Christmas Shopping

So I made a decision this year to buy only fair trade and/or "giving" gifts, and I want to encourage you to do the same as much as possible. Fair trade is more popular in the UK than in America, I realize, but I bought several fair trade gifts from The Hunger Site (breastcancersite, rainforestsite, etc) that are really great gifts. I know that if you search online you can find places to purchase fair trade gifts from...plus it's super easy to just make the purchase from your computer and have it shipped to you...don't have to deal with the crowds or lines or anything. I got in a shipment from Traidcraft in England, and the things I purchased are so great-great quality and beautiful items-I think I'm going to have trouble parting with some, and may have to order a couple of things for myself. The reason I find it so important to buy fair trade is because of the way it supports less fortunate people by allowing them to actually use their talents and abilities to produce a great product, which is bought at a fair trade value, and the workers are able to be paid fairly and build a better future for themselves. What a great way to spend your money! When I said "giving" gifts earlier, I was referring to those gifts that you are able to purchase through World Vision or other organizations that are given to a child or family in need...such as a goat, some chickens, sending a child to school for a year, child immunizations, clean water, fruit trees, etc. There are many, many options and many different levels of cost, so you are able to spend what you want. It is INCREDIBLE what a difference these gifts make in these peoples lives. We are all so blessed and well taken care of, so I encourage you as you purchase gifts this Christmas, to really consider giving gifts that will help others, rather than gifts that will just sit at someone's house or be of no real use, just for the sake of giving a gift. This is one way that we can be of help to people in need.

Amendment to "Rear-Ending"

I forgot to include some very important information in my previous car story. Interestingly enough, the only car "incidents" that I have been involved in before the roundabout love tap, were all in car parks. I have put 2 large dents in 2 different vehicles when parking. The first was my stepdads massive truck, which I always referred to as "big rig." I was parking in between 2 poles and the hit the pole on one side of the massive truck. It was a four door diesel, what do you expect? I was a senior in high school at that time. Then when I was a senior in college, I was parking my little camaro-Cherry-in the school parking garage because I was about to be late for class...let me just say that I almost never drove to the school, I always walked, but it was like the last day of school and I was in a rush, so I happened to be parking at the school...anyway there was only 1 spot left in the whole place, and it happened to be between a pole and another car that was parked on the line. I hit the pole and put quite a nice dent, with white paint to accent, on the side of the car. The other incident was not my fault, but was in the church parking lot of the church I attended during my freshman year of college. I was leaving the parking lot and this kid from the youth group decided to cut through some empty spots and ran right into the side of Cherry. She's been through a lot. Anyway, he put a big dent in it and it was completely his fault. Went through all this insurance stuff, but the kid lied and so nothing happened to help me out. I was mad. He was in the youth group! What a punk. Anyway, when we called his mom, she didn't even know about it, cause he was in her car and hadn't even told her. Her car was fine, that's why he didn't tell her. But don't you think that if he was honest and it wasn't his fault, he would have told her to just let her know!! He didn't tell her because it was his fault and he didn't want to get in trouble. What a mess that was. Anyway, that's all for now.

Rear Ending

So on Tuesday my friend April was rear-ended when getting onto the Motorway. It's really crazy busy in the morning, lots of traffic, and the lady behind her hit her and then waved her on. She went on and then wasn't able to get the woman's info, which was unfortunate. So that was bad day #1. On Wednesday morning as she headed to work a different way, (wanted to stop by Starbucks) a car a couple of cars ahead of her had to quickly stop, and then the one in front of her quickly stopped, and she wasn't able to stop in time-so she rear-ended that car, which then hit the one in front of it. The front car had like no damage, the second had a little I believe, and hers was totalled. Her car is the car I used to drive, affectionately known as Darla. It's sad to know that Darla is now dead. Anyway, there are many other details involved that made the whole thing even worse, and poor April was pretty distraught about it all. She's only been here like a month and a half, and driving in the UK is quite an adjustment. It can be stressful, especially with the RIDICULOUS amounts of traffic. So anyway, back to Wednesday. She spent a lot of time on the phone with insurance trying to get everything worked out. Our secretary, Penny, got her lined up with a different car to use the following day. So we left work that afternoon and she was riding with me. We were in the car driving along talking about her last two days of suckiness. She was talking about how she has NEVER in 9 years of driving, had any kind of accident. Perfect record. So we're chatting away and we come up to the roundabout. There is one car in front of me and I'm looking to the right to see when it's clear for us to go. Well, it's clear, so I'm thinkin the guy in front goes ahead, and I give a little gas. But no, he hadn't moved. So I love tapped him. I mean I barely touched the guy. But let me say that I started laughing hysterically! Both of us did, because it was just so ridiculously funny! I mean, come on! How could that happen?? It's just plain funny, you gotta laugh. When choosing between laughing and crying, I choose laughing. Release some endorphins and feel better!

Jesus Isn't Cool

This is an article I just read on my friend Erin's blog. She is also a youth worker, living in Bonn, Germany and working at an American church there. I think this is an excellent article that speaks my heart as I work with this generation of youth. Everything about the youth I work with and about our youth group is different from my own youth group and my youth years. Our youth group was less "fun" and more focused on worshiping God. It was real and we appreciated it for what it was and for what our youth minister made it. It was centered on God-and that was fun for those involved. We didn't play lots of games, but truth was taught there and lives were challenged and changed. I often find it very difficult to make church stuff fun and cool...and to make it something that kids really want to join in on and don't want to miss. It's no easy task and sometimes can be taken personally when certain kids aren't coming and things like that. It's also hard because there are always pressures...people want to see the numbers grow, we want more kids involved, we want to be relating to more kids and telling more kids about Christ and about a new life in Him. But I do not believe in watering down the Truth or making youth group just a fun thing, with no real emphasis on the scriptures. I believe that Jesus stepped on people's toes, he confronted sin, he dealt with issues, but he also encouraged people and changed things; and he did it all in love. That's all I hope to do.

Jesus Isn't Cool by Chanon Ross

Cramming more than 50 high school students into a small room for weekly Bible study is challenging, but getting them to talk about sex is not. When the questioning hand of one 15-year-old boy shot up in the back of the room, I braced myself. "Is masturbation a sin?—I really gotta know."
I was proud of him, but not for his honesty and openness. Talking explicitly about sex is easy for MTV-watching teens. Using a word like sin is much harder. As Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, authors of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, observe, few teens think seriously about theologically explicit words like resurrection, redemption, sanctification and sin.
Smith and Denton's findings beg for a response from those working in youth ministry. They describe teens as "incredibly inarticulate" about their faith, and they say mainline teens are "among the least religiously articulate of all teens." Most Christian teens are "at best only tenuously Christian," having confused Christianity with "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism."
Given this state of affairs, what does effective youth ministry look like? We must help teens think about, practice and experience the theological details that make Christianity distinct.
A recent encounter with a pair of street preachers in our gentrified, suburban downtown illustrates one such important detail.
"Turn from Hell! Believe in Jesus!" said the huge sign held by a man whose booming voice reiterated this refrain to hundreds on crowded sidewalks. His younger partner on the opposite corner shouted equally obnoxious phrases.
"What do you think of them?" I asked one of my high school students.
"I don't like it when people are too religious," she said, visibly irritated by the preachers. Her comment suggested she is one of the many teens who described themselves as "religious but not too religious" to Smith and Denton.
"What does 'too religious' mean?" I prompted.
After several attempts at being more descriptive she concluded: "Well you know what I
mean . . ."
"No, what do you mean?" My unwillingness to appease her annoyed her a little.
"I guess it's just not my thing," she said, as if it was a matter of consumer preference.
"It's not a very good way to attract non-Christians," she suggested.
"What is a good way?" I asked."
I just think they should be a lot nicer about it," she said. "They're sort of offensive."
"Right, sort of offensive," I said. "Like when Jesus preached his first sermon and made everyone so mad they tried to kill him. He was, like, sort of offensive. You know what I mean . . ."
It turned out, she did not know what I meant. She knew Jesus was no bombastic street preacher, but this new detail challenged her previous conception and invited her to rethink her image of Jesus as someone who would "go along to get along." Her furrowed brow revealed a storm of mental dissonance—the hard thinking that precedes theological insight. Perhaps there was more to Jesus than she thought.
We often fail to help teens think carefully about their faith and about the details of scripture, worship and Christian practices. Getting kids to like church is itself an accomplishment, and parents want ministers to succeed at that. Not surprisingly, Smith and Denton describe youth ministers as under great pressure to keep kids entertained.
One common strategy involves front-loading youth programming with fun activities, hoping to sneak in a little Bible teaching at the end. The point is not to do anything too weighty that would turn kids off. Keep it light; keep it fun. Large youth events, like Christian concerts, appeal to youth ministers with their ability to entertain kids while simultaneously conveying a positive, family-friendly alternative to things like MTV. This stuff works to a degree: as Smith and Denton show, "religion actually does influence positive outcomes" and religious teens tend to do better than nonreligious teens.
But teens don't need Jesus to be crucified and raised from the dead to have positive outcomes and pursue family friendly alternatives to MTV. Values like being positive, encouraging and tolerant are already widely available in the culture. When kids realize this, and many do, they struggle to articulate the difference that faith makes. It didn't surprise me that many teens told Smith and Denton, "I guess it'll be more important when I'm older."
One student I know didn't want to wait to know this difference, so he participated in his church's "40 Days of Purpose" campaign, hoping that an exploration of Rick Warren's popular book The Purpose Driven Life would help. Instead, he reached this conclusion: "I don't understand why you need God for a sense of purpose, self-esteem, or whatever . . . lots of people have that without God." This young man was onto something.
Religion may help teens find a sense of purpose, stay focused on schoolwork, avoid drugs, drive responsibly, and so on. These are good and important things and they are all part of the "religious package," but they are not the point. They are like the paper bag you get for free if you buy the groceries.
Christian faith takes root and begins to matter to teens when they discover the difference the details make. In the Christian story, we discover a fiercely loyal God who creates, loves, lives, dies, lives again, and calls teens into the passionate grace of the baptized life. That is something teens can get excited about and sink their teeth into, but these details are available only in the Christian story as told in the Bible and creeds. Seeing these details alive in the lives of other baptized people ignites youthful passion in teens more than any youth event or personal sense of purpose ever could. Living these details of the gospel is not supposed to be easy, or necessarily safe, but it's what Christians do.
That Christianity is not supposed to be easy is another important detail that distinguishes Christianity from Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. "The God of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is not demanding," say Smith and Denton. "Actually, he can't be because his job is to solve our problems and make people feel good. In short, God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist."
A few months ago a confirmation teacher asked to meet with me. "Can I talk to you about an issue we're having with one of our students?" Immediately I imagined a long list of possible teenage offenses. "Is the student disruptive?" I asked. "Well, sort of," she said. "The student keeps saying, 'This is too easy; it must be the easiest religion in the world.'" In light of that comment I had to wonder if the confirmation program was teaching Christianity or Moralistic Theraputic Deism.
Twice each year, I take two busloads of high school students on retreats at which they worship, walk labyrinths, talk in small groups with adults who care about them, and "hang out" in Christian community. Upon arrival, low-cut jeans, exposed mid-riffs and tight tank tops were exchanged for hooded sweatshirts and sweat pants. The girls breathe more easily, the burden of being cool and sexy having been lifted from their shoulders. This doesn't happen because of an imposed dress code. It's their idea. Youth group is a different community. The usual social hierarchies have no traction here, because this is Sabbath time. Here everything begins and ends with prayer, and the distinct message of the gospel permeates everything. "Hear and believe the Good News," I say to them, "Jesus is not cool."
Teens respond to the message that their faith offers an alternative to the world. But this realization requires a community of adults who embody this difference. Explaining that life in the Body of Christ is different is insufficient. Adults must show how to live this difference. Where are the adults and trained ministers capable of leading youth and their parents into the particular story of God's work in the world?
Good youth pastors are difficult to find. Seminaries do not usually encourage their students toward youth ministry, and most young pastors avoid youth ministry like the plague. Church members and older pastors think of youth ministry as "entry-level" work, which only encourages younger clergy to climb the ladder toward something worth their time. Besides, youth ministry is hard. I lose more battles than I win.
After a particularly difficult night, I shared my struggles with a young woman interested in becoming a youth minister. "I'm not sure you want to get into this," I said. "There are other things you could do." She sat in a moment of stunned silence. Then she told me about her college years.
"My faith was no match for college," she said. "Youth group was fun, but no one taught me anything." She recalled those years marked by drugs, broken relationships, an eating disorder, sex, pregnancy and eventually abortion. Finally, with tear-filled eyes, she said, "Don't you see? If I had grown up in a youth group like yours, I would have had a fighting chance."

Stockholm, Sweden

Last week we took a bunch of high schoolers to Stockholm for an International Church retreat. We headed out Wednesday and returned Sunday. We (myself, April-coworker, Andy-other youth worker, and Greg-pastor) took 16 kids. It was awesome. There were kids from Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Bonn Germany, Oslo, The Hague in Amsterdam, Berlin -- I think that's about it. Most of the kids are American, but some have hardly lived in America at all. Some were from different African countries too, which was cool. The retreat was great-the theme was 24/7-Love God Love People-Nothing Else Matters-24 hours a day 7 days a week. Had talks on following Jesus, love, justice, wilderness, and unity. Good stuff. So Thursday we had a free day all day until we had to be at the church at 5 or 6, so the girls went to lunch and shopping after the whole group had gone to the Vasa museum. The Vasa is this MASSIVE viking ship that was built in like 1625-28 and sank on its maiden voyage. Didn't even make it out of Stockholm actually. Then it was pulled up some 300 years later in the 1950's! This thing was crazy huge, unbelievable. Anyway, shopping was fun, but Sweden is expensive!
Stockholm is so beautiful-the city is set over 14 islands, so you get lovely water views all over the place. My favorite part of Stockholm was Gamla Stan-Old Town. It was gorgeous! Tons of little narrow roads flooded with cafes and shops. Reminded me of Italy and France. The cafes were cool-you could go downstairs and they would have these seating areas that were sort of like cellars-bricked and sort of arch shaped, if that makes sense. I don't know how to describe it all! Friday all of the groups were broken up into mixed groups to play The Amazing Race, all over Stockholm. That was fun! If you've seen the show, you know what I'm talkin about. We were racing from place to place finding clues and doing little "roadblocks" (random things the team had to do before we could get the next clue). We got to use the buses and underground there, and the underground was really nice. Nicer than London's underground! Saturday we had more free time, so again the girls were shopping, but this time in Old Town. Other than that we spent a lot of time at the church for the sessions, and there was a mean game of Spoons (card game) going on every night during free time. I would like to say that I am a Spoons champion-only once defeated, but even then I got down to the top 2. Oh, I also am a ping pong hero-I went down to play ping pong on the last night-so I breezed in and beat everyone there and then left. It was short and sweet. But I beat this kid twice and then I felt bad so I left instead of playing him again. So I have found the 2 talents that I have-ping pong and Spoons. I'm not musically or artistically gifted, but at least I can hold my own in these two games! So that pretty much sums up our time in Stockholm. I would definitely enjoy another trip there, maybe in the summer.