Brick By Brick The days are starting to pile up with commitments and things to do – which is part of the joy and the stress of the season. Saturday was spent at the one day ‘vision & direction’ leadership day for church.
We were presented with a Circle of Discipleship, a youth ministry application of the church-wide acronym S-E-R-V-E (Spiritual Formation, Evangelism, Relationships, Volunteerism, Excellence), a Pyramid of Focus, the 4321 Term Ratio in regards to the youth ministry. All this within a 5 year plan. It was then broken down into sections of focus and our feedback was offered in a variation of “identify strengths/identify weaknesses/identify possible solutions or additions”.
It’s a structure that’s built on some solid principles, but the overwhelming questions that each discussion group I was in eventually centred around was the character, flavour, surprise and flexibility of community & people. So perhaps it was just that I carried my own loud voice into each discussion, but perhaps it is also true that within this structure and picture of tomorrow – there is also a desperate need for breathing spaces. For people who are not followers of Jesus to find places of belonging and peace within our community.
More than anything, I want to remind our new leaders – that 5 year plans are not the key to success. Perhaps sticking at it for 5 years is the way to ‘succeed’ – but a community that didn’t flex, grow, shake and outgrow it’s structure over the space of five years – isn’t really embracing the fullness of their humanity, nor the divinity at work amongst them.
So – here’s to patience and remembering again, that whether you succeed or fail, it’s worth busting out of the starting blocks with good people alongside you. People who make you laugh and bring mirth into your life.
If I close my eyes and slow my breathing down, I can hear the wind blowing through the desert, on my way past Julian. It’s a small mountain town famous for apple pie, best served warm with cinnamon icecream made the old fashioned way. The temperatures changes by vast degrees regardless if you’re measuring in fahrenheit or centigrade. The fall of the hill down to the east takes you into flat, wide open spaces where the sun beats down the day. You can pull up on the side of the hill and listen for a minute full before the rushing wind falls quiet enough to let you hear the desert breathe.
Eventually with all things good, the road runs out of turns that thrill and you cast your eyes back over the hill through Julian once more. You can stop for gas at a tiny store, buy beef jerky and bottled water for the road with crumpled dollars and counted out dimes. Climbing through 2000ft past the lakes with signs forbidding stopping before you know you’re back into the skylines filled with power lines. There are fences to the left and to the right, burnt out scars with blackened bark. The silhouette of trees that stood through fires that died before I knew this road.
I like the West Coast when facing east, it seems so warm and full of intrigue. Discovery is my good friend, the radio on silent once we hit the bends of roads that climb and curve away and through new places learned. This is all I think of when I close my eyes. I think next year, when I fly away I’m coming back to roam again through mountaintops and desert plains, to feel the heat and keep the wind.
Community Worked. Had a very inspiring lunch with one of the girls from my old group today. Even though it’s only been a short 11 months without them every Wednesday, I sure do miss them. They have become part of the young adults ministry with new leaders being integrated – it’s hard but good – they are loathe to lose the flavour that we worked so hard to build over the last two years we spent together. It’s wonderful to see that the experiment has worked. They are thriving, they are deep, they are loving with all sorts of people. I am delighted to be their friend.
Well, I’m here .. in San Diego at long last with dear dear friends Marko and Jeannie. Well technically, Marko’s not here, still enroute from Grand Rapids. Technically it’s also my birthday .. well just, for another few hours. I’m sad to not be with family and friends back home in NZ or even in Brownsburg but… it’s also quite fun to have a birthday that lasts for 32 hours instead of the regular 24hours. And these friends are lovely too!
The Dance of Falling Leaves and Other Adventures In Indiana
Walking through the Maple Ridge Trail in a cool autumn afternoon, you see the final cycle of summer coming to it’s close. The leaves hang by tender thread to branches drying out in the wind. The crisp blue light of clear mid-western skies falls down through golden tree cover and the breeze comes through the branches with enough gasp that the last of the leaves slip out of their grasp and descend to the ground. But the descending is just transcendant because the wind coming through the woods is slow and easy enough that the leaves just twirl and waltz their way to the forest floor. It’s like watching cartoon snowflakes but in red and gold maple leaf stars instead. Standing in the midst of a shower of falling red and gold, falling gently and slowly enough to be captured on film and to watch with wonder is like standing under warm water rain for the first time. The rising breeze hits your nose with still clean grass and the sweetness of decay setting in.
We drove out through Plainfield and stopped at the Chateau Thomas winery for a sunday afternoon tasting. Indiana is one of those states you still can’t purchase alcohol on a Sunday, unless at a restaurant. The winery counts as a tourist attraction so is governed by different policy but it still felt good to be breaking the rules. A wide assortment of zinfandels, blush wines and shiraz blends was on offer from the barmaid who was probably more aptly suited to the phrase Wine Nazi. Within moments of thinking it, she echoed my own thoughts by gleeing telling us her exact nickname was precisely that. Suitably impressed that I asked for water to cleanse the palate between each tasting she brought out the gold star award winning wines for my tasting pleasure. Unfortunately my winetasting buddies made the mistake of sampling from the chocolate selection before supping the complementing wine. Tut tut. They received the short, sharp and icy cold shoulder from the buxom, blonde, big-haired mid-western lass. Turns out though, that she walks in the same park behind the Brownsburg abode as I, home to the Maple Ridge Trail and all.
There are plenty of people to meet when it comes to travelling through new places. And then there are those that you don’t meet, but you observe or just plain hear about, like the old man on the bicycle that liked to ride around the park. He’d ring the bell on his 1960s pushbike to let you know he was coming. Trouble was, he was ringing it a full three minutes before he got to where I was by which time I’d forgotten again. He lapped me four times and it was the same each one. Ding, ding, ding and then he crawled by at snails pace.
There’s Keith, who works in my uncle’s shop and got married the Monday after I arrived. Took two days off, the first day for the wedding where he roasted a whole pig for the party, got married to a bride wearing camoflage pants and an orange tshirt in the backyard of their house. They served up as much roasted hog as they could and still had to load the rest into the freezer next to the other critters they’ve collect for good eating. Same hatchet that was used to carve and cut the pig was used to cut the cake, a red velvet interior with white buttercream icing. You can imagine the glory of the new bride and groom, dressed as they were with hatchet in hand. It comes as no surprise to learn that both are returned from various forms of military service. Keith took Tuesday off work as well but by Wednesday had had enough honeymooning so was back at the workshop, along with 15 bags of roasted pork and buns for lunch. It was a good day to stop by.
Weird Neighbour deserves the capitalisation of his nickname, as well as a cautionary approach at all times. Renowned for being a little unusual, the first words of warning I received from any and all regarding my stay in Indiana were typically “Watch out for weird neighbour.” You could be forgiven for thinking that it was just because of the upcoming Halloween festivals that a fully grown man would dress in full costume (sometimes a park ranger, sometimes Santa Claus, sometimes a Hungarian shepherd boy) and sit outside his house. But no, according to the locals, that’s year round madness to enjoy right there. Occassionally his mother joins in as well, which made for a heightened awareness on October 31st. It’s not unusual for the Brownsburg police to be stopping by the brick and tile on the corner. However, Weird Neighbour remained relatively quiet and sedate for the duration of my stay, even on the 31st, when the scariest little trick-or-treater came knocking on the door so hard I thought the glass was due to break. Then he yelped “trick or treat, wanna smell my feet” while digging a chubby claw into a bowl of fun-size chocolate bars. With eight or so of them in his sticky, hot grasp he turned and hightailed it for the sidewalk where his parents were waiting patiently. What a little punk. The unexpected bonus of all that Halloween activity are the amazingly discounted kids dressup costumes (handy dandy for the men in my life, jesse and liam) and the practically fast food service at the restaurants we ate at, an early birthday dinner!
I took the truck out and hightailed it respectably through some of the small towns that lie along highway 36 and 136. The cornfields and farmhouses that were so beautiful in 2004 have almost all made way for new subdivisions with enchanting names like Stoney Creek and Oaks Crossing. Even the Clermont drive-in is finally facing the final curtain call. Clermont was not only the finest drive-in experience in Indiana, but it was also one of the first multiplexes ever. Now it’s just a dustbowl of steel pipes, swings and slides with two white monuments to cinema facing off against one another at the first stand. The romance of it all is falling under the construction spell of the expanding population.
Traversing 36 and 136 I found a cornfield opposite a church, the sign offering more hope than perhaps what I was expecting. The light was getting more and more opaque into the evenings, but I was glad for that one cornfield in the midst of the sadness of years of family history and hardwork being covered in by concrete. In a nation of consumers, that’s it’s still more financially rewarding for farmers to let go of family property into the hands of developers and superstores. Even some into church parking lots for the expansive houses of worship. The road into the heart of downtown Indianapolis doesn’t reflect any of that expansive skyline though. Short and broad brick bungalows line the street pushed up next to railroad lines, over bridges and
industrial buildings being built and falling down on top of each other. Washington Street takes you from the Wal*Mart superstore in Avon right through the executive homes in the outer belt of Indianapolis proper, then through the Latin populated suburb, complete with walk-up stores and festivities. Then down beside the Indiana Zoo, Victory Field and the White River State Park, you find yourself in the one-way grid of Monument Circle.
You can tell a friendly city not by the doors of the inner-city churches flung wide open into the daylight, or by the lack or presence of street folks. It’s the free parking offered in the central city that is the biggest clue. It says… stop here a while. Pick up a hot chocolate and bonbon from the chocolatier, listen to the local radio being broadcast outside it’s studio. Walk around the monument to mid-west boys that fought in the Great Wars, Korea and Vietnam. The architecture rises tall around the Circle, but the streets are wide enough to allow for streaming light to hit the cobblestones. It’s a clean, bright city.
The drive back to Brownsburg from the city is a mixed observation of small houses slowly being rebuilt, repainted, refreshed and those that almost seem like they’re collapsing in on themselves, the weight of all this city progress just a little too much. The people are friendly though, no matter where you stop, unless it’s at Bob Evans, where the waitresses are stealing from you left and right. Thankfully, the somewhat corrupted manager and her boyfriend were since disposed, but not before becoming the talk of the town. Uncle John knew he’d seen her face somewhere before..hehe. Yup, small town is still small town, even when small town is getting bigger by the day.
Seminar #6: Mentoring:Discipleship with Wisdom in mind. Mark Matlock.
General Session #7: Starfield, Mark “give me an O!” Oestreicher, Skit Guys
Just like back home, Monday morning kicks in and many of the volunteers have headed home to ‘real jobs’ and real life. For me, this feels like it is real life. The subject matter anyway. Mark Matlock’s session was good, again I really appreciated the amount of content he managed to squeeze into that hour. Some great diagrams and processes in regards to processing knowledge and applying it in such a way that builds not just cognitive wisdom (I know what to do in this situation, but also patterns of wisdom (I think according to wise patterns). Something about neuroscience, biology and adolescent development just turns me on in a way that is really really wrong – I’m meant to be creative and yet I am so energized by understanding how we as youthworkers can help these young minds develop. It really does bring freshness to “Shaping young minds”.
Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. – Sandra Covey
Talk about a great purpose for being. Also – thinking about these mentoring and integration principles has been really helpful in thinking about how to write my discipleship/small group and leaders training materials for Eastercamp this year. Brilliant. Mark Matlock is around here and does interesting stuff very soon here.
I think the Skit Guys are genius. They make me laugh so much. One of the really important values that is implicitly communicated through everything YS does, especially at these conventions, is the importance of enjoying yourself, laughing, having a laugh together.. and the value of laughing is just another way of expressing care too. So between Lost and Found, various comedians and the Skit Guys.. there is lots of laughing.
Marko’s closing talk was the subject of his blog here. The responses online were wide and varied, and if you have any remote interest in the subject it’s worth an investment of your time in reading them. Note the language that’s being used, the locations (when mentioned) of the comments. It’s hard to write commentary on it, other than I totally appreciate the proposition that he arrives at when it comes to a future youth ministry “not-driven; present”.
From observation, those moments of benediction, the last ringing of the bell on such a communal gathering of people are very precious. They have weightiness because they are the final filter, the last gasp. In reading people’s responses to various things over the weekend, there have been so many messages. Not all of them are in synergy together and that’s a good thing. It forces people to think for themselves and navigate their way through the ideology. And of course, a good theology (God coversation) is helpful to that, but “being present” is helpful. Being present to God in the locality we are in, his fingerprints and footsteps. Being present with God wherever we are, wherever He is. Being present with yourself and the ministry of God at work in you and through you. Being present will mean being actively engaged in the ministry of questions, not answers. I love that. I love the gooey, toffee-like chewiness of that.
And that was NYWC St Louis 2007.
Ok a few last comments on things I will take away..
On being physically connected and engaged in singing-worship: One of the consistencies with nearly all of the worship leaders was the use of physical expression in simple ways. Clapping, dancing, cheering all played in large part in many sessions. The crowd was willing and easily engaged. In addition to the sense of individual movement and energy, there was a connectedness through holding one another’s hands and group activity. This is just not really part of our corporate expressions.. the physical connectedness within a group & dancing forms being the least common. It’s something to think about as I go home, especially when so much use of the word “dance” is connected with the phrase “with joy” in scripture. Hence one could draw a reverse conclusion that dancing goes hand in hand with joy, where there is an absence of dancing/physical expression there is perhaps less present “joy”. This would be backed up by the theory that the body emits 30amps of energy just being present in a room. Express and elevate that energy, you’ll elevate the endorphins present in the body’s system and by default, the room.
The relationship of actual physical energy to interpretation of environment is something that would be interesting to study in light of the hype-worship-expression continuum. So if anyone knows of anything helpful in this area.. speak up.
On meeting new people: I love youthworkers, because most of the time they are keen to meet new people, either to show off their world or escape into yours for the time being. It makes it really easy to meet people when you are all alone, needing people to float with. Of course, the previous statement is a gross generalisation. Lance, Brad and Jeff from Heartland Vineyard were lots of fun, with some decent conversation thrown in there as well. I really like people from Iowa. Every second and third person I’ve met this trip has been from Iowa. Strange.
On the Exhibit Hall: There is a loving and a loathing within me. Partly I love the proliferation of resource to aid youth workers in what they do. If I was going to employ a youth worker, I would want them to spend at least 80% of their time doing what they love and what they’re good at. So those that write great curriculums, great material should write and publish, so that others can concentrate on different stuff. But there is a tshirt, bumper sticker, mission project resource tool for just about everything. Books. I like books. Hmm. It’s a strange continuum of service and supply. How about an exhibit hall that was just an exhibition of youth ministry. Imagine donating your youth group to YS for a weekend and letting people experiment. Experiment with discussion formats, ministry styles.. and then let the kids feedback to you. “this helped me understand… this was useless..” Ha. That would be a cool exhibit.
On the General Sessions Room: The format of the room was interesting to observe and experience. Almost in the round but with a twist. Two halves of the floor seated audience were facing each other across a small space, with a satellite stage in the middle used for speakers and anything two people or less (including Marko & Tic’s cheerleader special).
brief pause for YouTube clip.
Right. So, apart from the echo splash when sitting sideways, it created a nice dynamic to have multiple screens in multiple directions to look at. The widescreen scrim with moving middle section was a really great touch and provided interesting visual stimulai. It was frustrating that the line array was so low and crossed the sightlines from just about everywhere. I’m envious of the media production software, and I loved the use of creative in the songwords for Starfield. Very choice. The grandstands in the back left and right corner felt removed from where I was situated on the floor most sessions, but to be fair, I didn’t go up to have a proper look or feel for it. Certainly it was great to have multiple presenters working from multiple stages and made the transitions nice and smooth. Still n
ot convinced on whether or not the kids could maintain a sense of focus if we did it similarly at Easter, but it’s worth observing. It made everything more intimate, but even with more people our general set up is more intimate anyway… pros and cons.
NYWC St Louis Sunday 4 November General Session #5: Ralph Winter, Jeff Johnson, Skit Guys, Zach Hunter, Ayeisha Woods
Seminar #4: Why Talking Helps, What Neuroscience has to tell us about relationships, personal narrative and spiritual formation. Mark Matlock.
Seminar #5: Conflict..why can’t we just get along? Jeanne Stevens.
General Session #6: Leeland, Starfield 59, Skit Guys, Greg Stier
I love people that push the boundaries of collective common Christian thought. Mostly because I find that common Christian thought isn’t particularly well-thought out, rather it’s been constructed from assumed knowledge and socially appropriate behaviours then adapted to maintain a set of power structures across generational shifts. So when people start talking about Christian sexuality in a way that gives single people permission to be sexual people too… I start to listen. I also listen when we start to talk about spiritual formation taking into account psychological, sociological, historical as well as contextual data.
When Ralph Winter, preeminent storyteller stands onstage at NYWC and starts talking about effective, powerful storytelling being about embracing the darkness that reveals the humanity of our stories.. I am compelled. Not because I haven’t heard this message before, but because it is so convicting to see a storyteller illuminating spiritual truth (not scripturally evidenced truth, which so often creates a perception problem) using Heroes, X-Men and stories that connect with culture. One of my favourite things about Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the way her character was actually written as a generation seen onscreen. Similarly, using advertisments that are iconic art and pop-culture references loaded with sub-text.. what I hope is that people stuck in the middle of safe, overly sanitised and saccherine Christian culture came to understand something different about real storytelling.
What I remembered was that there is a difference between content and message. Too often there is an intellectual obligation to content fulfilled beyond the compelling call of the soul. Narrative is a remedy to the human condition because we recognise ourselves, our better humanity and divinity in the stories we hear and see. Standout Statement: The best storytellers allow the audience enough space to draw their own conclusions, to fill in the blanks, to colour and flavour it themselves, thereby allowing the story to be many things to many people. Uniquely and individually nuanced by the subtext of our own lives interacting and engaging with sometimes multiple subtexts within one piece. We identify with both mother, father, grandfather and daughter in Little Miss Sunshine. We are both Storm, Nightcrawler and Wolverine in X-Men. And the multiplexes are the temples of worship, the soul sanctuaries we journey to each week. We have such responsibility as storytellers, not only to excellence and to content, but to the darkness. The darkness is a requirement. It’s our humanity, it’s reality. It’s what makes our stories digestable.. and the canvas that creates space for the audience to see light emerging. We need to learn to love the dark.
Jeff Johnson’s Celt influenced contemplative, responsive singing worship experience this morning was beautiful and peaceful to listen to. It was interesting to observe this very trusting and engaged congregation allow themselves to be pushed out to another boundary. I am so envious of the broad stage these wonderful people have to experiment with people for their own good!
Likeminded thinkers are rare and beautiful creatures in my life. I so enjoyed my time with Steve Gerali on Thursday and Friday. Today’s delectable treat was Mark Matlock’s session on how Neuroscience informs a bunch of relevant stuff for working with and developing young people. I was torn between the Gerali/Olson CC and the Matlock one – so I’m glad I chose what I did, but I’m buying a lot of CD’s tomorrow. For starters – the same sense of Scripture infusing Matlock’s wisdom is present as was with Gerali. But here’s what I liked beyond the topic itself..He’s a fast talker, which suits me well as it keeps me really present and engaged with the materials, not just lost in my own application process. He’s smart and practical – realising that understanding the idea is more important that communicating technique alone. The communication around explicit/implicit knowledge systems and how they are formed/shaped/challenged, along with explicit/implicit memory was great. It was an excellent foundation for understanding in another way how some of the similar behaviour/thought patterns are birthed, percieved and reinforced. I found his presentation style great – and the notes, although they had some ‘fill in the blanks’ had a little bit of extra info too. Standout Statement: We are hardwired to connect. Both nature and nurture have a role to play in the development of our biological and psychological selves. The key to integration between the two knowledge systems (ways of perceiving and understanding the world around us) is invariably relationship with others where we can verbalise, process and come to understanding of both the factual and emotional data. In these places, there are patterns of response and understanding constantly being formed and reformed. The key is working with young people to help them develop integration and understanding. Often this work is done through gently probing questions that cause them to examine the what, who, why, how.
Adjunct…while listening to Mutemath, You Are Mine…
“everyone has their obsession, consuming thoughts consuming time, they hold high their prize possession, it defines the meaning of their life..”
I am feeling so challenged in a positive way being present here. I am so much more comfortable in my identity both as a person, but also as a youthworker. I feel confident now, in ways I never would have. I’m ok living as a youthworker in a context different to how I would have perceived it before. It’s strange not thinking about taking it home and applying it to a specific group, but I’m sure that time of ministry will come again. In the meantime – it’s really informing some of my thinking and planning for Eastercamp.. I’ll come back to this.
Seminar #4 with Jeanne Stevens was interesting. I think I was expecting a deeper soul excursion. After Ralph Winter and Mark Matlock, I was ready to delve into the depths of my soul darkness and examine myself. The presentation itself was fine – she’s easy to listen to. I will admit there was a sense of fascination to hear her present as well. The content was fine, but nothing that truly pushed or challenged me, the only piece of seminar content so far that hasn’t won me over either way. The most interesting part for me was the initial scripture reading. Jeanne was looking for a volunteer and there’d been that awkward pause for a moment too long. So I read, and was halfway through before I realised with a sense of guilt that my accent was probably distracting and confusing, to the overall detriment of the purpose. So I shut my mouth for the rest of it.
General Session #6 kicked off with a great bang, namely Marko and Tic leaping around in costume in tribute to the Athletic Cheer competition that was sharing the building with us this weekend. At some point, I’ll share a profound reflection on that little idiom of American culture, but not now. Suffice it to say, it was the most inspiring cheering I have ever seen. I really liked what Leeland did, and didn’t mind Starfield either. I notice interesting ne
w patterns in the lyrical content of the songs that have been brought into worship. Lots of references to daughters and sons, the familial connection with Abba Father is really strong. There is more narrative appearing in the content as well.. which both intrigues and frustrates me as a worshipper.. because I don’t always want the song to go a forgone conclusion. Sometimes my story doesn’t end the same way as the song and I want permission to not finish it. But there must have been something in the water as a couple of ideas for Eastercamp that have been on slow cook, just came together in sheer moments. Brilliant.
Good thing I had something to think about though. I’ve never had much time for people who preach from anecdoctal evidences, particularly when the subject of the anecdote is themselves and gay and/or lesbians. I just have a deep sense of the injustice that the gay community suffers in many ways, and that we as followers of Jesus, need to learn to embrace the justice cause for everyone, including the gay community, not just the poor. It’s not only the poor that suffer injustice. They are separate causes. Anyway, Greg Stier from Dare 2 Share is one of those evangelist types that has stories about their conversations with gay people.
The important thing to point out and I’ll stand by it.. is that Greg Stier is obviously a really good-hearted genuine guy. His love for Jesus and people came rolling off stage. I personally struggled with his message of preached Christ Crucified and bringing everything we do back to the foot of the Cross.
Here’s why.
Firstly, words are important. Listen to Lucinda Williams sing ‘Words’ from her latest album, West. Words are really important. Language is just carelessly strung together. So when you use words like “Christ crucified”.. don’t let that language become null and void by not connecting it to EXACTLY what you mean.
Secondly, if you reduce the Christ through whom all things were created, the Christ who is presently interceding for us in Heaven, the Christ who was from the very beginning, Wisdom.. just to the Christ on the Cross, there is far too much of his character, personality and life cast aside. Yes, the cross is key and pivotal, but the cross is not the sum. So it’s an imperfect model to base all our youth ministry on. Because Christ is grace, risen redemption, creation, sabbath breaker etc etc. It is almost to suggest that a Christ before the cross is powerless if everything has to go to the cross.
Stier’s passion comes at you off the stage like a wave, both pleasant and overwhelming. It’s just a little too big for the break and the salt water sprays up your nose just enough that you have to feel uncomfortable in a way that isn’t challenging, it’s just uncomfortable cos you’re not meant to breathe salt water. Still, whilst not for everyone.. we live in a world where there are some for whom tonight was probably grand. Very possibly they own bullhorns.
Late night conversations: I have so loved hanging out with the boys from Heartland Vineyard, Cedar Falls, Iowa. They have been generous with their time, hearts and enthusiasm. I hope very much to stay in touch with them. I also really enjoyed a conversation with Mark Matlock today.. sharing a combined loathing for fill in the blanks notes and nasty assumptions about how people require groupwork and blank notes in order to learn anything. It was a bunch of fun. The conversation also ran into the desolate barren woman analogy again. I’m just stating for the record that it’s a concept from Wok Henton and I’ve been developing it.. and maybe one day I will write the book, the mass marketing plan & campaign, the book tour and speaking schedule. Mark “Mo-mo” Matlock, despite your threats, you’re not allowed to steal it.
Tash McGill is a broadcaster, writer and strategist who works with people and organisations to solve problems and create transformation. She believes people are the most important thing and that stories are powerful ways of changing the world. You can find out more at tashmcgill.com or by visiting her LinkedIn profile.
