Several times in our lunch I got a little overwhelmed with God’s goodness and how thankful I am for a team to work with.  To this end, there are 3 main things that we’re doing as a whole generations team to connect that have all proved super worth it.

GENERATION VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION/TRAINING MEETINGS:  So far they’ve been twice a year.  Once in January to kick off a new season after the holidays and once in August to restart the fall after our summer slows down.  We meet after church on Sunday for 90 minutes.  We provide lunch, encouragement, laughter, celebration, information, and training in small bits during this packed program. They each have proved to be so worth our effort and a great reminder that our “own area” is not the only place people are serving at JCC.

GENERATION PAID STAFF TEAM MEETINGS: I meet with our kids ministry team on Wednesday and our student ministry team on Tuesday each week and about 4x a year I meet with all of them together.  In our weekly meetings we sometimes gather over java, talk about the week ahead and the weekend before, and talk about anything down the road that we need to be collaborating on.  In our all-team meetings, we share about our lives, enjoy a meal, and spend several hours mapping out values, events, long term plans, and vision.

GENERATION FAMILY EVENTS:  These are geared largely towards our high school and below, but we’ve been doing some family events that are super kid friendly.  So far we’ve landed on this schedule:

• Mid November:  Generous Family Night celebration where families come to worship, enjoy a teaching or skit, and then serve a family in need together through various hands on experience stations.
• Weekend after Easter:  Family Fun Day. We sell lunch, provide jumpy houses and carnival rides, do a fund raiser by selling donated goods and services in a silent auction.  The funds raised go to offset the cost of camps and retreats and provide a great after service event for families at our church too.  
• Spring: Help Us Help You community service day where families can pay to have our students come and do yard work at homes.  We’ve also done garage sales and car washes in tandem with this day, but this year I think we’re doing yard work only.   We take teams of 6 students and 2 adults.  They do two shifts of two hours each and are paid $150 or higher for their time.  Families get some Spring cleaning done and we raise funds again to offset cost of camps for students.
• Mid to late July:  Summer Fun Camp.  This is a “vbs” replacement of sorts.  We do a 1/2 day camp from 9 to 2 for a week where kinder-5th grade kids are connected with high school counselors and enjoy a fun and encouraging program with day trips to various afternoon locations around our community. Fun way for many of our generations team to work together for a common goal. 

Maybe you love goal setting.  Maybe you despise it.  Regardless of how they make us feel, my experience says, not much happens without a goal. Not many people end up with a job they did not work hard for; or a degree they did aim for; or a great marriage they did not focus specific energy on.  The age old adage is true.  “If you aim for nothing, don’t be surprised when you get nothing.”

Sadly, as a youth pastor, I think most teens today have a reputation for not doing much with their lives.  I personally don’t want anything to do with raising up a generation of apathetic young adults or perpetuate the myth that teens cannot do GREAT things with their lives TODAY!  We could surely do a whole series of blog posts on motivation and helping teens find one worth living for.  But for today, let’s just agree that a chief indicator of healthy and purposeful living among anyone- teens included- is clear goals.  Goal setting, when done right, is a great destroyer of pointless living.

So on Wednesday morning as I ran on our treadmill to try and keep my focus clear on my goals of physical fitness that I’ve set for myself, I heard this story on the Today show about Jordan Romero– a 15 year old young man who on Christmas Eve 2011 became the youngest to ever climbed the 7 highest peaks on the all 7 continents.  As I listened to his story and interview, it was such a clear no-brainer lead-in to a discussion on goals with students that I went searching for it and then showed it in our small groups on Wednesday night.

After students watched Jordan’s story, we then read some scripture and dove into these questions in small groups that you can download here and have for free.  Go ahead and steal them and use them for your own students.

You can also have the student scripture and goal worksheet I passed out too if you want.  You can download that here as well.

Now let’s go out and kick apathy in the teeth and fight with Jesus to raise up a generation of passionate people who sincerely love God, fight for justice, and live radically for the Kingdom of God on purpose… setting their sites on some God-honoring clear goals for 2012.

I went to a funeral a while back where one of those giving a eulogy said this about the man who had died, “His eternity started today.”

I understand it.  I just don’t believe it.

No, not like I don’t believe in eternity. I just no longer believe it starts when you die.  There is this idea in the church and the Bible that Jesus came to give us eternal life.  This means that when your heart stops pumping blood, your soul can keep on going in the presence of God.  This idea is central to the Biblical narrative.  However, what is not central is the idea that this begins at death.  I think Jesus came to give us LIFE and life to the fullest.  NOT only when one dies.  But TODAY.

Jesus famously said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  I don’t think he meant in like 70 years after a long happy life. I think he meant now.

Now that I’m working with Generation ministries at JCC, I spent a lot of time at the Christmas Eve services around the parent check-in area and working in several of the kids ministry rooms as a volunteer.  One of my learnings was just how many people truly come to our church once every 4-6 months and still consider this “their church”.   I know this because when checking kids in, there were quite a few people who had no idea how our “new” check in system worked.  The system is 4 months old!

This also happened when we put the new system in.  For months afterwards we were still getting first timers to the system who were not first timers to our church.

No, I don’t think going to church is the litmus test for what being a Christ follower is all about.  But I do think that a lot of people are holding out for Jesus to be their Savior at death and missing the point in life.  Most aren’t missing church cuz they’re engaging Jesus in their days elsewhere passionately and don’t need this community of faith.  As I work with students and families, my goal is not to help them get ready for death. It’s to challenge and join them in a better way of life that alters the hope they have both in this life and the life to come.

Living like Jesus is not about he afterlife. It’s about life.

If our message is that the gospel is a post death reality, then it’s no wonder people are not interested in following Jesus.  It’s for dead people.  Dallas Willard eloquently said once that, “the gospel is not about getting people to heaven after they die.  It’s about getting them there before they do.”  I think he’s right.

It’s time to bring some heaven to earth in us.  Today!

Last year at this time I spent the month of January trying to lead into a new me.

• I blogged for 5 days a week for 6 months straight. 
• I started a new reading plan
• I started a new exercise plan
• I started a new financial plan 
• I started a new neat freak stage and declared war on flat surfaces- trying to stack nothing on the floor or tables and such.
• I started a lot of stuff really… 

.. and all through our pad,
No kid was stirring, so the parents were glad
The stockings were waiting for santa to load
And I praised God were were past toy building mode

The dog was cuddled up all tight in a ball
While visions of rabbits danced in the hall
And mom on facebook, and dad on his blog,
We had nothing to do, but several hours to log

Out on the lawn there was a deer all lit up
As I sat by the window, my kahlua coffee to sup
It’s clear that December is full of the good and the bad,
Sometimes we laugh, and sometimes we’re sad

Today was a mixture of both types of those things
One of those days where I wish I had wings.
Wings to fly high up in the sky
Ask God to clear up the why

Why do good people suffer? What should I do with the past?
Why do I work so hard for the things that don’t last?
I’d ask God this and a long list of more
but honestly, all of it makes my thinker get sore

So on this Eve of that day God came here
I’m reminded how desperately I still need him near
When God is distant, my world goes amuck
My heart needs God’s HOPE, or I’m eternally stuck.

Merry Christmas friends.

In the midst of your busy and crazy lives, for those who will laugh and for those who will cry, I’m praying that this year we all experience some God given joy and a peace on earth that can be only found in GOD IS WITH US moments.   Oh Emmanuel, we still need you. I surely do.