Mike King

Celebrating Youth Workers

Last Friday night we held the 7^th Annual Youth Worker Appreciation Dinner.  One hundred sixty youth workers attended this event and a great time was had by all.  Our staff went all out to affirm, appreciate and celebrate youth workers.  Carrabba's provided the food, really good food and The Melting Pot provided a fantastic Chocolate Bar.  We had two Harley’s in the lobby of the YouthFront Auditorium for youth workers to climb on and a photographer to take their picture.  Rivers Partin, Nick Pickrell, Aaron Mitchum and Eric Peterson provided some genuinely funny skits for laughter therapy.  Every youth worker received a gift bag filled with stuff like a new book by Steve Case from Youth Specialties, a free paintball session, a Nooma Video from Rob Bell, a resource packet from Doug Fields, and much, much more.

We also gave special awards to youth workers who were nominated for Rookie of the Year, Above and Beyond the Call of Duty, Best Volunteer, Most Embarrassing Youth Ministry Moment, and the Lifetime Achievement Award.  The Best Volunteer Award was a tie this year and one of the recipients is 76 years old.  Both the Rookie of the Year and Above the Call of Duty recipients received free registrations to the National Youth Workers Convention (a $300 gift) provided by our friends at Youth Specialties. 

A highlight for me was giving the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Ed Robinson.  Dr. Robinson began doing youth ministry in 1970 serving in several churches.  In 1986 Dr. Robinson came to Nazarene Theological Seminary as a Professor of Christian Education with Specialization in Youth Ministry.  Dr. Robinson was unwilling to teach youth ministry from a theoretical and past experience point of reference.  He and his wife Nancy continued teaching and mentoring young people in church youth group.  In 1992 Dr. Robinson took a Sabbatical to study Urban Youth Ministry Models and in 2004 helped found the Kansas City Urban Youth Center.  Dr. Robinson has written many Youth Ministry Books and Articles and has been a member of the Association of Youth Ministry Educators. 

Dr. Robinson is a great example for youth workers who know him.  He has demonstrated steadfastness over a long time.  I remember seeing him at a Core Youth Ministry training event at YouthFront.  He was not there in the role of expert but in the role of student.  Dr. Robinson has been a life-long learner.  Last year Dr. Robinson was named the new President of Mid-America Nazarene University.  A youth worker, one of us, appointed President of a University, YES!  Dr. Robinson has entered into this position as a youth pastor working with hundreds of late adolescents.

I quoted Mark Twain when introducing Dr. Robinson, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.”  Dr. Robinson did not allow people to belittle his ambitions and he has helped many of us feel that we too can serve faithfully for a lifetime.

Dr. Robinson graciously accepted his award and spoke words fitly spoken dripping with wisdom and passion.  His acceptance speech and words of encouragement to all of us youth workers who look up to him provided a perfect conclusion to a wonderful night.

After we dismissed youth workers stayed ate chocolate and talked.  They wouldn’t leave.  The last youth workers left two hours after the program was over.  At 10:30 PM I left the auditorium and walked to another part of our complex where a room full of teenagers were in engaged in intense worship.  I drove home that night feeling very fulfilled to be in youth ministry. What a night.  Below is a picture of Dr. Robinson and Nancy on the motorcycles.

Life is not fair...

BUMMER… the Royals can’t get a break.  Jeremy Affeldt, Royals pitcher and a friend, called and left a v-mail on my cell on his way to Kauffman Stadium to say hey, spread some love and to figure out a time to hang out.  I called him back because he was scheduled to pitch against the A’s tonight.  “Go after the batters dude… you are the man.”  As game time approached the rain set in.  I wanted to watch Jeremy throw but was convinced the game would not be played.  Vicki and I decided at the last minute to go to the matinee showing of United 93.  United 93 – you should see it, but I suggest going when you are not under any kind of stress because the movie is very stressful from start to finish.  The ending – even though everyone knows what happened – is shocking and emotionally overwhelming.  The only other movie that has caused me to sob as uncontrollably was Hotel Rwanda.  Vicki went to the restroom when the movie was over and I went to the car and pretty much cried like a baby.  I was struck not only by the tragic loss of life on September 11 but all the suffering, war and loss of lives around the world since then.  I just wanted to go home.  On the way home I turned on the radio literally to try to get control over my emotions and was shocked to hear that the Royals were actually playing.  The rain was coming down hard but they were already in the third inning – 5 to 0 Royals over the A’s.  Just then Jeremy struck out a batter and the announcer proclaimed “this is Affeldt’s fifth strikeout of the game.”  Jeremy had picked up where he left off in his last start – on fire.  Then I hear Reggie Sanders had hit a grand slam homerun in the first inning.  “YES, Jeremy has another win wrapped up… alright.” I enthusiastically proclaimed to Vicki.  OK, my depression from the movie was quickly lifted, kind of embarrassing, I know.  I couldn’t even believe they were playing.  We were only seven miles from the stadium and it was raining hard.  Well, the rain didn’t stop and a rain delay was called, we waited and waited and finally the game was called.  Nothing counted, not the strikeouts, the grand slam or the 5 to 1 score.  Stink!  Life is not fair.  Life isn’t fair, not only in the small things like a rain out for a team that can’t seem to get a break but also in the really major things in life and death like United 93. 

Great Post

Here is a great post - We Can Talk at Starbuck's

Contemplative Youth Ministry

Mark Yaconelli’s book Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus is about to be released.  I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy.  I really like Mark Yaconelli – a lot, so of course my comments will be quite biased.  I attended two Sabbaths led by Mark and his team at the San Francisco Theological Seminary.  I also attended the forum in which the findings from the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project were discussed.

At the first Sabbath I attended I experienced a profound encounter with the Holy Spirit during a prayer practice – I have never recovered.  I attended Sabbath because I was on a journey to rediscover an intimate walk with Christ.  I was disillusioned by how easily I could do youth ministry utilizing the primary tools of personal expertise, talent and the experience I had accumulated.  Even though most of the content I delivered to young people was right on target and my theology – orthodox, I was still depressed at the vast amount of young people in the church who were choosing to walk away from faith when they moved into the late adolescent stage of their lives.

Mark and I have become friends although we have not had nearly enough time to dialogue very deeply because our connections usually come in the middle of the chaos of National Youth Worker Conventions.  Mark is at his best when he stands up in front of a group of youth workers and facilitates a conversation about spirituality, authenticity, soul care of youth and passion for Jesus.  Mark gently moves the conversations toward a deep look at what it means to be real, to love well and to live fully.  Mark believes that healthy youth ministry requires youth workers who pursue Jesus and minister out of the wholeness of their soul.

Every youth worker needs to read this book.  It is very good.  I wish Mark would narrate an audio book version.  Those who have not been exposed to Mark’s gentle and gracious manner will miss something.  Mark is better in person.

The highlight of the book for me was Mark’s explanation for developing a way to call adults into the lives of young people.  Mark reviews the frustration that all youth workers have experienced when trying to motivate adults to become volunteers.  He carefully lays out, step by step, a process for inviting people to pray and consider what part God might want them to play in the spiritual formation of youth.  This process is not veiled manipulation, it is an invitation to listen to the Holy Spirit and respond appropriately.  This process is not a means to an end.  The process itself is the THING.  When the Holy Spirit calls adults to engage in the spiritual formation of the youth in their church within a contemplative youth ministry environment it is a beautiful thing.

More later…

Salvation has come...

I posted here a couple weeks ago about our staff trip to Croc, Mexico.  Kurt and Emily Rietema just returned back to Kansas City for a while before the summer stuff in Croc kicks into high gear.  The following story written by Kurt is a wonderful narrative about transformation, the kind of transformation that happens constantly in our ministry but usually gets relegated to a statistical report.  God is at work in the world for the renewal of Shalom.  I am so ecstatic to be able to co-operate with the agenda of God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven...

There was indeed something strange about David that night. We went over to David and Carmen’s place because earlier that day as we poured the floor for their new house, I asked him if they had had enough to eat. He said "no". Knowing that he had a drug addiction, I wasn’t about to fork over the cash directly to him to go buy groceries. So I went on a late night shopping spree with the boys to Deposito Hernandez. David came to the front gate, and as I asked him what he needed, I was met with no verbal response. I nervously answered my own questions by filling in the blanks, hoping for the slightest gesture of assent. He was obviously strung out on drugs, but what he said to me in his eyes still haunts me. I never caught any scent of anger, but rather a bone-chilling gaze that questioned me like the demon-possessed man who cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" Yet at the same time there was another David who surfaced just long enough to noiselessly cry for help before sadly submerging back into the dark depths of his eyes. It was then that I was reminded that our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

The situation of David and Carmen was probably the saddest and seemingly hopeless that Emily and I have ever encountered in Croc. They lived in a shack not fit for a latrine and ate food I wouldn’t feed my dog. The hopelessness in Carmen’s face lay thicker than the clothes and trash scattered around their place. Even the baby they were expecting in days brought, not joy, but worry from their excessive drug use. They needed much more than a new house. They needed a new life and a new hope.

This is the part of the show when we typically remind our motivated, goal-oriented church groups that it isn’t as much about building a house as it is about building relationships. And this particular group from Faith CRC got the hint. Knowing that David and Carmen’s lives were out of our hands, we prayed and prayed. We bought Cokes, talked with them, and played with their young daughter, Mari.

Nearing the completion of the house, Carmen was ready to go to the hospital to give birth to her son, so we had an early house dedication with them. We shared in words what we did with our hands that week. We invited them to seek Christ as we, too, are seeking Christ and prayed a blessing over them.

A couple of weeks later, David and Carmen show up at church with their new baby boy, Jesus (remember in Spanish, that’s hey-soos, not the other guy we know and love). They wanted to dedicate their son to God and in the process decided to make a public commitment to follow Christ. God had been pursuing them and initiating change and infiltrating hope into their desperate lives. Accuse Pastor Martinez of a little coersive foul play in that decision if you wish, but still, they took a visible step a faith. In the same way that you could almost tangibly feel the weight of their oppression before, now you could sense the lightness of their liberation.

A few days later after persistent invitations to visit David and Carmen in their new house, we went. Arriving at the gate to the house, we could peer just inside to see that Carmen was lying on her bed reading her new Bible. She was elated that we had come saying that the previous night she was praying to God asking if we’d come to visit her and here we were--answered prayer. Emily and I listened as she told us her family history and recounted her pains. Her stories of abuse, incest, and attempted rapes played out like a twisted screenplay of an R-rated movie that we wished we could have walked out on at the opening scene to preserve our sheltered innocence. Later, David walked in and shared a short, sad memoir of his curtailed childhood. He was a boy of twelve out on the streets after his mom died. All he had left to remember her by was a broken tv that blankly stared back at us from the corner of their new room. But the past lies in the past.

Listening to their stories of hardship makes it easy for me to sit back in my leather chair, call up mom and dad on the phone, and say like Pharisee, "thank God I’m not them." And I do thank God I never had to wade through the crap that they did. What’s difficult, however, is to look inside my own soul, beat my breast, and cry out, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." My mind may not be able to devise the kind of hell that was poured out on them by so many others. But an honest look at myself tells me that I’ve got the same dark seed. The only difference is that the violence in their families had optimum conditions for incubating and perpetuating ever bigger and uglier hybrids of evil. I think it’s best that I end my story here and let the words of another bring true wisdom. We’ve all sung this song before, but only a few find the answer. Paul says it best. "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" The answer David and Carmen are finding is in the cross and in a bruised and battered church that realizes we’re just as desperately in need of the same irresistable grace of God.

Serve Day

There was a lot of stuff going on at YouthFront last weekend – Downstairs, a worship time for teenagers on Friday night and Serve Day on Saturday.  Downstairs was cool, a good place to see teenagers who work at YouthFront Camps.  We had 1200 young people sign up to serve in the urban core of our city for Serve Day.  Sixty churches participated and worked on thirty projects sponsored by a couple dozen agencies.  Around 800 youth came to the YouthFront Auditorium for a one hour kick-off rally.  Billy Brame woke the crowd up with some audience participation.  The Jason Ellsworth Band led a time of singing and worship.  Grant Mong, a youth pastor from Colonial Presbyterian shared a challenge from the scripture on serving God for God’s Glory.  My favorite part of Serve Day is to go out in the parking lot when the groups are dismissed and watch the convoys of cars, vans and buses head out to their places of service.  It is such a positive and fulfilling day. 

 

Here are some more pictures.

Hairless Easter

One of the highlights of Easter was taking this picture with my friend Ashley.  I am privileged to have Dr. Ashley Cleveland as a friend.  We serve together on the Elder Team at Jacob's Well.  Ashley was diagnosed with cancer several months ago.  So many of us have been inspired and ministered to by Ashley's walk through the valley of the shadow of death and with her emergence as an overcomer.  We planned ahead of time to take our picture together to celebrate friendship, victory, resurrection and life.  Ashley still has some challenges with more chemo and radiation ahead but she is winning.   This is one strong woman.  After seeing Ashley this morning I attended Midday (held each day here at YouthFront) and this benediction made me think of Ashley's spirit.

Call: Go in peace, in the knowledge of God's power.  Go in confidence, in the knowledge of God's strength.  Go in joy, in the knowledge of God's love.  Go into the world: dance, laugh, sing and create.

Response: We go with the assurance of God's blessing.

Call: Go into the world: risk, explore, discover and love.

Response: We go with the assurance of God's grace.

Call: Go into the world: believe, hope, struggle and remember.

Response: We go with the assurance of God's love.

All: Thanks be to God!

 

Blog Constipation

I have had a bout of blogging constipation.  But I am beginning to feel movement...

Prayer of the Church

This is the Prayer of the Church we have been praying as a staff during Midday in April...

                          Prayer of the Church

Teach us, dear Lord, to number our days; that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Oh, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands, dear Lord.

Another Picture

As I mentioned in the last post the Saturday to Sunday Vigil involved, among many other things, the opportunity to walk the Stations of the Cross.  We commisioned 28 artists in our community to create a piece of art for a Station of the Cross.  At every station there were two works of art.  One piece of art was created by an adult artist and the other by an artist below the age of 17.   Here is a picture of several teenagers who did the Stations of the Cross together. 

It was awesome to watch and listen to them process this experience together.  The Holy Spirit residing in these youth and speaking to them is no uninformed child.