all the time. So we are used to replacing things in our lives. Replacing the bad stuff with the good stuff is something we should always be looking to do.

Here's a snapshot of our lesson from last night:
Colossians 3:12-14

1. Put on your clothes!

Each day we get up and get dressed. We need to do the same with the virtues listed in verse 12. It is a daily decision to be compassionate, kind, humble (not a door mat but putting others first), gentle and patient. I don't have time to keep typing about patience let's hurrty to point #2.

2. Offer forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not telling someone that what they did to hurt you is okay. Forgiveness is not holding that against them any longer and allowing bitterness to take root in your own life. Forgive as Christ forgave.

3. Get the Glue.
Love binds all these virtues together along with the forgiveness. Without the love of Christ in your life you don't have "the glue".

Contagious Youth are Going

I Think It Is 17

This will be my 17th summer of attending camp with students. Back in the old days I was pumped and excited about going to a week of camp. The lack of sleep didn't bother me back then. The waking up at 6am and going till 1 or 2 didn't phase me. Now I'm old! I don't look forward to camp like I used to. What?! Did a youth pastor just say that?

I don't like:
>the 4 or 5 hours a night of sleep
> the van ride home while everyone sleeps in the van and I must stay awake.
> camp food. Institutional food lacks at most universities.
>walking in the heat and humidity
>sleeping on a plastic coated mattress.
>telling a teenage boy or girl, who should know by this point, that they need to take a shower (there is enough oil in your hair to lube my truck)
>explaining over and over again how their cell phone will distract them during the week of camp with the endless texts they will receive, read, and respond to.
>when students who knew for months that they could go to camp but procrastinated till the last minute and as a result missed the deadline.
>most of all being away from my family for the week. As my children are growing this weighs even more on me and probably soon they too will be traveling to camp and staying at a hotel nearby or something. Last year my 6 month old daughter was taken by ambulance to the ER while I was at camp, that was very hard on us. (I would much rather share a room with my wife than with the assistant to the youth pastor, Rich Coleman)

I do like:
>watching students bond with each other and build friendships
>hanging with students
>the awesome worship times
>watching them compete in the recreation
>taking them to the Texas Inn to eat
>observing them connecting with God
>when that one life is radically changed and the "camp commitment" is for real.
>thinking that next year we are going to change it up big time for camp.

You can follow our camp adventure at our camp blog site. There you can connect with your teen through e-mail and listen in on our evening worship sessions.

It's Obvious

Often in ministry it is obvious when someone doesn't "get it".

Our youth band led worship last Sunday and did an outstanding job. These students love using the SHAPE God has given them to worship and serve Him and His church. I heard several great compliments and encouragement given to the Contagious band. I might be a little biased but these kids are the best student worship band I have heard.

I don't read anonymous notes or comments from folks because if someone doesn't have the courage and character to say something to my face then whatever they are upset about, or their opinions, don't hold any weight with me.

It was brought to my attention that someone left a comment card basically written in caps and real big. The comment was, "the drums are too loud". This person obviously didn't "get it". Was it loud? Possibly, depends on where you sit and your ear's definition of loud. I thought it was great. Not because of the volume but because I "get it".

Praise the Lord for students who love to worship him. The card would have accomplished more for the kingdom if it read, "It's obvious those students love worshipping God with the talents and skills He has given them."

In a time in the church where students are walking away from the church upon graduation it is great to see students connecting to the church through ministry, serving. Students who sit on the sideline are more likely to fade away after graduation or even when they get their drivers license. Ministry, serving God, is like a glue. A glue that Christian parents need to teach their kids by example.

So when we want to comment perhaps we should step back and look at the bigger picture make a comment that will further the kingdom rather than criticize it.