Tag: harbor church

  • Ah, ministry to students…

    Before Thursday night, I had spoken to exactly zero groups of high school or middle school students in the past school year. None. Zip. Zilch. For the most past that was intentional. I needed a break.That part of my life felt tired when I left Romeo. The grind of preparing 1-2 talks per week, year after year, really does wear you down. I was also feeling the type of exhaustion that lead me to say repeatedly, “I’m qualified to lead and teach, just too tired.” I’ve been especially thankful to the leadership of our church for being patient with me. They’ve allowed me the freedom to rest!

    So when Chris from Harbor asked me to host and teach his group of summer interns I was a little apprehensive. I always felt rusty after taking a vacation… how would I feel after taking a year off? Plus, I didn’t know any of the students so I couldn’t lean on relationship. Ah, the excuses I had created in my mind for failure!

    It all went great. Kristen completely rocked the hosting part. She made lasagna and salad… keeping it simple always seems to work best. The house was ready, the kids seemed to have a good time. 25 smiling faces when they came, while they were here, and when they left. Success! The only little bump was Stoney getting frisky with some guests. But that’s completely in character for him! The talk part went pretty smooth. If I had practiced a couple of times I wouldn’t have needed my notes at all and I would have had a better feel for some of the material. But I think I maintained their attention and the whole thing was pretty fun. (I was relieved that they actually did the discussion part… I never know how that’ll go.) Hopefully, I gave them something memorable, something worth thinking about, and something applicable to their service when they lead camp next week.

    As I’ve shared, the last year has really jacked with my identity in a good way. Switching from a full time role where my ministry was primarily to students and their parents to a role where I interact with a lot of youth leaders but not a lot of students… it’s given me a chance to think a lot about who I really am in Christ. Am I my work? Is my ministry outside the home more important than inside? What is it like to not be labeled “pastor” anymore? One thing Thursday night reminded me of… I was made to work with high school students. I can do a lot of other things at a high competency. And for this season of my life I am perfectly comfortable not working with high school students vocationally. Yet, this was a reminder that I need to be more intentional and giving in volunteering my service to high schoolers. I’ve got to figure that part. Reality tells me that I don’t have oodles of time. But reality also  tells me that something will be incomplete if I don’t find 3-4 hours per week to do something with high school students.

    That’s what I’m thinking about this Saturday morning. Now off to the beach so Stoney can hump his own kind.

  • Spike that weekend football

    Sometimes good weekends come unexpectedly. This past weekend was one of them.

    Coming into the weekend was cool because I am finally feeling good about my Monday-Friday workload. The first few weeks after YS’s re-organization I just had a hard time relaxing. There was so much to do! (Or so it felt) A lot of that has settled into routine so I can really, truly, chill on weekends.

    Friday afternoon I took advantage of a whole in my schedule and took Kristen on a little mid-afternoon date. We went to a little beach bar for some pub grub and took a walk on the beach. It was the perfect way to kick things off even though we had to cut it short so I could get back to work and Kristen could get the kids from school.

    Saturday morning Kristen got up at the buttcrack of dawn and climbed Cowles Mountain. This is an important part of her weekend routine. When she came back Paul and I took the dog to Ocean Beach for a little chase the ball and Stoney sniff butt time. Dog pack rules are fascinating to me, but that’s for another post. After we had been at the beach for a while I got a call from Mandy, who is new to YS and lives in the Ocean Beach neighborhood. She and her husband, Jon, came over for a while and we caught up while Paul built the Great Wall of China. An amazing feat.

    After the beach trip we came home and I fell asleep watching golf on TV. About an hour and a half later Paul jumped on me and said, “Let’s go to the beach!” Since it was a perfect weather day I couldn’t resist that. Really, we went to the beach and frolicked in the sand to honor our friends who were shovelling snow, sandbagging, or otherwise being tortured by an early Spring blast of cold weather. We splashed around Coronado beach for a few hours. The kids played in the sand while Kristen and I waded up to our ankles in the cold water looking for sand dollars. We came home, got some carry out from a taco shop, and everyone crashed before 9 PM.

    Sunday continued the fun. We did our normal donut routine in the morning, headed to church, and came home for lunch. After lunch we went to the Rolando Village street fair and got a better feel for our neighborhood. When the kids had eaten too much cotton candy and mom/dad had seen all the crafts, we headed home.

    From there, I took off to meet-up with Dave from work. Dave had arranged for us to do a podcast shoot with the guys from Family Force 5 before their San Diego show at the House of Blues. That was a blast, I got some cool footage of the band. What they had to say was a little bit goofy, but a lot important to youth workers. Later, we headed over to the show. I’m used to Christian shows… so this one was a bit wilder than I expected. About 1000 screaming and sweaty high school kids, mostly girls, filled the club for the 5 act show. We got there for the 2nd act, The Maine. They were good… clearly I’m old since I have no clue who they are. But they had a fun sound. It always cracks me up that high school kids can’t remember to do their homework but know every word to every song. If it weren’t for the annoying habit of them walking up to a mic and just saying random cuss words between songs… I probably would have liked them more. “S**t yeah. How are you mother F**kers, tonight?” Again, showing my age.

    Family Force 5After a little swap out of equipment, Family Force 5 took the stage. If you’ve never seen them, they have an incredible energy. I was given a photo badge so I could take some shots for the bands DCLA appearance. As I snapped pictures stageside I could literally “feel the heat” from the crowd who was mashed up against the barriers. I’ve seen them perform before in Christian venues… same songs, same intensity, ten times the energy. Dancing, bouncing, screaming the words. Makes a geek like me wish I had chosen to be a rock star. This band will light up the stage in DC this July.

    After their set, Dave and I headed home. We’re old people… two acts and we’re done! I caught up on some sports news… congrats to Tiger Woods on his comeback victory after knee surgery. Super congrats to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. If ever a state needed something to cheer for, it’s this weekend in Detroit.

    Great weekend. Lots of good stuff cooking for this weekend as well.

  • Christmas in the City

    Yesterday our church hosted an event called Christmas in the City. It was one of the most unique expressions of God’s love I’ve ever witnessed.

    We are an unashamedly urban ministry. Situated in City Heights, a diverse working poor community, we reach out to the neighborhood in ways that just wouldn’t work in the suburbs. This is a great example.

    How it works

    The organization that actually presents Christmas in the City [er, I forgot what it’s called!] encourages church, schools, and businesses to give toys in a way that is very similar to Toys for Tots or Operation Christmas Child. Additionally, previous year’s proceeds go to purchase more toys.

    On the day of the event volunteers from all over come to to create a store, checkout areas, and wrapping stations for the presents. Additionally, our church set-up some play areas, snacks, live music and activities for shoppers and their kids to enjoy while parents shopped.

    This is where the line comes in. Since they’ve done this event for a few years people in the city know and depend on the sale to buy gifts for their kids. So think of this line a lot like a Black Friday line. People literally showed up at 7:00 AM for this event… which started at 12:30 PM. Thankfully, this was more civilized than a typically line at Wal*Mart.

    When the store opens, gifts are sold at 10-20% of retail prices. ($2, $5, or $10) The idea behind Christmas in the City is that they don’t just want to hand parents a random gift to give to their children for free. While that is nice and many organizations do that, this is different in that they allow parents to choose some gifts for each of their children and also give them the ability to buy presents for their kids. The hope is that by doing it this way they can help the working poor while helping the recipents maintain their pride and dignity. They chose the gift. They bought it with their own money.

    How did it go?

    I had read about this type of event in community development books. So I had some idea that there would be a big line, that there would be a lot of toys, that there would be a lot of smiles.

    I guess I wasn’t prepared for the volume. On a typical Sunday our church has 150-200 attendees. (About half non-English speaking, the other half English speaking.) There were at least that many who were in line to come to the Christmas shop. Tons of different ethnic background, tons of different stories, tons of people helped.

    Another thing I wasn’t prepared for was that we’d have to turn people away. I know the need is great out there… but I never presumed that we wouldn’t have enough gifts for those who would come. We could have easily sold twice as much stuff! Now that I know how it goes I think I’ll have to do a better job promoting how people can get involved.

    I’m still getting the pictures and video together. I will share that when I have it all ready.