Three Lessons Youth Workers Can Learn from “The Social Network”

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Here’s a repost from last year that I came across and still get excited about:

I saw “The Social Network” on opening night but with all the Oscar buzz recently around this amazing film I figured this was a worth repost. I was skeptical going in, having not read the basis for the film (“The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich) and wary of anything looking to capitalize on such a trendy topic.  But then I noticed it received an astronomical 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ll leave others to critique the accuracy of the story, screenwriting, performances, etc but I do believe that people will be talking about it for a long time for many reasons…at least around here in Silicon Valley.

I’ve had a difficult time for many years watching or listening to something without looking for ministry or leadership applications. It’s just something that’s on my brain a lot, I suppose that any work of art can be somewhat of a Rorschach. The rest of this post will make a great deal more sense if you’ve seen the movie, not enough space here to give the full run-down. So with that in mind here are a few interesting nuggets related to youth ministry that I noticed in the film:

1. Entrepreneurial Energy – There’s a level of energy and enthusiasm inherent in discovery, risk-taking, and the forming of great ideas that you can’t help but get excited about. This in itself was obvious and inspirational in the movie. We saw a group of students portrayed as unsatisfied with existing structures and yearning for more purpose, connection, and significance.   This kind of energy and enthusiasm is vital to our work with students and our teams. If you or your team is struggling with being excited about your current plan, existing structures, or roles, it may be necessary to try something new, shake things up, take a risk.  Even if you fail in the short term, it may point you in the right direction. Neo didn’t make the jump on the first try because no one makes the jump on the first try.  Just like in this movie, often it’s not the first idea that generates a movement but the outcome of many drafts and hard work.Excitement runs downhill, if you and your team are excited about what’s happening, your students will be too.
2. Priority on Intention – All dubious ethics and betrayal portrayed in the movie aside, it was interesting throughout that the primary motivation for the lead character was not necessarily money but the integrity of the invention.  While the more business-minded folks encouraged monetizing almost immediately, it was the visionaries who kept the inner circle focused on the design and intention of the product. For youth-workers trying to stay focused on The Call with a ministry plan strategically designed to produce a certain outcome (disciples of Jesus), the application writes itself: namely, distractions and rabbit trails even with good intentions are still distractions and rabbit trails. Being great at a few things often leads to a greater yield than being mediocre at many things. Not always, but often. How can we stay focused on being great at the few things we’re called to do rather than spreading out our time, energy, and resources on too many activities that have a tendency to produce vision-drift in ourselves and our teams?
3. A small group of people with an unstoppable idea can still change the world – Who would have thought that three 19 year olds in a college dorm room would revolutionize the world? Facebook stands at a valuation of 25 BILLION dollars. Its 500 million participants makes it the third largest nation on earth. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history. We’re all aware of the impact of this initially small, simple idea that came from the mind of a kid. A few people with a great idea can make a difference. Reminds me of a small, motley group of people in the Galilean outback that eventually reached Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Student ministry is tough. For many of us, we’re handling what seems like 4 job descriptions on a daily basis. Navigating politics, dealing with conflict, leading different teams, walking with parents, school administrators, teaching, coaching, programming, planning, goal-setting, and on top of it all pursuing the spiritual development of our students…it really goes on, you know the feeling. Sometimes it can feel like we’re running uphill in quicksand and true change happens way too slowly. But we have a trump card, the ultimate unstoppable idea: the Gospel is THE original, greatest, revolutionary idea that can change the world. God broke into our world in the person of Jesus and the world has never been the same. What cool things is God doing among your small group of people as you share His unstoppable idea that can change the world? May we continue to be the tellers of this great, unstoppable story to a generation that desperately needs to hear it.

P.s.: I also saw numerable negative lessons as well in the film – the ends doesn’t justify the means, loyalty DOES matter, people DO matter, narcissism is alive and well…but that’s for someone else to post about.

Don’t Be Balanced

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Life is often a crazy balancing act. Family, work, school, relationships, hobbies – finding balance somewhere in there is an arduous process.  More often it’s simply a reminder that there’s not enough time to do it all. When I was younger, I used to think that there’d be a time in my future when balance would naturally happen as a result of maturity and life experience. Not so much. The older I got, the more complex and complicated things became. As you’ve probably experienced in your life, along with age comes growth, maturity, and increased responsibility. Add in a spouse, children, a mortgage and, well, there you have it.  You might be able to manage more stuff because you’re all grown up but that doesn’t make life easier.

And so the search for that ever-elusive balance continues. When I’m out of balance, I tire easily. I snap. I lose my temper regularly with the people I love the most. I lose focus on the things that are most important. My priorities are out of whack and I usually start spinning my wheels. You get the idea.

I recently brought this struggle into my time with my spiritual director and as usual he turned it around on me in a very subtle, wise way. Try this one on: he said as far as he can see there’s no reference to “balance” in the scriptures. I had to stop and think about that. No mention. Not in the Gospels, Proverbs, anywhere.

He described that if I’m holding 50 lbs in my right hand and 150 lbs in my left then balance is shifting the excess weight from my left to my right hand. The problem with balance is that either way I adjust the weight, I’m still holding 200 lbs. Balance simply forces me to continue to bear whatever immense weight I’m holding, just in a different way. Balance might give me the illusion of rest as I shift weight from one set of muscles to the next but I’m really just using different muscles. The result is a subtle, growing fatigue as I choose to focus on whatever weight is demanding the most of my energy in the moment.

He went on to describe that while there’s no mention of balance there is a great deal of talk in the Bible about “rhythm.” In a super-short explanation of a massive Biblical theme, he outlined that we see God creating the earth in six days, resting on the seventh. Sabbath. Then, every seven years, the nation of Israel was to observe Shmita or a Sabbatical year where there was to be no planting, plowing, growing, or reaping. Rest for the land, rest for the workers. Then, every seven Sabbatical years (yes, that’s forty-nine years) no work was to be done, land borrowed and sold was returned to its original owners, and slaves were set free. The year of Jubilee. Rhythm. It’s all there in Leviticus.

Now, I’ve heard this Sabbath and Jubilee stuff before but never put in these terms: If rhythm is God’s process for restoring creation, his personal and preferred method for creativity, production, and work in the things that he made and the people that follow him then shouldn’t it exist in my own life? I know I’m supposed to take a Sabbath and I usually do. But beyond observing a day of rest, what is all this talk about rhythm in the Bible supposed to look like day to day, hour to hour?

Back to the metaphor. Rhythm is putting down all 200 lbs for a period of time so that you’re holding nothing. Put it down. Empty your hands. Hold nothing. Engaging your faith in this process means trusting that when it’s time to go back and pick up your 200 lbs that it’ll still be there waiting for you. Here are the personal applications I’m working on. It’s not rocket science:

1. Work hard when it’s time to work. Stop working when it’s time to stop working.
2. Grazing on technology at home takes away from family and real-life relationships.
3. Put everything down – One hour a day, one day a week, one weekend a quarter, one week a year.

I’m finding that rhythm is a discipline. But its rhythm, not balance, that restores the soul.

Turns out, I don’t want balance at all. I want rhythm.

Where in your life do you need to create rhythm rather than pursue balance? What rhythms do you have that restore your soul?

If rhythm is anything like physical exercise, you know what happens when you’re rested and recovered? You come back stronger. After putting everything down, when it comes time to go back and pick it up, you might just find you’ll be able to comfortably lift 300 lbs. Just remember to put it back down again.

Give Your Family the First 30 Minutes

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Give your family the first 30 minutes of your time as soon as you walk in the door

Reconnecting with my family at the end of the day is difficult for me. When I come home after work, I fly through the door with a million things on my mind that usually have to do with what I didn’t get done that day. I love walking in the door and having my son run to meet me but, confession time, sometimes I’m not all that present. As I’m thinking about things I didn’t get done that day sometimes I’ll even make notes about things I’ll try to catch up on later in the evening after dinner. A friend shared a little bit of wisdom and challenged me to spend the first 30 minutes after walking through the door reconnecting with my family. That means the bag goes on the floor, the computer and phone stay off, and the DVR goes unchecked. It also usually means hitting the floor and playing with Thomas the Tank Engine and hearing about all the adventures Greyson had at “school” (a few hours of daycare) that day. Thirty minutes of uninterrupted time also serves to help right my priorities – 30 usually turns into many more as the stress of the day melts away and the joy of being present takes over.

Your kids may be younger or older than mine but they need us dads and moms to be present with them at the end of a long day – something that gets increasingly more difficult as life becomes increasingly more complex.

Thirty minutes. It’s a start…at least before the chores start, dinner needs preparing, and the dog needs walking. What rituals or methods to reconnect with your family do you have around your home? From one parent to another, I’d love to hear.

How to Reach Half Your School District with the Gospel in 1 Year

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The ostentatious title of this post aside, what if this was actually possible? And how would you gauge it? Wherever you fall on the “numbers don’t matter” or “numbers are everything” spectrum, it’s safe to assume that youth workers would generally love for as many students as possible to hear the message of a great, big God who loves them unconditionally and desires to be in relationship with them. And whether you count every student who walks through the door or never count anyone, I think someone once said, “We count people because people count,” and I think there’s a little bit of truth to that. So this idea assumes that there is at least some wisdom in knowing how many students that we actually reach.

Of course, you could define “reach” in a hundred different ways. I’m not necessarily talking about positive responses, “I believe” moments, or conversions (whatever you want to call saying “yes” to Jesus). I’m simply talking about walking a student through the Gospel – either at one sitting, over many sittings, through conversations or examples – however it happens, I think it has to be a verbal discussion about the story and reality of Jesus, including when he walked the earth and the implications now.

Without delving into the “What is the Gospel?” dissertation, I’ll simply define it as the story and reality of how God has, is, and will continue to restore and redeem a lost and broken creation through the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There’s obviously more to it than that but for brevity’s sake, let’s simply start there. So let’s agree that communicating this message and helping students to exist in this reality by living out a daily, growing relationship with God is at the heart of student ministry. The Great Commission describes “making disciples” but of course disciples can’t be made without first hearing the Gospel.

Romans 10:13-15 – “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?

I’ve written HERE and HERE about how it’s vital in student ministry to engage others in your community who are doing the same thing. This will test your belief on that subject.

So here’s the idea: suppose your school district population numbers 10,000 high school students. There’s your mission field. Here’s how to tell 5,000 students about Jesus in one school year:

1. Find 20 other youth ministries/churches/parachurch organizations willing to commit to the vision.
2. Each ministry commits to recruiting and training 25 volunteers (total leader count=500).
3. Each volunteer commits to sharing the story of Jesus with 10 students who are unfamiliar with the Gospel throughout the year .
4. Avoid “double-dipping” by figuring out a way to track the plan and communicate progress.

What would happen in your community if 5,000 students heard about Jesus in the context of authentic friendship and life-sharing? What if just 10% of those students said “yes” to following Jesus? That’s 500 new followers of Jesus – the world’s been radically changed by much smaller groups of people.

Of course, then the issue becomes making disciples but isn’t that why we’re here?

What do you think? Does all this counting make you uncomfortable? Does the possibility get your blood going? What recruiting and training would this take? What would be some practical steps towards getting other youth workers in your area on board? At this point, it’s just an idea but I really want to try it.

What Makes a Great Youth Ministry Small Group?

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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.

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.

Costa Rica Missions Trip: Service is Worship

Our group of 30 leaves tonight for our next missions trip, this time to Costa Rica. And we can’t wait!

On last year’s missions trip to Mexicali, I had a moment of clarity in a Port-O-Potty in the middle of the night. TMI? It was towards the end of an amazing week. Moments of quiet on any missions trip are rare. It’s all about serving and community. So I found myself in the john late at night reflecting on the week. I realized that one of the major callings in my life is to share the adventure of following Jesus with students. I wasn’t realizing it for the first time (that would be strange for a long-time youth pastor), it was more like getting back to the reason why I do this: providing opportunities and environments for students to experience Jesus. And then talking about the Gospel. My personal opinion is that this is most effectively accomplished by giving students the opportunity to step outside their regular routines by getting away. There’s something about getting away from the crazy schedules and pressing demands that allow all of us to see our lives and God a little bit more clearly.

It’s all about experiential learning

When students serve others outside their usual environment, it’s like a light switch flicks on. Everyone understands serving. I’ve never met anyone that denies the significance of serving others and giving back. However, many people, students included, don’t immediately connect this belief with the way God’s created us. He’s actually wired us to live in community and serve one another in love. We live out God’s love for us by extending his love to others in service. But often there’s not enough time back home to get in touch with this. Sure, there’s the occasional service project and ways that we can help around the house but often we learn these habits because we need mandatory community service hours for school or have a list of chores. Definitely not a bad way to learn good habits at all. We’ll have a chores list for our son when he’s older. But sometimes I feel like this is coming at it from the wrong way around.

True service is a response to God’s love

Missions trips are amazing experiences on so many levels because we get to serve alongside students and then process the experience while in the midst of it. We can ask: How did that feel? What did you experience? Where is God in all this? How could this experience affect the way you live back home? We’re able to help students get in touch with the way God loves them and the people they’re serving. When people experience God’s love in real and tangible ways, the only response is to serve…and service is worship.

Service IS Worship: Responding to all of who God is with all of who we are

Isaiah was known to rant a bit. But, man, they’re great rants. In Isaiah 1, he gives the nation of Israel a picture of what it means to worship the one, true God. And it had nothing to do with a great band, a slick presentation, or power point (or even propresenter). Isaiah’s picture of worship looks like, “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” Turns out, worship looks a lot like service. When students serve on a missions trip, they’re actually worshiping God even if they don’t realize it in the moment. We have the opportunity as youth leaders to connect the dots between the way God’s created us to serve others AND worship him. And we’re meant to do these things out of grateful response to his love for us.

According to Isaiah, true worship means:

…to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed  free and break every yoke. Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. – Isaiah 58

Did you catch that? Worship is service, service is worship. It’s God’s way of revealing his Kingdom in our world and when we connect with that purpose we’re connecting with a very deep part of the way God’s created us.The result, or more precisely, God’s promise is restoration, healing, guidance, reconciliation, and peace. Service and worship are how God’s creation brings God’s Kingdom into the here and now.

This is the message we get to share with students as they serve! You’re not just making crafts with little kids or picking up trash or putting up drywall. You’re serving. Which means, you’re worshiping. A God-designed purpose for you.

I’m already so proud of our kids for taking the leap. I can’t wait to see how God works, they way he meets each and every one of them right where they are.

If all goes well with my cell phone connection, my next post will be from Costa Rica. Until then, thanks for praying…

Costa Rica Missions Trip: Prayer Requests

Our group of 30 leave tonight for Costa Rica and we can’t wait! We’ll be serving Sunday through Wednesday at the Roblealto Children’s Home in the mountains just outside the capital city of San Jose. On Wednesday, we’ll travel to the Pacific coast town of Nosara where we’ll be serving at 2 local churches and the elementary school.

More updates to follow but would you please join us in praying for the following:

1. That the people we encounter in Costa Rica 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.
3. Smooth border crossings for all.
4. Safe travel in both directions via plane and vans, including attentive leaders, and thoughtful students.
5. For our students’ faith in Christ to be strengthened through their experiential knowledge of God’s presence with them as they serve.

It’s clear that God’s brought together a special group of people, both leaders and students, for this trip. We’ve already experienced the great blessings of working, praying, and planning together as well as enjoying the many gifts of all those who have jumped in with both feet. For us, it’s been an amazing picture of God’s Kingdom at work.

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to one hope when you were called– one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it… It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ… From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. – Ephesians 4

Thanks for praying…

Costa Rica Missions Trip: 1 Day ’til Lift-Off

On Saturday night, 30 students and adult leaders from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church high school ministry will fly a red-eye out of SFO to Houston then Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica. We’ll be serving at the Roblealto Children’s Home in San Jose for 3 days, then 3 days at a local church in Nosara, on the Pacific Coast.  We can’t wait!

Ever since we formed this team of students back in April, we’ve been excited to see how God’s going to use us. We’ve been meeting, praying, training, and putting together supplies over the past 2 months in preparation.

As we travel, I’ll hopefully be posting updates as often as possible. My wife Katie and I have led this very same trip for students in the past (2004-2007), but this will be my first trip to CR with an iPhone and a blog – so we’ll see how AT&T international plan holds up!

We had our last team meeting with students this afternoon where we had a chance to talk about our theme for the trip and take a look at our memory passage. Our theme is “Joy.” It’s a simple theme but seems to come up over and over again in scripture, many times connected to God’s peace. It’s God’s intention that we live our lives, when busy or on vacation, healthy or sick, happy or unhappy, with His Joy which is made manifest in us through His Spirit. However, we recognize that most of us live frantic, hectic lives. The typical, crazy pace of our lives and the lives of high school students, plus the added pressure of competing and performing just to keep up with those around us, can rob us of Joy.

It’s our hope and prayer that as we take a look at what it means to live in God’s intended Joy for our lives and serve our Costa Rican friends, we would allow enough space for God’s Spirit to do a little bit of that transforming work that he does so well.

With this in mind, our team’s passage for this year’s Costa Rica trip is Philippians 4:4-9 –

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again — rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.

Matt in Menlo: 2010 in review

This Blog is just over a year old. It’s been super fun to write and if you’ve been reading along, THANK YOU!! I’ve appreciated your comments and insights and look forward to another great year of continuing the student ministry conversation.

Also, I love WordPress.  The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,400 times in 2010. That’s about 11 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 39 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 57 posts. There were 31 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 9mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was April 2nd with 262 views. The most popular post that day was Mexicali, Day 5.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, mattinmenlo.com, mppc.org, twitter.com, and ow.ly.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for studentministry, john ortberg dallas willard , mattinmenlo, youthministry, leadership, and if you really knew me.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1. Hurting Kids: Tough Issues that Exist on Every Campus
2. Broken and Growing Hearts
3. You Have What It Takes
4. Three Lessons Youth Workers Can Learn from the Social Network
5. If You Really Knew Me…