CIY Believe - Holland, MI

In a couple of hours, we'll be departing for a couple of days in Holland, Michigan at Believe.

This event is an incredible 30 hours of intentional middle school programming that is totally top shelf! (Check them out HERE!) They do an incredible job with worship, speakers and other presenters that bring it for middle school students.

I am so looking forward to this trip. It will certainly be a great one!

On the flipside, this is also my last trip with the FVCC students. So while this trip will be incredible, it will also be bittersweet for me.

I'm hoping to get a few photos up tonight!

Jim

CIY Believe is coming!!!

Sign ups started today for CIY Middle School Believe in Holland, Michigan. Here's a little glimpse of what the weekend looks like.

Jim

Check it out HERE

CIY Believe dialogue... again...

So last week, I started a bit of a dialogue with a buddy of mine in Georgia... who is way smarter than me (in fact I had to read his entry three times and think about it for four days to come up with something to post... especially since he stated that he would be looking for one).

You can find Nate's second post HERE.
And you can find my first post HERE.


Technology and Youth Culture
I agree with Nate on a couple of points. First off, are our students totally addicted their electronic gadgets? Yes. today I mailed in our registrations for CIY Believe's bigger brother program CIY Move (which is a weeklong version that spawned the weekend version for middle schoolers, if I have my CIY timing down). One of the features of this event in the past has been the expectation on CIY's part that we would not allow our students to keep any electronic gadgets that might distract from the week. This included cell phones, iPods, DVD players and others of the sort. Every year this elicits no small amount of whining, begging, pleading, scheming and attempting to keep electronics from well-meaning adults. (This every year requires me to threaten to EBay any electronics discovered after the deadline to ensure that we have collected them all... which I at this point haven't had to do.) But CIY threw us a curveball last year when they asked for students to bring their cell phones to a couple of sessions... not cool. Actually, it made all of the youth ministers who have abided by the expectations look like the youth minister equivalent of the "big bad wolf" in view of several youth minister who didn't.

Are Adults Any Better?
But here's my point. Are students addicted to their electronics? Absolutely! Are their adult counterparts any better? No way!

In fact, just a couple of nights ago I was hanging out with a group of folks from our church. In the midst of the conversation, one of the adults remarked that he had gotten a new cell phone and had joined the iPhone club (Yay!). He had a blackberry before, but had worn it out. Another of the adults commented that he had worn out the roller ball on his Blackberry three times. Granted, this individual is a business man and uses his phone a lot for business purposes. But furthermore, adults aren't much better at not being addicted to their little electronic drug. In fact, I would have to admit that I first read Nate's comments on my iPhone. And even now, I sit in Starbucks on my laptop using their free Wifi.

So, are students to blame for their electronic gadget addiction? Sure. But they are in part a product of their environment. Does that make them innocent? No. And should youth ministers be cautioning our students against the excesses of electronic addiction? Probably... but only realizing that some may be as bad as their teenage audience. (This youth minister might be in that later category... depending on who you ask...)

Now, this is in no way a condemnation of technology. I am quite possibly the biggest techie that I know. Just the other day, the worship minister at my church (who doesn't blog or twitter, so I have no way of introducing him to you if you don't already know him) and I were talking in the office about the potential benefits of Twitter in the worship service. This service/addiction isn't that difficult to figure out, but it still has many over the age of 40 scratching their heads. But I am a huge technie.

So to blame the students for their electronic addiction isn't exactly fair. Our soceity at a whole is addicted to their electronic leashes.

I'll kick it back in Nate's direction...

A Word of Caution
I do want to issue one word of caution that some have missed in the previous message. This dialogue is a friendly dialogue for the purpose of learning and growing and Kingdom advancement.

This is NOT a debate or an argument! It is a friendly discussion.

I received one comment on this thread that saught rather than adding to the conversation to rundown Mr. Gilmour's reputation as "worldly," "haughty," "lofty," and "self-endowed." This sort of commenting will not be tolerated. This is a friendly discussion between TWO kingdom workers... one in the youth ministry and one in the college classroom.

I would certainly have expected better from a member of the CIY group.

If you would like to impune the reputation of either Mr. Gilmour (which sounds way too formal, but we'll go with it) or myself, go and get your own blog and post over there. If you do choose to post over there on this topic, we'll read your postings and comment appropriately. Therefore, your comment (Mr. Jefferson) has been removed.


An Invitiation:
For everyone else... If you're following along and would like to comment, we (Nate and myself) would more than welcome your thoughts, insights and comments. But let's keep them civil.

Jim

CIY Believe dialogue...

It's been many years since my undergraduate education at Milligan. My time there was invaluable. Not just because of the education, but because of the friendships and worldview that I gained. I don't have any biological brothers... just a sister that I love to give a hard time to. But because of my time at Milligan, I gained several "brothers."

One of those is Nathan Gilmour.

He is seriously one of the smartest dudes that I know.

While most of us are still trying to figure out what we want to do with our lives and wondering if we will ever grow up, he was just named a Professor at Emmanuel College, in Georgia!! Seriously!!! I'm 32 years old and one of my best friends is a college professor!!! Wow!!!

We both have some serious experience in the world of youth ministry. As many of you know, who are faithful readers, I've been doing youth ministry fulltime as a career and a calling for nearly 10 years. Nathan, or Nate or Nate-dogg to me, has been doing it about as along as a volunteer. (Which may in many ways make his opinion worth more than mine... the outside opinion is usually the better one.)

Recently he attended a CIY Believe date in Georgia. And made some posts about his experience (HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE). I took issue with a few of his statements, in the sense of open dialogue and learning.

He posted my response HERE. Here's a snipet:
"I think a lot of what CIY does is try to grab their attention and hold it for long enough to share the message of the gospel, and I think they are trying to do it in a way that does a couple of things:
1. It ministers in a fresh way to kids who are Christians already (because don’t we all need a kick in the butt every once in a while when we get off track)
2. It opens the message up to those who have never heard it before.

In my group, for instance, two of my 18 were kids who had never been to church before. They came because their friends said, ‘You’ll like this… it will be fun.’ Now, have they gotten saved? Not yet… but who knows what seed has been planted in their hearts and minds?"

As I said, Nate is a smart, smart dude... way above my intellectual level. But we thought maybe we could have some open dialogue on some of the topics of students, church, worship, conferences and the such. This is NOT IN ANY WAY a "Nate is wrong and Jim is right" thing. This is an opportunity for dialogue, discussion and learning. Are there some things that youth ministry could do better at? Absolutely!! Let's talk about some of those things...

We welcome your input and participation.

Jim

Believe 08-09 - Theme for Leaders

Man... I love Believe. It's hard to imagine that they are getting ready to start another tour. We'll be taking our middle schoolers to Anderson, IN in April.

If you aren't taking your middle schoolers to this event, you are truly missing out. It's incredible.

Jim

Check out the video HERE

A Few Believe pics...

Here are a few pictures from the Believe weekend...

I didn't take too many. I forgot to grab my camera both days and only had my phone to take pictures with. My phone doesn't do a bad job... in fact, the pictures that it does take are pretty good. The only problem is that it doesn't have a zoom lens of any kind, so they are really far away. But here's what I've got...

This picture was of the main stage from our Friday night seats...





Laura and Shelby enjoyed the first night... They were all smiles...












Our seats on Saturday were off to one side. They were actually better seats than the first night for a couple of reasons... First, we were closer. Second, the seats were more comfortable to sit in.











There were about 3000 middle school students there over the weekend. When they turned the "crowd lights" on, it was a pretty incredible sight.







It was indeed an incredible weekend. I can't wait until Summer Conference in June and then Believe next year will be in April!!!

Jim

Believe was great!!!

I got back from CIY Believe this afternoon. Jackie and I returned the vans and then we both absolutely crashed on the couch and took a nap. We were both absolutely exhausted. In fact, right now, I am still currently exhausted. But we had an incredible trip!!!

Here a few highlights from the trip in my opinion:

• 18 incredible students who made the trip...
• 3 awesome adults... two of which had never been on a trip with me... but gave up their weekends to help our middle schoolers have a great time...
• several times of having conversations with students... maybe not memorable conversations... but "available" conversations...
• several memorable conversations that I will follow up on this week.
• hearing Kurt Johnston speak... Kurt always serves up the good stuff and keeps me wanting more...
• the worship was incredible... especially the painter... more on him later...
• we got through the entire weekend without having any major hotel issues... I always get a bit concerned putting students up overnight in a hotel. when we don't have a choice, it's one thing (like if we broke down), but with this kind of event, I'm always a little bit concerned that someone will sneak out or someone will break something or whatever...
• no major road problems... broken down vans, flat tires, etc, etc...
• great times of relationship building that will be remembered for years to come.
  

One of the best things about an event like this... and it happened several times this weekend... is the next year hearing students saying "Remember when..." this happened... or "Remember what ..." that guy did. That's one of the best parts of doing a trip like this where go do a similiar type thing every year.

I find myself already looking forward to next year... but especially to Summer Conference with our high schoolers in late June. More on that later.

Jim

Kurt Johnston rocked the house tonight!!!

It was a pleasant surprise to walk into Believe tonight and see Kurt Johnston... Saddleback's Junior High guy.

I regularly read Kurt's blog and throughly enjoyed listening to him tonight. He talked about how God wants to "connect" with us... and how God wants to connect with "each of us." I have always enjoyed hearing Kurt teach and knew that he was on the docket to possibly teach, but didn't realize that he was actually going to be here.

It was good. I understand... because he teaches middle schoolers... but in both cases I found myself wanting more. But I guess that's one of the marks of a good speaker...

Jim

CIY Believe this weekend!!!

I'm really excited.

This weekend we're (my wife and two other volunteers) are taking a group of middle schoolers to Believe in St. Charles, MO (outside of St. Louis). I'm really looking forward to this weekend for a couple of reasons.

First, it's always an incredible relational time with the students who go. Of course, in the youth ministry world, it's a trip. Trips are always great opportunities to build relationships. Times in the van... times eating... times hanging out... times having conversations that can't be planned out or scripted, but instead just happen.

Second, the Believe program is always incredible. I always find myself being challenged by the worship, the speakers and the videos. As a 30 year old... almost 31 year old... youth worker, I still need challenged and encouraged and the Believe program always delivers for me.

So... I hope to post some pictures of the weekend here. It should be a blast and a lot of fun. But, now I should get back to getting ready to be gone and not blogging...

Jim