What Makes a Great Youth Ministry Small Group?

I’ve been thinking through how to define a Small Group in our youth ministry in a clear, straightforward way.  Just hang-out time? Formalized spiritual direction? As happens fairly often, I tend to take some things for granted and frequently need to get back to defining basics both for myself and leaders. For sure, Small Groups can be whatever they need to be in some sense as long as the focus is on relationships and growing closer to Jesus. Other details depend on context. Where your kids are spiritually will determine your content – where your kids are emotionally and socially will determine your method. That is, 9th grade guys and 12th grade girls may be looking at the same scripture but in vastly different ways and with different eyes. How do you adjust? Do you have a predetermined curriculum or not? Does it follow your weekend worship service teaching or a preselected DVD or book? When and where do Small Groups meet? All up for grabs. But I’m currently leaning towards the following definition that can apply across contexts:

1. Experiencing authentic community – Doing life together (Acts 2:42-47 comes to mind)
2. Encountering and interacting with God’s Word (II Tim 3:16 & Josh 1:8 come to mind)
3. Praying with and for each other (modeling how to communicate with Christ and caring for each other) (John 15:7 & Philippians 4:6-7 come to mind).

For us, I think that whatever our Small Groups meetings look like, it should reflect these values. Students obviously need time to play, hang-out, eat – I’m not suggesting we abandon these necessities and go for the full Monastic vibe – just that we should be looking through the lens of these values every time we get together. If ALL we do is play, hang-out, and eat then something’s wrong.  If your students are having a difficult time settling in and looking at scripture together when the time comes for your formal Small Group meeting time then it may point towards the need for more hang-time throughout the week. Small Groups happen all week long as we pursue relationships with kids where they’re at, not just when they show up to a program or meeting time.

We’ve heard before that “Life change happens best in the context of Small Groups” and we’ve experienced the truth of this in our own Small Groups throughout our Christian journeys. A familiar (possibly over-simplified) measure of life change might be “Change in the way that people view and spend their ‘time,’ ‘treasure,’ and ‘talents.’” That could be an entirely different, possibly endless conversation but we have a sense of what we’re trying to get at with life change and Small Groups. Moreover, it seems that Jesus employed something of a Small Group strategy in his own ministry as he stayed up all night praying before calling a small batch of young men to join him in his travels and ministry (Mark 3:13-14). It seemed that throughout the disciples time spent with Jesus that they experienced 1. Authentic community, 2. A safe place to learn and wrestle with doubt, 3. Accountability, and 4. Modeling on what intimacy with the Father could look like. It reminds me of “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn (Benjamin Franklin).

As a Small Group leader over the years, I’ve been challenged constantly to press closer to Jesus and be in God’s word myself as I seek to lead students and volunteers along the same path. After all, we can’t take leaders or students beyond where we’ve been ourselves and our Small Group will only go as deep as we are. A.W. Tozer said in The Pursuit of God, “No person has any moral right to go before the people who have not first been long before the Lord.  No person has any right to speak to people about God who has not first spoken to God about people.  And the prophet of God should spend more time in the secret place praying than they spend in the public place preaching.” May we be reminded that the gift and calling of leadership is a high one and to be taken very seriously and with a great deal of joy and fun!

I would love to hear what defines your Small Groups ministry and how you communicate this vision to your leaders and students.

Mexicali Missions Trip 2012, On the Way Home

We’re rolling home! We had a smooth border crossing and the buses are on the way – ETA in Menlo Park is 10pm. Remember you can get a text message update on our updated arrival info by texting mexicali to 68398. See you soon!

Mexicali Missions Trip 2012, Day 5

What an unbelievable final day! Constructions projects wrapped up, arts and crafts were completed, and each MPPC student team led a worship service in the villages with students sharing testimonies. We completed our time together this evening in worship back at the hotel with students sharing stories of how God spoke to them this week. Many stories were shared about connecting with the niños in villages and the challenges and rewards of serving for Christ. It was powerful to hear students share about how God has opened their eyes to service of those living in poverty. We ended with an extended time of adults praying for students in groups of 4 to 5, lifting up how God spoke to them, encouragement for those struggling with how to take home what they’ve experienced here, and committing to return different than how they left.

A HUGE thank you to our adult leaders who made this trip possible! It’s been amazing to see the praying and planning process unfold from October to now and I’m continually inspired and in awe of our adults’ commitment to Christ, kids, and this mission.

We’re packed and ready to go now. We’ll be up in a few hours for our drive across the border then onto the buses for the trip home. Remember that you can subscribe to our text messaging service by texting mexicali to 68398 and we’ll send out updates on our arrival time back at MPPC. Please pray for smooth travels and more good times on the bus ride home. Thanks for praying and following along – see you soon!

Mexicali Missions Trip 2012, Day 4

Thank you so much for posting comments over the past few days! I read them to the group tonight and all were much appreciated. We had another fantastic and challenging day. I’ll let the pictures tell the stories:

Our friends from Verbo Church in Redwood City

Waiting in line for Homeys Tacos

The dudes about to shovel down tacos

The Michoacan team

We held a BBQ for all the villages, hosted by Pastor Odelon at Quintana Roo

Doing crafts with the niños

Face painting!

The dudes serving dinner (and we sang happy birthday to Stephen!)

Burgers for 400 please

Mas hamberchesas

Students leading worship

The amazing team! Edgar, Emily, Orlando, Cynthia, and Charley.

Hard to believe we have just one more day left in the villages. We’ll all be leading worship tomorrow and students will share testimonies in evening worship services. Please be praying that these would be special times and for boldness and courage for students as they share. Thanks for praying and following along! Until tomorrow…

Mexicali Missions Trip 2012, Day 3

Here are a few highlights from Day 3:

The dudes working hard in Michoacan (Zach Lipps, Junior Sanchez, & Steven Perez).

The Pastors lunch at the hotel was a great time of encouragement and sharing the unique struggles of ministry in rural Mexico. There’s a shared, three-fold vision among the leadership: being a platform for sharing the Gospel, providing health care for their communities, and continuing to develop their network of Jesus-centered churches. These men and women are doing incredible work for God’s Kingdom!

Stephen’s getting it done!

Sammie & Annalise measuring drywall

Susannah & Jolene with los niños

Janet Perez & the gals

Lining up for Homeys Tacos!

Another great day of relationships and seeing God work in and through us, serving and being served by our friends here in the villages. Hard to believe we’re at the halfway mark. Thanks for checking in and continuing to pray! Until tomorrow…

Mexicali Missions Trip 2012, Day 2

We had a great first day of serving in our villages! After a hearty breakfast (chocolate chip & banana pancakes!), we divided up into our teams and headed out to Michoacan, Echeverria, Nuevo Leon, Quintana Roo, & Reacomodo.

It was a full day of construction, children’s and women’s ministry, and of course lots of soccer with the local children.

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There were a few local folks in Reacomodo who were led to the Lord during the ministry time!

Tomorrow, we’ll continue with construction projects while Emily Liggett and our amazing base camp crew will host all the local pastors for a special lunch at the hotel. Pastor Orlando Cardona from Verbo Church in Redwood City and Charley Scandlyn will share teaching and encouragement to the local pastors and spouses.

Our speaker, Todd Garman, continued to teach and encourage students tonight to be bold in not only serving but courageously engaging those we serve in spiritual conversations and sharing Christ.

Everyone is healthy and doing well – if you’d like to leave a message for a friend or student, feel free to write a comment below. Thanks for following along and please continue to pray for us! Until tomorrow…

Mexicali Missions Trip 2012, Day 1

This had to be one of our smoothest days of traveling on a high school trip! For the buses, it was like clockwork – 5am departure, lunch in Los Angeles, and we rolled into Calexico at 4:30pm, half an hour ahead of schedule. Heather Bridges and adult volunteers deserve a ton of credit as they got everyone checked in and on the road at O-dark-thirty. For the flyers, there was an hour delay out of SFO but we all arrived in at Walmart in Calexico around the same time as the buses. Oh yeah, and there was a bit of snow over the grapevine so we had to stop and take some pictures:

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We rolled into our hotel around 6:45pm where a pasta and meatball dinner and music were waiting for us. The early crew adult team is amazing! After dinner, our speaker Todd Garman set the stage for our week by sharing God’s purpose for service – serving others in Christ’s love is God’s solution to drawing us out of a self-focused life based in Christ’s service to us and all of humankind.

Spirits are high and students are excited for our first day in our villages tomorrow. Please see my previous post for prayer requests as we begin our week. Thank you for praying! Until tomorrow…

Mexicali Missions Trip, 2012

Just a quick note to ask for your prayers for a great Mexicali trip. We’ve been praying and planning since October and can’t believe that we’re almost ready to get on the road! In all, we have 113 people traveling by buses, cargo vans, planes, and cars. We leave Sunday morning (eeeeaaarly) and return Friday night. I’ll be posting updates and photos again this year at mattinmenlo.com throughout the week. Would you please use these requests to guide you when praying for our group this week?

1. That the people we encounter in Mexicali will be blessed by God through our students and our students will be blessed by the folks we serve. That we will all find hope in the Lord.

2. Smooth logistics on the trip and peace as events and circumstances unfold. Smooth border crossings for all.

3. Safe travel in both directions for the buses and those flying, including safe bus drivers, attentive leaders, and thoughtful students.

4. For the amazing middle school students that will be joining the trip for the first time and Brooke and Susan as they lead.

5. For our speaker, Todd Garman, that God’s spirit would anoint him as he proclaims Jesus to our students.

6. For our worship leader, Junior Cardona, that God’s spirit would anoint him as he leads our group into worship.

7. For our friends joining us from Verbo Church in Redwood City and their senior pastor, Orlando Cardona, that a sense of mission, unity, and purpose would unite all of us as we build new friendships and serve alongside one another.

8. For parents joining us on the trip, that God would provide life-changing opportunities and conversations through serving alongside their sons and daughters.

9. For our teams (leaders, food crew/base camp, translators, children’s ministry, sports ministry, construction, women’s ministry) that God would grant everyone his strength and multiply sleep.

10. Tuesday, an MPPC team with Charley Scandlyn and Orlando Cardona, will host all the pastors and spouses from each village for a special lunch at our hotel. Please pray that this time would be blessed and the pastors would be encouraged.

11. On Thursday, our whole group will host a BBQ for all the villages’ congregations. Please pray that this would be a great time of fellowship, encouragement, and joy (this is also where we give out all the donations that so many of you have contributed).

12. For our students’ faith in Christ to be strengthened through their experiential knowledge of God’s presence with them as they serve.

Thanks for your prayers and looking forward to sharing all that God has done when we return!

Oh Life

Have you ever kept a journal or diary? If so, how’s that been going recently? I kept one (multiple actually, moleskine’s are my favorite) for a few years but the discipline of remembering to write on a regular basis proved less than consistent. I love going back and reading them occasionally but after reminiscing through thoughts, events, prayers, and whatever else I wrote, I usually wind up feeling a touch guilty about not keeping up with it. Enter Oh Life.

My wife told me about it and I was captured by it’s simplicity. Oh Life is an free online service that sends you an email once a day, at whatever time you choose. Simply respond to the email and your journal entry is logged. It’s all private, encrypted, confidential, etc, etc and all you have to do is log in whenever you want to read back. Here are a few entries from this past year:

Sometimes I’ll recount a story from the day. Other times, just a word, thought, or phrase. I’ve been trying to journal my prayers recently, remembering to go back and see how God’s been faithful to the things I’ve been bringing before him.

The best part is that it’s as simple as responding to an email – I’m usually doing that on a regular basis so it’s simple to remember.

You can sign up for your own online journal at Oh Life HERE.

The Ten Principles of Burning Man and Student Ministry

In case you’re unfamiliar, Burning Man is a music, lifestyle, and art festival held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Some have labeled it this generation’s Woodstock while others consider it the biggest collection of weirdness in the world. Regardless of what you’ve heard or believe about Burning Man, after reading about it I was struck by the inclusive nature of the event. In particular, the organizers have put together 10 principles to guide their community. It’s a great list and has many values in common with the church and student ministry in particular. The Principles are really a Community Manifesto. While it’s not a faith-based event per se (but many attenders most certainly consider it a spiritual experience), the principles point to (for me anyway) many of the natural ways in which God’s created all of humanity to live in shared community. Now, I’m not suggesting all our ministries start to look like Burning Man, but how might our ministries be able to create an inclusive environment where students feel welcomed to be themselves? Many of these principles actually have some parallels to Luke’s description of the early church in Acts 2 and 4! Here are the 10 Principles and I’ll leave it to you to creatively consider parallels to a ministry context:

Ten Principles of Burning Man

1. Radical Inclusion: Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
2. Gifting: Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
3. Decommodification: In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
4. Radical Self-reliance: Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
5. Radical Self-expression: Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
6. Communal Effort: Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
7. Civic Responsibility: We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
8. Leaving No Trace: Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
9. Participation: Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
10. Immediacy: Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.