What would you tell middle school you?

For eight years I was a pastor to middle school students and now I am a volunteer in our middle school ministry. I love middle schoolers. Most people don't really believe much in middle school aged people. They think they are just a bunch of ADHD crazy people with little ability to do much of anything than break stuff. I believe in them. I know how hard it is to go through all the changes they go through. I know how hard it is to manage hormones, body changes, voice changes, concrete to abstract thinking, etc. With all of those things going on, it can be difficult to navigate the middle school waters.

What if we all decided we would do something to help middle schoolers on their journey. Volunteering in a church or an athletic program or music program of after school program. What if we became mentors. What if we just took some time to get to know some middle schoolers so they would have someone that would give them words of wisdom and direction in their lives. Wouldn't that be cool? Imagine if you had people like that in your life when you were a middle schooler. How would that have changed things for you?

If you could write a letter to yourself in middle school, what would you say? What words of wisdom would you tell yourself? Knowing what you know now. There is a country song that actually talks about this, but I am not going to post it, as it is not completely appropriate for all listening audiences.

Some things I might say to myself:
* Bullies have pain and often bully as a result of their pain.
* Don't say mean things. It does nothing but tear down. Nothing good comes out of it. All it does is tear down and cause you to have regret.
* Be careful with what you say. Those words stick with you for a long time. There are some things people will say to you (kind and unkind) that you will remember for the rest of your life. Be the one who says kind things that others remember for the rest of their lives.
* Don't pass those books about people around. Take them and throw them away. When someone reads what others have said anonymously about them, it could really ruin them.
* Don't worry about your math teacher. Occasionally you will have teachers who are not nice. There are plenty of years left to learn math from teachers who care.He probably leads out of his own pain too.
* You are a kind person.
* Be a good friend. The kind of friend you want others to be to you, even if they are not that way always.
* It's OK to be pure. Even if others make fun of you for it. They are jealous that they didn't wait. You will see how worth it is that you waited!
* Don't worry. Your heart will heal and the most amazing girl you will ever meet is yet to come. And MAN, is she worth it. She is kind and generous and loving and has a great laugh and you will have tons of fun together and you will have amazing kids. Oh, she is sooooo worth the wait!
* Live all out in everything you do.
* Love Jesus big!

What would you say?

What would you say to yourself today?

First Day of Middle School

Walking through the hallways, I was reminded of that same smell that lingered in the air for me just 25 years ago or so. It hasn't changed. Oh, we are on a different coast, in a different school with different people, but it's the same. Boys who don't realize they need deodorant; the cafeteria warming up their ovens; chalk dust; old books; trapper keepers. OK, trapper keepers don't really smell at the beginning of the year, but it's a fun thing to say. "Trapper keeper. Trapper keeper." See? Fun to say.

Today our whole family walked Kynzi into her new school. She is a 6th grader! I can hardly believe it. It is hard to imagine that I am here when 11 years ago seems like it was so recent. When I held her in my arms and imagined her life. When I walked her through the church for the first time and how everyone wanted to have a look at her. Now we are here. Paying adult prices at restaurants; babysitting other kids; taking care of chores without us having to do it for her. I am a bit overwhelmed with it all.

Having been a middle school pastor for 8 years, it is difficult to get my mind around the fact that is I were still in that role she would be one of my students. Crazy. I am thrilled for her though. I know these will be amazing years for her. She will grow. She will learn. She will make new friends. She will continue to blossom. I just won't be able to walk her down the halls of her school holding her hand twice a week like I did last year. Or the last 5 years for that matter.

Those are the things I already miss. Those are the things that cause my "allergies" to kick in. Tomorrow we will send Karston off to 4th grade. He is with a bunch of his closest buddies and I am so glad for that. He has a great teacher that Kynzi had for 2 years. He s growing up too. Sigh. Life is good. And soon, they will both be VERY instrumental in their little baby brother and sister's lives. THAT puts a smile on my face.

Do you remember your middle school years? Many people didn't like them. I loved them! I pray that will be the case for my children.

Should Middle Schoolers be on Social Networking Sites?

I just posted this on our Alliance Youth blog, but wanted to hear what your thoughts are too.

Is it a good idea? Are your middle schoolers/jr. highers on a social networking site? Most likely. I just got done reading a blog post by Dr. Laura It is a letter from a principal to the parents saying they should absolutely NOT have an account. The biggest reason he sites is the damage even just one mean comment has caused on so many students. One of the things I read was alarming.

5 of the last 8 parents who we have informed that their child was posting inappropriate things on Facebook said their child did not have an account.  Every single one of the students had an account.

It really has caused me to think about this. I think that for the reasons stated I may agree. I think about my daughter, who is about to enter middle school, and know that I definitely do not want her fragile heart to be wrecked because some other girl posts some mean thing on a picture or posting she has uploaded. It is hard enough in school, imagine how hard it is online when kids can be "bolder" in their words and actions because somehow they feel it's OK because they are not face to face. I love social networking, I'm a huge fan, an early adopter, but this really has me thinking about age appropriateness.

I would love to hear what you think. Click the link below and the poll will pop up. Speak more into this conversation in the comment area.
Is it a good idea?

Youth Quake

We are smack dab in the middle of Youth Quake. It's our middle school service project camp that we run for our district. We have around 15 churches or so represented here with almost 200 students and leaders.

The whole concept of this camp is to help middle school students learn how to serve God by serving others. The basis of this comes straight out of the Bible. Check out this passage from Matthew 25 in the New Testament. It is a record of Jesus speaking. He basically says that whenever we care for someone else, it is like we are caring for Him. Amazing! When we give a hungry person some food, it is like we are giving food to Jesus. I love that!

These middle school students are tearing it apart. They are serving like crazy and I am just amazed. Our service projects include the following: working with the elderly at care centers; doing absolutely free car washes; working in community gardens with the area food shelters; making, serving and eating lunch with the homeless. There are a bunch more things and they are so cool.

Tomorrow we will be putting on a carnival at Grant Community School for kids of all ages. Every church will be running several different booths. There will be face painting, balloon popping, bean bag tosses and a bunch more. Of course there will be free cotton candy and sno-cones. yummm.

The evenings are filled with fun and serious times. We did the amazing race yesterday and it was so much fun. There was a dunk tank and there was getting into frozen clothes and slip and slides and launching of those marshmallow snoballs, just to name a few things. We went to a park with water fountains to play in and had a huge soccer game and enjoyed some amazing BBQ chicken.

The serious stuff is our evening sessions. We have 5 sessions and 4 speakers. I get to speak twice and then Kyle, Jessica and Michelle each get to speak. We also had some special guests from China share with us tonight too. I also have the great privilege of leading worship. There truly is nothing like leading 200 middle schoolers in song about God and to God when they have spent the day serving others. I can't believe I get to do what I do. What a true privilege.

I will toss some pics up soon.

Quest is done :(

What a weekend. We did 2 middle school camps over a 3 week period. It was incredible. This weekend had considerably nicer weather than the last weekend did. 280 at this one and 240 at the last. We had the same band and same speaker at both.

My buddy Kevbo helped me do program at this one. He is a funny guy. Funnier than me. Some would say that's not hard. We had a blast being goofy and leading games and giving away prizes.

The band was great as always. They are really wonderful people that I enjoy hanging out with immensely. We stayed up late both nights playing games and that was fun. Jason, our speaker, is a good friend from back in my Georgia days. He did an awesome job too.

2 hours back on the blob again. I love that! I may look goofy to some, but I wore my wet suit and stayed warm the entire time. I would say that is pretty smart.

I am tired from the weekend but that's mostly cuz I stayed up so late playing games with the band, Kevbo and Jason. Thankfully we got an extra hour of sleep. I told the students that I had a gift for them because I loved them all so much. I told them we were going to let them sleep in an hour and to turn their watches back an hour and we would keep the same schedule. I am not sure how many of them realized that it was DST or not. Pretty funny, because many of them cheered when I told them this.

Welp, gotta finish the highlights DVD and update the website. Check out www.pnwquest.com later this week.

Quest Weekend Video

This really was a great weekend. With so much to do and the weather holding out at the right times, we just had a blast. Of course there were a few little things here and there, like a leaky roof that set off the smoke detector and put out a light (we put those girls in other rooms) and some heavy DDR playing past midnight causing some to not get the beauty sleep they wanted.

I did bust a group of girls who were sneaking around way after lights out Saturday night. I was on the balcony of one of the buildings doing the lights out check and heard some noise below. Turns out a group of about 8 girls were sneaking around in their black clothes and I had a handful of pistachios. Haha. I began to toss them at them and heard "Ow!" and "What was that?" Then I turned a really bright flashlight on them and yelled. Ahhh, to be the guy that catches others. So fun.

Jason Bollback was our speaker. He is the middle school pastor at Coast Hills Community Church outside of L.A. and a friend of mine from years ago when we were both youth pastors down in Georgia. He did a great job hitting the topic of relationships and staying firmly planted in God's Word all weekend long. I love that. Too often speakers hit a topic and then do a small jump on a verse for a moment, because it fit the topic. I don't love that.

Justin Ubel and the band were great as usual. They said they felt like they connected with this group faster than they ever have before.

Paintball, shuffleboard, blob, canoing, paddle boats, giant tire swing, mini golf, disc golf, climbing wall, snacks, night game. So much fun was had. Here is a little inside view into the weekend. Enjoy.