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Each week, 1 student from the class will start the posting extravaganza! After they have posted, all other students are required to write a response to the original posts or in response to other comments from the original posts. Other readers/followers are welcome to join in on the conversation as you wish. Youth and Recreation pastors... we welcome your comments and insights!
During my later high school years my church's youth group decided to try and organize a youth retreat. The intention of the retreat was to build and invest further into the spiritual lives of the teens that would come and bring it back home. The best memory I have from my time there specifically was the team building exercises. While I can't remember the game we played, the purpose was to build trust with one another. We can to learn what trust felt like in order to figure out what that meant to us in our spiritual lives. While I'm not sure whether they continue to do that on their retreats years later, I know that it left an impression on my life and what trust looks like between me and God.
ReplyDeleteBack in my high school days, I always enjoyed doing any kind of service projects that required physical labor. My youth group did this thing called Implosion, where high schoolers would stay at the church for the weekend at the start of every summer and during the day would go out and do service projects in the community. It was something I was good at and it kept me from having to talk with people I didn't know about Christianity (which was something I wasn't good at). They were beneficial to me and helped me feel like I was still truly part of the body of Christ. They were also good opportunities to develop friendships in learning to work with others.
ReplyDeleteThroughout my years of high school, each fall we attended a retreat that my youth pastor helped put on called the I Am Retreat. Local churches came together to put the event together, and for a weekend, area youth groups gathered to dig into the Bible, worship, and enjoy fellowship together. During the one day, we'd have several hours of free time, which usually resulted in us grouping up and playing games together. Whether the games were active or more laid-back, these moments are the times I remember during which we got to really know each other and meet other people as well. This retreat was always a highlight for me each year and really strengthened my relationship with Christ and my brothers and sisters in Christ.
ReplyDeleteAnother highlight of my growing up years was serving with my family and other members of our church at a camp in Kentucky for a week each summer. Sweating and working together during the day, followed by a VBS and playing games together in the evenings, provided times for conversations of all sorts and really allowed me to get to know others in a whole new way, and taught me to take joy in following Christ's steps in serving others.
Thinking back to my experiential learning experiences, I realize that I do not have many "good" times to recall. There were a few memories that I do have where I had eye-opening experiences, but they were not for the better. I will go ahead and mention one youth conference, however, as it did positively impact my walk with Christ. As a disclaimer, one of the reasons I do have many good times to recall is because my youth group was not very active. My youth leaders had other parts of their life going on, and did not commit much time to the group development (or perhaps they just did not know how since neither had a degree of any kind in ministry). Also, I did not have a very good attitude whenever I was in the youth group. So, my unwilling spirit combined with a lack of preparation resulted in more negative times then good.
ReplyDeleteNow, onto my experience. Whenever I was a junior in high school, my youth group went on a yearly youth conference. So, this year was like any other (though each year was held at a different college). It was one of the youth conferences where you go stay for a week and you have a bunch of activities and stuff. So, this year was like any other, though somehow my awareness of certain things had changed. What I mean is, I started to see the ways in which the youth conference speakers (and singers) would manipulate aspects of the conference to make people more emotional. This year was so impacting for my walk with Christ, and as a person, because I started to realize people were not always what they tried to appear to be. Specifically speaking, there were a couple speakers who's whole sermons where a play off of emotion. They used scared tactics (such as the rapture), or heart wrenching stories to get people to come forward in repentance. There was one speaker specifically though who told a story that was flawed.
This speaker told a story of a little boy in Africa who was dying and who they sent over the sea to America and the little boy was saved (of course this sentence is an extremely condensed version). The speaker, however, insinuated that they had faked a birth certificate in order to get the little boy over seas. This greatly troubled me as I felt it made the rest of his story inadequate. My youth leaders did not know much about my home life, and so did not realize my literal fit about the speaker lying was just an external expression of an internal conflict I was having about my mother, who was having multiple affairs and was lying about them. I ended up having an all out argument with my youth leaders on how distressed I was that he lied. They said I was not paying attention to the overall story that was so heart wrenching, but it mattered greatly to me because I had a parent at home who was living a lie, yet would still try to direct me to be "Christ-like". My youth leaders ended up apologizing, though to be honest they had nothing to apologize for. They didn't know what was going on in my life, but neither did I at the time. I understood my dilemma as much as they did (which was not at all).
Overall, this experience taught me to be aware of spiritual leaders who may mislead others. But more than that, this experience started me on a path of never ending questions. I think that moment was when I finally started maturing in my spiritual life. I started to ask questions and my faith has grown enormously since them. I am thankful for that experience, even though it is not one I would deem as "good".
One of my favorite memories is when I was a freshman in high school and my church did a youth lock in. We played games, shared God stories, ate food, and just spent time together the whole night. Then the next day, we went to this park where there was miniature gulfing and bumper cars; it was so much fun! By the end of the day, we all got in smaller groups and discussed some of the things that we most enjoyed and how it changed the way that we look at our everyday lives. After that night, I specifically remember thinking about how much fun God probably was wanting to have with me. It made me see that God is a fun daddy and that He wants to play and spend personal time with me too. Ever since, my relationship with God has been all about intamacy. That God cares about my struggles and my hardships, but He also cares about the things that I enjoying doing as well.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it happened over this past summer when I was in Morgantown West Virginia doing an internship. I had the opportunity to be a Children's Pastor for the summer. I was so scared because I've never been to West Virginia, let alone for the summer, by myself, living with people I've never met, LEADING a children's ministry for the first time. It was the greatest thing I've ever done to say the least. That one thing was the affirmation that I needed to know I was going to do this for the rest of my life. I was a part of planning the summer program, the end of summer carnival, and everything in between. It was so awesome to be able to be a part of that church and their ministry. It showed me the balance between material and fun, and that it's okay to have fun while learning and loving Christ. It was truly amazing and I will forever be grateful that I decided to walk blindly into new territory and find my love for Christ like never before.
ReplyDeleteEach year during high school I went on a Clergy Kids Retreat, (Where I met James when I was a tiny 13 year old). This retreat changed everything when I was in high school. I viewed my spiritual life so much differently, and I was able to be vulnerable with people. Part of the reason of this is that the whole retreat was pastor's kids, and they understood me completely.
ReplyDeleteAs a teen, youth group was great, but those retreats were so incredibly life changing. I made life-long friendships there. It was a place that allowed you to start understanding your faith and how it can relate to other people. it was the first time I ever experienced true community. Since the retreat, I have been back one time as a leader, and this year will be my second. Seeing it from the other side and being able to pour into the lives of others is so refreshing. I can't wait.
For me there were two main things in high school that impacted me. The first was my youth groups annual winter retreats. We would play broomball, go skiing, and have times of worship. The times of worship were very formative for the youth group as a whole. It really helped us grow closer to God together and by default each other. The second was Clergy Kids Retreat. It was a great time to be able to see people that had so much in common with each other that others don't. They were great times to help those going through any struggles we all may have had because chances are someone else there had gone through the same thing as a pastors kid. It also was a place where lasting friendships were made.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed going to a fall retreat on my district each year starting when I was in 7th grade. We had 4 services througout the weekend, and had times for devotions as well. During all the in between time, we played all kinds of fun games. A few years we even had the option to play paintball. My favorite night game was capture the flag, and the flag was a frozen t-shirt. You think the game is over if you find the t-shirt, but no...you have to thaw it enough that someone can wear it, then your team wins. I remember moving inside after games like that and we'd do funny skits that the adults helped with because they were able to laugh at themselves and have fun with the teens. Also, I'd like to brag that my youth group was always the best at pranking other groups. Overall it was my favorite event every year. I bonded with so many people just playing games with them and forming strategies to contribute to the healthy competition. I still go to the event now as a leader, and it still has a deep impact on me.
ReplyDeleteThe youth group at my church was constantly in flux, and at some times, completely nonexistent. Therefore, I didn't have a lot of experiences in recreational/experiential ministry through that context. However, there is a very special place in my heart, and it is the Summersville, WV Nazarene Camp. I went there for as long as I can remember because my uncle was the camp caretaker. As soon as I was old enough, I started going to church camp. Of course, I loved it all because I was absolutely in love with the campground, and it grew to become my spiritual escape. I continued attending through all of my painfully awkward pre-teen/early teen years despite the bullying and harassment that I would occasionally encounter in that time.
ReplyDeleteLate high school was where God really got a hold on my heart, and as to be expected, it happened at Camp. My senior year of high school, I figured it was high time that I get serious about my faith. Before my very last year as a camper, I told God that if He had anything to tell me, that Church Camp would be the place where I would be the most receptive. Boom. On the very first day of my last Senior High Camp, I felt God calling me to the ministry. Even typing about it now, my heart starts to flutter because of how emotional that point in my life was for me. I wrestled with the call for a few days and accepted it at the evening service on Wednesday. After calling my family, the last few days of camp were an amazing memory. Those days were filled with people that I loved and had grown up seeing in the church coming up to me and telling me how proud they were of me. Some would tell me that they had a feeling that God would be using me in that fashion, others just said how excited they were to see how God would use me. All these conversations mixed with the fun, games, and spiritual high being at my favorite place in the world combined to make that week a beautiful memory etched into the recesses of my heart and soul.
I have worked at a camp for the last five years and every morning each cabin would meet for a time called "Low Ropes", the purpose of this time was team building and community building with the campers in each cabin (most of the time the cabin would have boys or girls from one or two churches). Some cabin combinations worked very well and there was very little conflict between the campers and sometimes there would be a group of campers that simply did not do well with living with each other for a week. Two summers ago during one of the weeks that we were hosting 7th through 9th graders I was one of the counselors for a cabin of boys that frankly did not get along well at all.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of our low ropes time, they did not take this time seriously, they would argue, not agree, not promote leadership to the correct people, and they were simply not interested. Then on Wednesday our low ropes instructor gave us an activity that really challenged the boys, it involved passing a ball around the group without going out of order, not using their hands, and the ball could not hit the ground. After a few minutes of them trying with their old strategy the group was getting frustrated and the low ropes leader faced them with the goal of completing the objective before they were finished at camp for the week, and he specified that they only had about 90 minutes of Low Ropes time left. This goal gave the group something to drive towards and it opened up communication in the group because they realized that they had to work together as a team if they wanted to prove to the leader that they could complete the objective.
The desire of them completing the goal drove them to not only complete the game the next morning but it also allowed the boys to start talking and most of them came to the conclusion that the person that they had conflict with wasn’t that much different than them. By the end of the week they were talking about spiritual issues that they were facing and they were swapping contact info and one would find it difficult believing that they didn’t like each other until half way through the week.
This experience was very helpful to me understanding why Low Ropes was so important and why it was such an important part of the curriculum. It made the boys in the cabin acknowledge practical problems in a game but then realized that they face the same type of issues in life. It helped them see who is naturally a leader and who would be consistent and safe, it taught good communication between the group and it brought real problems into a relatable light for the group.