Like, Maybe That’s It!

In the name of hate, twenty-one-year-old Dylann Roof went on a deadly shooting spree in Charleston, South Carolina, and amidst the grief and shock we wonder, “Is there something we can do to reach the Dylann Roofs in our community before it’s too late?” There just might be.

Michael W. Smith had already founded Rocketown, a safe place for teenagers to hangout in Nashville, Tenn., when he was asked to take part in the memorial service after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. The experience increased his zeal to show young people that they are loved and valued, leading him to expand Rocketown into a

36,000 square-foot building that houses a concert hall, and indoor skate park, a coffee bar, a recording studio, and dance studio.

Come Chill

“I think the most important thing that we offer: healthy and nurturing relationships,” says Youth Engagement Coordinator Stephanie Grant. “Our desire is to create an environment where kids feel safe being themselves, but also feel empowered to try new things and to pursue growth and education.”

Sixteen-year-olds Josh and Spencer are Rocketown regulars. “My friend told me about it, and we both walked up here and started hooping and I actually kind of enjoyed the place,” says Josh. “I was like, ‘it’s pretty cool’ and the more I came, the more I liked it.”

Spencer grew up at Rocketown. “My dad looked up ‘skate parks’ in Nashville when I was three, and he brought me here,” he says. When Spencer, who now works in the facility’s skate shop, invites a friend to Rocketown, he can sum it up in about two words: “Come chill.”

Light on the Hill

Skate boarding, snow boarding, and other extreme sports have provided teen outreach opportunities to churches and Christian organizations across the country, especially when it comes to teen boys.

In an interview with WOTV earlier this year, Ezra Heethuis, a sophomore at Cornerstone University (Grand Rapids, Michigan), talked about how snowboarding consumed his life and as a Christian, he knew he had to make a change in his priorities. “God’s given me this passion for snow boarding, and I’m okay at it, so how can I use that to glorify him?” he explains.

He discovered Snow Boarders for Christ and it changed his whole perspective. “I’m like, maybe that’s it,” Heethuis says. “Now snow boarding is a fun activity that I get to do instead of something I worry about. We concentrate on getting people, growing people in their faith, and holding each other accountable. We’re just about being friendly on the hill.”

Good Vibrations

The Underground Skatepark started with a group of boys just killing time together in the basement of Celebration Community Church in Dillsbury, Pennsylvania. While their parents went to Bible study, the boys played floor hockey and skateboarded. The basement became “the” place for teens to hang out, and has turned into a major teen ministry for the church.

In a video on the Underground Skate Park’s website, a teen skater explains it’s appeal. “It’s just a good space to come and relax—it just has a good vibe,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how bad you are, or what your style is. Everyone is accepting of one another.”

Check It Out

A surprising number of Christian extreme sport organizations already exist, and many are actively looking for new areas to plant a club or chapter. Search online for “Christian extreme sports” and “Christian action sports,” and you’ll find an abundance of information on these topics that will bring anyone up to speed. And be sure to check out the books listed below for even more ideas and inspiration.

Hosoi: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of a Legendary Skateboarder

Fire in the Core

Live Out Loud

Spiritual Adventures in the Snow: Skiing and Snowboarding as Renewal for Your Soul

Soul Surfer

After the Fall: A Climber’s True Story of Facing Death and Finding Life

A Young Man After God’s Own Heart: Turn Your Life Into an Extreme Adventure

Judy Bumgarner is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee. She also works at Brentwood United Methodist Church in the church’s Caring Ministry

It’s Messy—But Worth It

 

VBS has broadened, expanded, and doesn’t fall into a specific formula any more. In fact, some churches no longer offer Vacation Bible School, and Wednesday night programming encompasses the whole family instead. Others have morphed VBS into a summer daycamp. If you’re looking for a late-summer alternative, a summer addition to keep kids engaged, or wondering if you could DIY, keep reading.

Arts Camp

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Denver, Colorado, switched from traditional Vacation Bible School to “Arts Camp” a few years ago and they haven’t looked back. A day at Arts Camp starts with all children gathering for songs and games plus Bible study, which relates to each year’s theme. The children are then divided into classes for art, which is later displayed for the whole church to enjoy; music, where children might learn to play a Native American flute or compose their own song; or drama, where campers learn from activities, such as role-play.

Christina Clark, the church’s Family Minister, says their Arts Camp is not crafts-based; rather, it’s centered on projects that give children an opportunity to go through a true artistic process. “It’s messy,” she concludes, but worth it to see the creativity that comes to the surface.

Creation—A Form of Worship

“One thing I love about our art projects is that no two ever come out exactly the same,” she smiles. “This is of course a wonderful entry into the idea that God created each one of us in His image, yet none of us is the same as any other . . . that we each have our own special gifts and talents, given to us by our Creator, and that creation is a form of praise and worship.”

Currently, there are more non-parish registrants, but “in the end, it looks like it will be about fifty-fifty,” Clark says. “People in our community seem to appreciate that this camp is ‘gently faith-based, with an emphasis on social justice’ which is how I describe it in the flyers I post around the neighborhood.”

Joyful Conversation and Laughter

Christ Episcopal Church and Community Reformed Church (Manhasset, New York), hold a combined arts camp instead of VBS. The churches’ director of spiritual formation, Lesley Mazzotta, authored a post on Key Resources, a blog from Virginia Theological Seminary’s Center for the Ministry of Teaching. “Using structured activities and free exploration, along with joyful conversation and laughter, we encourage imagination and curiosity, expand the art of collaboration, and inspire self-confidence, authenticity, and personal growth,” she writes.

Mazzotta says kids at their camp participate in arts and crafts, painting, drawing, collages, and sometimes even use trash to celebrate the world through creativity. “Everything was included as we explored how to care for and live more fully in this remarkable world knowing that we are God’s greatest creation,” she explains.

How Hard Could It Be?

Children’s ministry directors who stick with traditional VBS are sometimes tempted to create their own curriculum. How hard could it be, after all? Before you jump on that bandwagon, you might want to read what Children’s Ministry Magazine has to say. They compiled advice from those who tried to create their own VBS program with less than fruitful results and shared the six main reasons why it might not be such a good idea in an article titled, “Why Not Write Your Own?”

Perhaps one of the most important bits of shared wisdom stressed that children’s ministers may have great writing skills and years of experience with children, but those valuable qualities most often don’t translate into effective curriculum creation. “Think about it,” the article states. “Would you want every history teacher in your schools writing their own textbooks? That’s best left to professionals.”

Although summertime offerings are all over the board, two things are universal: An abundant opportunity exists to reach kids with the message of God’s love, and the prayers of many will ask that something the children learn or experience sticks with them forever and ever. Amen to that.

She Wrote the Book on It

Christina Clark, a family minister from Denver who organizes a popular and effective Arts Camp featured in the same article, has had so much success with her summer program that she’s written a book about it. Arts Camp releases in October and includes everything Christina has learned about what it takes to put together a thriving program that combines Bible study and artistic endeavors.

Clark says that even if a church doesn’t want to veer away from their classic VBS program, elements of Arts Camp can be woven into whatever theme kit is chosen. “A church could pick and choose specific art projects, or music selections from the book to add to their VBS,” she says. “Or they could use the Arts Camp model to expand on a VBS.”

She also encourages small churches in small communities to consider Arts Camp. “Flexibility is key no matter what size camp, parish, or town you have,” she explains. “Two to three parishes could combine beautifully to create an ecumenical arts camp. The biggest challenge would be in finding enough people to create a good team, but the book lists many ways to search and find artists to make your camp successful.”

“My hope is that the book can be a resource that’s usable in a variety of situations, from creating a full arts camp to providing supplemental material for any other ministry or activity of the parish.”

Click here to pre-order your copy of Arts Camp by Christina Clark.

Judy Bumgarner is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee. She also works at Brentwood United Methodist Church in the church’s Caring Ministry.

I’m Booored

Now is about the time kids are going to start whining that familiar, mid-summer refrain: I’m booored. You stifle the urge to say, “Well you could help me fold the clothes/clean out the garage/empty the dishwasher/trim the hedge/(fill in the blank) and then you wouldn’t be so bored!” Instead you . . . well, what do you do?

Boredom is Scary

“For many young people, ‘I’m bored!’ is a complaint about uncertainty, about not knowing what’s going to happen next, about what should be happening next, about what’s worth doing next,” says Nick Luxmoore, a psychodrama psychotherapist in his online column for Psychology Today. He suggests that boredom might be an opportunity for parents to have a philosophical discussion with their child.

“What if we saw boredom as a transitional experience, as an interesting lull? Then we might begin to talk with young people about how scary it is, not knowing what’s going to happen next,” he continues. “We might share our own experience of the panic boredom sometimes precipitates, of how addicted we can become to things new, unusual and exciting. We might wonder with young people about whether being able to be bored is a sign, not of being a boring person, but of maturity.”

That Means You

In her blog, “Thinking about Kids,” Dr. Nancy Darling writes, “Oddly enough, one of the reasons that many kids and teens have trouble with knowing what to do in the summer is that they haven’t been bored enough. From a developmental perspective, kids have very little experience learning how to find things to do for themselves. They might know what they like to do, but they have little experience figuring out how to make good things happen.”

“And if they don’t have a friend available to play with, and they don’t have a sibling who wants to play with them right then and there,” she continues, “that means they want to play with you.”

Play Takes Practice

Darling acknowledges that it’s hard for parents to find time to play, but sometimes ten minutes is all it takes to get a kid engaged in an activity. She suggests getting them to talk about a toy, what they like best about it and what it can do, and she says to make sure you respond with lots of “oohs and ahhs.”

“Kids show what they love to the people they care about. The more they care about you, the more they want to show you what they’ve done,” Darling explains. “And the more you share their experience—ooh and ahh—the more they care about you. You can do this from across the room or wandering in and out.”

She says that spending time with younger children, teaching them how to play, will help keep boredom at bay when they get older and find they have no one with whom to play. “Play may be natural,” she says, “but it takes practice.”

Darling says there’s an added benefit that comes from playing with your kids. “You may find that you get better at—and more interested in—playing, too.”

Where do you start? We’ve shared a few ideas of our own:

• Family Fridge Fun
• Press Here game
• Endangered Animals puzzle
• VeggieTales Seek and Match game
• Promise Box
• 31 Days of Drawing Through the Bible
• Busy Board for Toddlers
• Scripture Scraps
• Sole Hope Party

So now it’s your turn. How do you practice play with your children?

Judy Bumgarner is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee. She also works at Brentwood United Methodist Church in the church’s Caring Ministry.

Who Will Care? Whatever.

If parents could eliminate one word from their kids’ vocabulary it might be “whatever.”  Will our kids outgrow this seemingly disdainful disregard? Will they learn to care? Can we teach them to care?

We had a chance to ask Dr. Terri Manning, Associate Vice President for Institutional Research and Assistant to the Executive Vice President at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, and an expert on the topic of Millennials, children born between the early 1980s and early 2000s.

Dr. Manning:
It’s true that Millennials take for granted many of the things that we, Baby Boomers, cared passionately about, but that doesn’t mean they are not passionate about issues like ridding the world of prejudice—they care about that.

Some estimate that as many as 25% of millennial children have at least one parent from another country. Many have pen pals around the world. So while the world seemed big to us, it seems small to them. They were raised with a sense of fairness and therefore really believe all men are created equal and that we should not judge people based on race, gender, and religion.

Cokesbury Commons:
Then they may very well be extremely supportive of church mission work and giving to others. What will trigger this support?

Dr. Manning:
They are definitely “hands on.” They got involved in community service as kids and would rather work at the soup kitchen or build a Habitat Home than write a check to United Way.

Tell them the purpose of the mission at the forefront and let them know why it’s important—what happens if they don’t deal with this issue.

Include a social media person in the planning—someone who knows the best way to communicate and consider a different method of delivery. Not necessarily a different message but a different way of engaging members.

Cokesbury Commons:
So what can churches to do now to prepare for this new kind of church?

Dr. Manning:
A church today would be wise to conduct some focus groups with both their Gen X and Millennial members and talk about things like attracting new members, the layout of the services, the best way to educate members, how the church can use technology, etc.

They have been consulted by adults their entire life. They have been allowed to be involved in family decisions so this would seem totally normal to them—plus they love giving input into things. If you liken the way a church deals with its members to how schools deal with students—we have a lot to learn.

Cokesbury Commons:
And what trends are you seeing in education?

Dr. Manning:
“Flipping classrooms.” The teacher creates video lectures and places them on YouTube or the university’s server. Students are told which videos to watch and are instructed to bring notes to the next class. Then they can spend the entire class in “hands on” activities. It has proven to be a far superior method of teaching, especially with some subjects.

I wonder what would happen if the preacher sent all church members articles and information about the subject of the sermon before Sunday. Then spent the first 20 minutes of the service in discussion with the congregation.

Dr. Manning received her doctorate in Higher Education from Oklahoma State University. She was a graduate faculty member at Tulsa Community College, Oklahoma State University, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte prior to accepting her current position at Central Piedmont Community College in 1998.  She has consulted with multiple colleges on institutional effectiveness and serves on visiting teams for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. To date, she has made 90 keynote presentations at national meetings, colleges, and local businesses. For more information on Dr. Manning’s research on the Millennial generation, visit her website at http://www.cpcc.edu/millennial.