Mike King

Peasant's Day Feast

On Presidents’ Day, Feb. 18, we’re going to be doing a push to have the biggest packing event in Youthfront’s auditorium since the earthquake in Haiti three years ago.  We’re calling it Peasants’ Day Feast.  As our country remembers the privileged and the powerful, we honor the peasants and the poor.  As much of the American church begins its Lenten fast, we chose a different kind of fasting--an Isaiah 58 kind of fast where we loosen the chains of injustice and share our food with the hungry.  

We’re also developing a way for churches to take a Something to Eat assembly line home with them so that their churches and youth groups can practice this “Lenten fast” by packaging meals onsite all the way through Easter.  We’ll also be developing a series of prayers and reflections for each week of Lent that focus on Christ, our spiritual hunger, and the physical hunger experienced by so many worldwide.

Join us on Presidents’ Day, February 18 where hundreds from around the KC metro area will descend upon Youthfront’s auditorium to pack thousands of meals that will be shipped to countries experiencing urgent food crises.  Together, in fits of passionate action filling bags to boxes, boxes to pallets, and pallets to shipping containers with humble, life-giving feasts, we awaken an imagination of another world, another kingdom, another King.  Join us for our Peasants’ Day Feast.

For more information check out the website.

Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

“How do we as youth workers seek justice - and teach our students to do the same? How do we help the world’s most vulnerable people  in our own neighborhood -without enabling dependency?”

If you find yourself asking how to teach students what it means to seek justice and love mercy, this event is for you.

We’ll meet at the South Branch Library in the Argentine neighborhood in Kansas City, KS for a short presentation and discussion on how to do “missions” with dignity, followed by a tour of the community and a Something to Eat™ meal packaging event at the Franklin Center. As we wrap up, we’ll enjoy delicious
homemade Mexican food from one of our neighborhood friends.

When: Thursday, Nov. 29th, 9:00 AM - noon

Where: South Branch Library in the Argentine neighborhood of KC, KS

Cost: $10 - includes lunch and Something to Eat™  packaging experience

Register online at www.youthfront.com/justicetraining

Eschatology and The Youth Ministry Mission Trip

Immerse is a proud sponsor of the National Youth Worker Convention Theological Forums again this year.  Over the next months leading up to the conferences we will be having some of the panelists that will be at the forums sharing some pre-cursory thoughts on some of the questions they will be asked.  This week our friend Andy Root lets us in on his preparation for the up coming eschatology panel.

As I was preparing for my eschatology panel in Dallas at the National Youth Workers Convention, I got an email from a youth worker asking for some insight on why he was so uncomfortable with a youth mission trip he had just gone on. He explained that his young people spent all day working, motivated by rhetoric from the leadership on how big a difference they were making, how they were changing the world. The kids were told over and over again that if they really believed in Jesus and really wanted it, they could do anything.

Yet, he explained, “I’ve now been back there six years in a row, same place, and honestly things aren’t getting better but worse. So what are we doing there?”

I thought it was a great question and one that could only be answered through an eschatological perspective embedded in the resurrection of Jesus. As I’ll say on that panel in Dallas on eschatology, the only way for eschatology not to be weird (like a poorly done Christian Apocalyptic movie) is for all our eschatological assertions to be embedded in the person and action of Jesus. Jesus is the man of the eschaton because Jesus is the new Adam. Unlike his friend Lazarus, who is raised to die again, Jesus is the man of the future, man of completion because, now alive, death is no more. (Death is no more for him, and because we are in him, as Paul says, we are promised that one day death will be no more for us too. But this is in our future, in the eschaton, though it is now for Jesus—because he is the man of the future).

What did I say back?  Something like this: (which, by the way, comes from an upcoming book, Unlocking Eschatology and Mission in Youth Ministry [Zondervan 2012]).

A mission trip in youth ministry is about witnessing to the resurrection; it is not about bringing the resurrection. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is the resurrection. The mission trip is about joining in God’s action by entering death with people, trusting that our actions are windows into the promise of God to take all that is death (hungry stomachs, sagging roofs, parentless children) and bring life out of it. Promise can happen only within reality, only within bearing death. But promise honestly enters into the death of this reality, hoping and waiting for the next, the new reality.

It is about what is coming. The mission trip is standing in reality while, through our action, witnessing to the action of God, who promises to overcome death in all its forms.

The youth ministry mission trip possesses no power to bring forth justice. But it nevertheless bends its life toward justice by seeking the person of Jesus who brings forth the coming of God’s future, when all will be fed and cared for. So now, today, we feed and care for others as a sacrament of the fullness of God’s coming future.

For more great stuff check out the Immerse Blog

Stop Short Term Mission Trips for Youth Groups?

I remember taking my first short term mission trip with students nearly thirty years ago before they were a fixed annual project for most church youth groups.  I have many fond memories from leading several dozen of these "short term mission trips."  However, over the last seven or eight years I have engaged with many youth workers in a dialogue about the theological warrant for this concept. 

Christianity Today recently featured three views on this issue.  Brian Howell, believes that we should cease expensive "travel-intensive projects."  He states there are good reasons for Christians to travel but "projects" is not one of them.  I believe we should shift to an emphasis on missional activity in our local contexts.  The concept of pilgrimage also needs to be reconsidered as a valid faith-immersion formational activity in our churches and youth groups.

Here are a few thoughts from Brian M. Howell who is associate professor of anthropology at Wheaton College and author of Short-Term Mission: An Ethnography of Christian Travel Narrative and Experience (IVP Academic, forthcoming).

"Churches should not abandon travel, but we should abandon most travel-intensive 'projects.'

It is good for American Christians to visit Christians in other places to witness what God is doing around the world. It is good for American Christians to visit missionaries, learning firsthand about their work and how to pray for them. The opportunity to learn from all our brothers and sisters living and working around the world is a gift many of us have received due to our relative wealth, access to technology, and leisure time. We should accept this blessing gratefully.

When it comes to projects, however, the good we do is often outweighed by the warped impressions left on both sides. For example, sending high-school students to do construction in front of poor, underemployed adults furthers the humiliation of the poor as they see wealthy North Americans casually doing jobs they would happily accept, while it reinforces the views of many American Christians that poor people cannot help themselves.

Our projects further promote views of poor people as lacking personal agency, as short-term mission teams often spend most of their time interacting with children conducting Vacation Bible School or teaching games. Teams often leave with the impression that the whole country is childlike, vulnerable, and in need of our care. When short-termers do interact with adults, it is often in unequal relationships—cooks, drivers, and other employees of the American missionaries—where true fellowship is difficult. Those ministries run by nationals who host short-term teams frequently adapt their ministry to meet the needs of visiting foreigners first and local residents second. These hosts are reluctant to ask too much of powerful guests or to confront their visitors' views and risk losing material benefits.

Unequal social relationships and a skewed view of poor communities can affect service in the United States too. However, there is a reason why many churches have little problem getting 25 youths to sign up for a project in South Africa, while the trip to a nearby urban community goes unfilled. The dynamics of international travel make it easier to imagine that we in the West have no responsibility for the problems "over there" beyond our occasional charity. We can feel good about our service without being confronted by our responsibility for the injustices we witness. In nearby urban centers, or a local apartment complex, we are more likely to be confronted with the reality that our lives are bound up with theirs, and we cannot so easily turn away from what is going on in front of us when it gets difficult or inconvenient.

We should not abandon international travel, nor should we be less generous with our resources. But if we would spend less time building walls, painting houses, or digging ditches, we could spend our time learning how the problems there are part of the problems here. These trips should serve to teach us how we are bound up together, in our economics, in our politics, and, most importantly, in Christ."

The article continues with views from David Livermore and Robert Priest.  READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Innovation and Tradition

James K.A. Smith from Calvin College writes for Duke Divinity's Faith and Leadership about how innovation requires grounding in tradition if it is going to truly flourish.  The article is entitled, "Tradition for Innovation" and I guess I'm posting it because I really agree with the core of what he's saying.  Here are some of his thoughts:

        "The entrepreneurial independence of evangelical spirituality leaves room for all kinds of congregational startups that require little if any institutional support. Catering to increasingly specialized “niche” audiences, these startups are not beholden to liturgical forms or institutional legacies. Indeed, many proudly announce their desire to 'reinvent church.'”

         "If the church is going to send out 'restorers' who engage culture for the common good, we need to recover and remember the rich imaginative practices of historic Christian worship that carry the unique story of the gospel."

Smith also describes "many ways in which the liturgical tradition nurtures and replenishes the imagination:"

    "• Kneeling in confession and voicing “the things we have done and the things we have left undone …” tangibly and viscerally impresses upon us the brokenness of our world and humbles our own pretensions;

    • Pledging allegiance in the Creed is a political act -- a reminder that we are citizens of a coming kingdom, curtailing our temptation to overidentify with any configuration of the earthly city;

    • The rite of baptism, where the congregation vows to help raise a child alongside the parents, is just the liturgical formation we need to be a people who can support those raising children with intellectual disabilities or other special needs;

    • Sitting at the Lord’s Table with the risen King, where all are invited to eat, is a tactile reminder of the just, abundant world that God longs for."

Read the whole article here

This is the quote I wish I could have tweeted but it was past the character count.

"We cannot hope to re-create the world if we are constantly reinventing “church.” Instead, we will reinvent ourselves right out of the story. Liturgical tradition is the platform for imaginative innovation."

275,000 Meals Headed to the Horn of Africa

Last week we loaded a full shipping container of food (approximately 275,000 meals) into a truck to begin the journey to Kenya.  The food will be delivered to those who are tragically affected by the famine and civil wars that are happening in the Horn of Africa.  The meals were made possible through Youthfront's Something to Eat initiative in partnership with Jeremy Affeldt's Generation Alive (Spokane, WA) and Future Profits (Palo Alto, CA).  The article below was written by Youthfront staff member Austin Averill who directs our Something to Eat initiative.

 

On a bitter cold winter morning, I was more excited to wake up at four and head to work than I have ever been in my life. On this particular morning, I left the harsh Midwest weather behind with my co-workers Ray Zuercher and Mike King, President of Youthfront, to meet up with San Francisco Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt, Founder of Generation Alive, in Palo Alto, California. Why, might you ask, would a logistics guru, president of a non-profit organization, recent college graduate, and professional baseball player meet in “The Golden State?” I can think of no better reason than to facilitate a Something to Eat packaging event.

The next day, approximately 300 students flooded through the doors of Sequoia High School’s gymna- sium to package as many Something to Eat meals as possible. “Packing a meal” means measuring rice, soy protein, dried vegetables and a nutrient dense vitamin powder, pouring it all into a bag, and sealing it up. These meals then get packed into a box, which get stacked onto a pallet, which gets basically shrink- wrapped, then is shipped away to feed malnourished orphans. The meals from this particular event went to Kenya, though Youthfront sends meals to various places domestically and abroad.

However, orphans aren’t the only ones who get fed as the result of a Something to Eat event. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the spiritual formation aspect of meal packaging is just as important as the orphans we feed.

The youth who give up a Saturday in order to provide starving people with something to eat do so because they are hungry for justice. They recognize that something is wrong in the world and long to be a part of a solution. Something to Eat provides them with the opportunity to connect others’ physical hunger with their own spiritual hunger, with the hunger for justice and righteousness and the hunger to make the world more complete and more whole, more like the way that God intended.

The kids at Sequoia High were given “something to eat” in a different way every 30 minutes, at which point we paused the packaging for a moment of silence, as well as a short lesson about social justice, world hunger, and how we can have an effect on bringing redemption to this world.

In response to the Horn of Africa’s war and drought-induced famine, the students of Sequoia High raised several thousand dollars which allowed them to package nearly 130,000 meals to send another shipment to the needy.

These students by no means know wealth – and many of them are all too familiar with just the opposite of it. Yet they recognized that there are others in the world who are not only hungry, but who have it even worse than they do. This is what motivated those some might call “the least of these” to dedicate themselves to making the world a better place for someone else. They spread the word about the event, raised money for the raw materials that go into making a meal, and spent an entire Saturday wearing hair nets and packaging meals. THAT is why we do what we do at Youthfront – not for justice alone, but to see young people changed, liberated, transformed for the Kingdom of God.

What if?

What if every church and every ministry focused their mission on participating with God's mission through Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through these verses?

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

In the name of Jesus Christ who reigns with YOU and the Holy Spirit, ONE GOD, now and forever, we pray that we will participate with your mission of;

* Proclaiming Good News to the poor.

* Binding up the brokenhearted.

* Proclaiming freedom for the captives.

* Release of darkness for prisoners.

* Proclaiming the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God.

* Comforting those who mourn and provide for those who grieve.

* Bestowing a crown of beauty instead of ashes, oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

* Becomming oaks of righteousness displaying God's slendor.

* Rebuilding and restoring devastated and ruined cities.

God of the hopeless and the hopeful, hear these prayers that, we, as people filled with hope, may be your presence with those who are hopeless. Amen.

Missions as Pilgrimage

The Youthfront Book Shorts have been released by Barefoot Publications.  I served as Editor for this series.  The title I'm featuring today is Missions as Pilgrimage by Kurt Rietema. 

*The cool thing about this book short series is the fact that they are downloadable and can be reproduced by youth workers to engage in conversation with their volunteer staff for the purpose of training and shaping the ethos of the youth ministry of a church.

Kurt is a Christian thinker extraordinaire and a true author. A writer takes ideas and expresses them in articles, books, blogs, etc. An author is someone who originates ideas and concepts.

In Missions as Pilgrimage, Kurt helps us reorient the current thinking about short-term missions into something more biblical, sustainable, and transforma- tional. Kurt puts his heart and soul into all he does. His honesty reveals that he is not standing back, trying to enlighten all those who don’t get it. Kurt genuinely wrestles with what it means to be Christian in the deepest way, what it means to love God and truly love others. Rarely can I escape reading something Kurt has written without feeling genuinely convicted for the indifference that insidiously hides deep in my heart.

Missions as Pilgrimage challenges us to consider how we shape our young people in Christian formation through disorientation, spiritual practices, justice, and pilgrimage. Kurt helps us reshape our narratives to become enmeshed with God’s overarching narrative. I’ve seen the results of Kurt Rietema’s ministry. Kurt subverts the many narratives of the North American church that prevent our lives and the young people we minister to from being shaped in the cruciform life of Jesus Christ. Read this at the potential peril of your safe and comfortable life.

ORDER HERE

In what ways can youth ministry improve in the area of proclamation (kerygma)?

κήρυγμα, kérugma

The word kerygma is a transliteration of a Greek word that describes preaching and/or the content of preaching or proclaiming. In the first century, kerygma meant the proclamation by a herald who had an important announcement. The emerging church described in the book of Acts embraced this cultural tool.

In the New Testament framework, the kerygma is an announcement of divine action by God. It was in the context of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection that the kerygma received its mandate. The disciples discovered an empty tomb and later interacted with the resurrected Jesus Christ. They could not help but proclaim far and wide that Jesus Christ, who was born miraculously, lived sinlessly, proclaimed the kingdom of heaven was at hand, died sacrificially, arose from the dead victorious, and ascended into the heavens, is Lord.

In the simplest terms, our proclamation is “Jesus Christ is Lord.” In the fullest sense of proclaiming the good news, we declare that God is at work to redeem and restore the whole creation. There are many evangelicals who have unfortunately drawn the battle lines with a definition of proclamation that narrowly focuses on a particular view of atonement.

Youth ministry must move away from a proclamation ensnared by formulaic and one-dimensional soteriology. A kerygma that focuses solely on You’re a sinner who is going to hell but Jesus died for you so you can go to heaven if you ask Jesus into your heart is deficient in heralding the scope of truth contained in the great good news.

Our efforts to preach and proclaim the great good news seem warped when we start out with the emphasis that people are sinful and need to get saved so they can go to heaven when they die. Let’s herald the good news that starts with the reality that all human beings were created imago Dei (in the image of God). Let’s connect the imago Dei in our fellow human beings with the overarching story of God at work in the world. We should not start the story in Genesis 3 with the fall of humanity. We’ll get there soon enough. I meet few human beings who deny that they are broken.

For youth ministry to properly proclaim the great good news, we must embrace a high Christology. We must look to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God’s proclamation of good news. Also, I think it is critical that we embrace the whole of the Christ event—not just birth, crucifixion, and resurrection but also the words and teachings of Jesus.

I believe it is the responsibility of the church and of God’s people to always be on the lookout for demonstrations of God’s in-breaking kingdom, even when these acts come from outside the church and from non-Christians. When we see people and institutions cooperating with God, our proclamation should be to point it out and declare, “There it is!”

I wrote this post originally for Slant33

Ten times better?

Our Youthfront staff who serve in Mexico, along with our leadership staff have been thinking deeply about how we live and minister in Croc, Mexico.  For the sake of the integrity of the ministry happening year around in the community of Croc changes have been made that we believe will also more significantly impact the spiritual formation of North American young people who go there to serve.  Changing the "short-term missions" focus comes at the risk of not serving potential "consumer needs" of youth groups but we feel strongly about the integrity of this decision.  Below is an e-mail from Kurt Rietema, who oversees the Croc ministry, sharing an e-mail from a youth pastors feedback on the changes.    
Just wanted to pass this on to everyone to tell you what a great job our Mexico staff is doing.  This is from a youth worker who came alongside a group from Westside a couple of years ago and returned with his group at Shoal Creek.   
Kurt

Thank you for an incredible week in Croc.  Our students have come back with a greater appreciation of serving others, a greater understanding of the issues in Mexico, a deep love for the people and children they met, and having experienced the clear work of Christ in their midst.  Many of the kids have commented that they continue to pray for the children, are already making plans for returning next year, and have been positively overwhelmed by what they experienced.  But more importantly, they have been making changes in their lives back home; one of the student’s parents have already commented on how her daughter “has discovered a passion for God’s Word and daily journaling”.  That is exciting!

I greatly appreciate the changes in focus that Youthfront is making in how they are serving and partnering with the community of Croc.  Building houses may serve one family, but building a community through partnerships, micro-loans, church planting support, and teaching children will change this community for a lifetime, and hopefully allow more members of the community to discover Christ.  Our students loved the variety of activities they got to participate in, from working on the new campus, to teaching math, to workshops, and to swim lessons.  But the greatest experience came from just participating in the community and learning from them – the home visits, the church services, and even playing soccer with the men from the rehab center.  Pouring concrete will build a structure, but my students won’t remember that when they are adults – what they will remember will be the conversations and experiences they shared when the local community came together in worship, food, and celebration.  Our experience in Croc this year was ten times better than the last time we came, even though we never built a house…and I believe, it will be better for the Croc community as well.

I am very proud of our students and how they embraced the idea that they were there to learn, more than they were to teach.  Thank you for all your efforts in making this an incredible week of learning for our students, for listening to God in how to best serve this community, and for giving your lives to sharing the love of Christ. 

In Christ,

Eric A. Haynes

Shoal Creek Community Church