Just a few random thoughts.
With school having started back we've seen a small increase in kids on Wednesday night. We expect the numbers to continue to grow slightly (our guess is up to about 60 but who knows). I would also expect that the next few weeks will be a little rowdier as everyone adjusts to school and those that we missed over the summer get back into the flow of things. We've been spoiled by the relative calm of the summer and we'll need to remember that this is natural and not a step backwards.
I don't really know how to respond when kids keep asking when the meals are going to start again.
I still hate the term "Community Kids". I've hated it from the first time we used it and I hate it more each day. It just emphasizes the Us/Them mindset that we have. When do they get to cross that invisible magic barrier and become just Levy Kids, our kids? Is there a secret panel they need to be interviewed by or a Bible test they need to pass?
Everyone involved in working on and presenting the ideas for a new curriculum did a great job Sunday.
Ironically with all the progress that we've seemed to make, I don't think I've felt more discouraged or pessimistic. Now, I'm not really looking for words of encouragement or a pat on the back right now, as nice as they are to get, they won't really change anything and I'm not going to stop doing what I do anyway.
As always I had more to say but self-editing and a need for sleep brings me an end now.
Mark
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Where Do We Go From Here? Part 2.
With the end of summer and a new school year fast approaching I thought it would be a good time to take another look at where we are and where were headed.
Not long after my last post, we met with the folks involved in the Youth Ministry (Casey, Doug, elders, deacons, etc) to discuss ideas, misconceptions, concerns, disagreements and defuse some growing tensions. A special thanks goes to Dr. Alan Pogue for an excellent job facilitating the meeting. We probably still don't see eye to eye on everything but we did clear some things up and came away with a better understanding of each other's thinking. A tangible result of this meeting was we were able to move ahead with sending a number of kids from the girl's class that Allison was teaching and guys from Justin's class to Casey's Wednesday night class. Allison and Justin have also joined this class to provide familiar faces to help in the transition. From our perspective this move has been fairly successful.
D.A. and Laura Frost took 6 of our kids with them to church camp. Aside from a little homesickness, a small incident of resistance to authority, and two disintegrating van tires on the way home (what church trip would be complete without some sort of transportation breakdown), everyone had a good time. Hopefully we can send more next year.
As expected during the summer months and without the Wednesday meal the number of kids coming dropped. We fell from averaging over a 100 to around 40 each week. While I'm sad that we've missed out on a summer of opportunities with these kids, I'm extremely proud and grateful for the ones that have continued to come. I've got more to say about this but I'm going to save that for a separate post.
Some of the plans that we had for the fall we've had to put on hold for awhile. The eldership has decided to suspend the Wednesday night meals this fall to give all the associated ministries a little "breather". This time off will be a chance to step back and review the entire Wednesday night program from meals, to Community Outreach, to the Mother's class, to kid's classes, overall logistics, etc.
Over the next few weeks we will be planning for the fall and deciding what changes we need to make as we go forward. That's it for now, we'll try to keep everyone informed as we proceed and as always if anyone has suggestions, ideas or even complaints please let us know.
Mark
p.s. some of the above was stolen verbatim from an email from Ted, I wouldn't want to be accused of plagerism.
Not long after my last post, we met with the folks involved in the Youth Ministry (Casey, Doug, elders, deacons, etc) to discuss ideas, misconceptions, concerns, disagreements and defuse some growing tensions. A special thanks goes to Dr. Alan Pogue for an excellent job facilitating the meeting. We probably still don't see eye to eye on everything but we did clear some things up and came away with a better understanding of each other's thinking. A tangible result of this meeting was we were able to move ahead with sending a number of kids from the girl's class that Allison was teaching and guys from Justin's class to Casey's Wednesday night class. Allison and Justin have also joined this class to provide familiar faces to help in the transition. From our perspective this move has been fairly successful.
D.A. and Laura Frost took 6 of our kids with them to church camp. Aside from a little homesickness, a small incident of resistance to authority, and two disintegrating van tires on the way home (what church trip would be complete without some sort of transportation breakdown), everyone had a good time. Hopefully we can send more next year.
As expected during the summer months and without the Wednesday meal the number of kids coming dropped. We fell from averaging over a 100 to around 40 each week. While I'm sad that we've missed out on a summer of opportunities with these kids, I'm extremely proud and grateful for the ones that have continued to come. I've got more to say about this but I'm going to save that for a separate post.
Some of the plans that we had for the fall we've had to put on hold for awhile. The eldership has decided to suspend the Wednesday night meals this fall to give all the associated ministries a little "breather". This time off will be a chance to step back and review the entire Wednesday night program from meals, to Community Outreach, to the Mother's class, to kid's classes, overall logistics, etc.
Over the next few weeks we will be planning for the fall and deciding what changes we need to make as we go forward. That's it for now, we'll try to keep everyone informed as we proceed and as always if anyone has suggestions, ideas or even complaints please let us know.
Mark
p.s. some of the above was stolen verbatim from an email from Ted, I wouldn't want to be accused of plagerism.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Where Do We Go From Here?
My intentions with this post are not to offend or hurt anyone's feeling but I make no apologies for what I'm about to write.I've been told by my oldest daughter that I tend to over edit and water down my thoughts when I blog. Not today, today you get pure unadulterated unfiltered me, rational, irrational, gut emotions, whatever, it is what it is.
Amazing what can happen in a year, over the last few weeks we've averaged over 100kids from the community on Wednesday nights.To see how far we've come you should read these two post if you haven't already. Church and Community - A History from my Perspective and A Year in Review.
We recently met with the elders to let them know what's been going on andpresent some of our ideas for the upcoming summer.Here's some of that:
320 Total Names on the Registration List
215 of those have been at least once since February
We have been averaging 90 since the beginning of March (that avg is going up, we've had over 100 that last few weeks)
We have 8 Levy families that are involved in bringing children on Wednesday nights and/or Sunday mornings
We have had several families come on Wednesday nights but also several have come on Sunday morning
Events over the past 4 months:
Here are some of the plans for summer:
We've come to another crossroads.
Levy is an upper middle class church. All of our members are not upper middle class, but the way we think as a church, the way we operate, the way we plan, the way we evangelize, just about everything we do is from a middle to upper middle class viewpoint.
We are a very good at what I like to call big event Christianity or what a friend of mine calls sight-seeing Christianity. We are a giving church, a good percentage of our weekly contribution goes toward mission work, you set a goal of 80,000 for our special Harvest Sunday and we'll give you 150,000, you ask for 10,000 for extra Mexico Medical Mission trip funds we'll give you 20,000. Disaster relief work we're there. Short term mission trips toMexico , Romania , Cuba , Dominican Republic
But back home we're in the middle of a struggle. We are a suburban church in an urban setting. As I said above everything we do is from a middle class viewpoint, our teaching styles, curriculum, worship style, youth group are geared to people who look like us, think like us, act like us and for the most part have a similar religious background.
So the question is Why Are We Here? Why didn't we move? We knew then that we didn't look much like the community anymore. We could've moved and continued to do great things the same way we'd been doing them for years. The answer you'll get from anybody involved in the decision is that we're needed in the community, that we can stay here and be an influence for Christ. The trouble is we want to do it on our terms, we want to continue to be a suburban church just with a community outreach ministry. This cannot work in the long run. If we want to continue to be a viable influence for Christ in this community then we must transform ourselves from a suburban church (with some urban members) to an urban church (with some suburban members).
It will be a hard journey and there are some dangers. People don't like change, some don't like the changes that have already occurred. People will leave, people have already left.
I think the 6th grade and below are already slowly headed in the right direction. A number of teachers have already started changing their style of teaching to fit the needs of all the kids (coincidently or not a lot of what they are doing mirrors recommendations found in Ruby Payne and Bill Ehligs book "What every church member should know about poverty). Add in Phillips manual and new teacher training and I think we're on the right path. Things aren't perfect but they are improving. We still have parents that have stopped bringing their kids on Wednesday nights or have even left Levy. They've missed a great opportunity for their kids to learn discipleship and see Jesus love in action. But this leads us to one of the hard truths of this transformation. Some people will find that Levy is no longer a good fit for them, and I'm sorry for that but if that's the case then they should leave. There are a number of good churches around that can meet their needs.
But I think the most crucial and difficult change will be incorporating our kids into the youth group. We have a great youth group, good kids, good leaders, good volunteers. It's exactly what the church wants from a youth group. But it is a totally suburban kid oriented group. I understand the reluctance to change what is working so well, but without their buyin to this transformation we cannot succeed. We cannot continue to have two youth groups.
Ok, I'm quitting for now. I had more to say about comparisons to the Old Joy Bus Ministry and whatSilver City Church
Love
Mark
Amazing what can happen in a year, over the last few weeks we've averaged over 100kids from the community on Wednesday nights.To see how far we've come you should read these two post if you haven't already. Church and Community - A History from my Perspective and A Year in Review.
We recently met with the elders to let them know what's been going on andpresent some of our ideas for the upcoming summer.Here's some of that:
320 Total Names on the Registration List
215 of those have been at least once since February
We have been averaging 90 since the beginning of March (that avg is going up, we've had over 100 that last few weeks)
We have 8 Levy families that are involved in bringing children on Wednesday nights and/or Sunday mornings
We have had several families come on Wednesday nights but also several have come on Sunday morning
Events over the past 4 months:
- Community Day-over 180 in attendance
- Ladies Retreat in Memphis-6 girls with 4 chaperones
- Harding Basketball Game and Tour-10 kids and 4 chaperones
- Suzanne’s Ladies Class-3-5 ladies attending
- Summer Camp with the Frost’s-5 kids planning on attending
- Summer Softball-2 guys playing and 2 girls playing
- Started a Community Outreach Blog-117 visitors in the last month
- We always have kids come to various church events: had 8 at Men’s Wild Night Out; had 8-10 at the KFC potluck
Here are some of the plans for summer:
- No Summer Meals (not an idea that I really like but understand why we made this decision)
- Last summer we kept the meals going in order to keep the kids involved
- We do not believe that this is necessary this year
- We also do not have the staff to keep them going
- Some questions about the families that are coming and how to keep them involved
- Free Time:
- Have the gym open from 6:30-7:00 on Wednesday Nights
- We will man this time; good time to have informal contact with the kids
- We recently started an alternative class - for when kids for whatever reason just can't make it the regular class that night. Normally have 2 - 5 Kids each Wednesday.
- Phillip with collaboration from a number of teachers has developed a Teacher Survival Manual to help teachers with ideas, class room management, etc. I think a workshop for teachers is also planned in thenear future.
- We presented our ideas for this area also. We are having another meeting with all the involved parties to work out a plan and discuss our different
We've come to another crossroads.
Levy is an upper middle class church. All of our members are not upper middle class, but the way we think as a church, the way we operate, the way we plan, the way we evangelize, just about everything we do is from a middle to upper middle class viewpoint.
We are a very good at what I like to call big event Christianity or what a friend of mine calls sight-seeing Christianity. We are a giving church, a good percentage of our weekly contribution goes toward mission work, you set a goal of 80,000 for our special Harvest Sunday and we'll give you 150,000, you ask for 10,000 for extra Mexico Medical Mission trip funds we'll give you 20,000. Disaster relief work we're there. Short term mission trips to
But back home we're in the middle of a struggle. We are a suburban church in an urban setting. As I said above everything we do is from a middle class viewpoint, our teaching styles, curriculum, worship style, youth group are geared to people who look like us, think like us, act like us and for the most part have a similar religious background.
So the question is Why Are We Here? Why didn't we move? We knew then that we didn't look much like the community anymore. We could've moved and continued to do great things the same way we'd been doing them for years. The answer you'll get from anybody involved in the decision is that we're needed in the community, that we can stay here and be an influence for Christ. The trouble is we want to do it on our terms, we want to continue to be a suburban church just with a community outreach ministry. This cannot work in the long run. If we want to continue to be a viable influence for Christ in this community then we must transform ourselves from a suburban church (with some urban members) to an urban church (with some suburban members).
It will be a hard journey and there are some dangers. People don't like change, some don't like the changes that have already occurred. People will leave, people have already left.
I think the 6th grade and below are already slowly headed in the right direction. A number of teachers have already started changing their style of teaching to fit the needs of all the kids (coincidently or not a lot of what they are doing mirrors recommendations found in Ruby Payne and Bill Ehligs book "What every church member should know about poverty). Add in Phillips manual and new teacher training and I think we're on the right path. Things aren't perfect but they are improving. We still have parents that have stopped bringing their kids on Wednesday nights or have even left Levy. They've missed a great opportunity for their kids to learn discipleship and see Jesus love in action. But this leads us to one of the hard truths of this transformation. Some people will find that Levy is no longer a good fit for them, and I'm sorry for that but if that's the case then they should leave. There are a number of good churches around that can meet their needs.
But I think the most crucial and difficult change will be incorporating our kids into the youth group. We have a great youth group, good kids, good leaders, good volunteers. It's exactly what the church wants from a youth group. But it is a totally suburban kid oriented group. I understand the reluctance to change what is working so well, but without their buyin to this transformation we cannot succeed. We cannot continue to have two youth groups.
Ok, I'm quitting for now. I had more to say about comparisons to the Old Joy Bus Ministry and what
Love
Mark
Monday, April 20, 2009
New Ladies Class Success from Suzanne
(This has been slightly edited to remove names): Oh, brothers, what a glorious night we had in our new class for the Community Kids' mothers last night. It was a dream come true after all the work, sweat, tears and prayer that have gone into this ministry for so long. Last night, all the patience and longsuffering, produced what I know all involved have prayed for...parents on the road to becoming Christians for these beautiful children that we love, warts and all.
We had 4 ladies in class. These women soaked up all the love and care we gave them. We included them in the planning and goal setting for their class. We asked what they were looking for in this class. Here are their goals: "Learn how to not let everything get to me." "Learn how to treat people better." "Learn how to put Jesus in all my life because I know that's the only way my life will get better." "Learn how to live my daily life better." (Robyn) We teachers, added this: "Learn how to love myself like God wants me to" and "Learn how to take care of my body like God wants me to."
Aretha led this week with the intro in "Getting to Know You." She told them that we will get into more and more scripture as the weeks go by, but that we were first going to spend valuable time getting to know each other. She talked about God's wisdom in creating the church as people who loved God, each other and others. She talked about how we care for one another like God wants us to. She did an excellent job of drawing the students into her discussion. They soaked it up like dry sponges. When we asked them what about their life now made them happy. This were their answers: One said, "I'm happy I'm alive. She recently had a life threatening ashma attack. Another said, "When all my family gets together." Another said, "Being with my family makes me happy. We laugh and play and eat together and,' she said, 'sometimes we cry together." Another was the sad one, she said, "Don't nothing make me happy in my life but my two kids, nothing else is happy." She is expecting another baby in October. We got all of their birthdays down, their favorite colors, hobbies, etc. It was good, it was very good!
Next week, I will lead with "How I learned to Love Myself through God's Eyes." Our teaching will involve lots of interaction from each of them, not lecture type stuff. We told them we want to come to really know them as we help them learn about God's love for them and how to live their lives like Jesus.
I could keep writing and I am glad to share any of this with you all and our plans for the future for this class. Aretha, Beverly and I are three instruments God has placed in these women's paths after all the work you all have done. We see this as the gateway to many areas for the women, which can only better the lives for their children and their hope for eternal life.
Thanks be to God and to all of you who work so diligently in bringing these prescious souls to come to know Christ. May God wrap His loving arms around each of you individually and all of you as a great big group hug from HIM!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A Year in Review
After reading Mark's history of working with the community kids (which was VERY good, by the way), I offered to write up what's happened in the last year, at least from my perspective. That should be easy enough, right? I mean it's only been a year. Basically we've added lots of kids, tried to turn chaos into organized chaos, and tweaked a few things here and there. No big deal. Before long I crashed back to reality and realized just how much as gone on since this time last year. I don't know that I'll be able to capture all of it (or even the most important pieces) in this entry, but I'll give it a shot. The rest of you can fill in the gaps I leave.
For me, this last year has taken me from the ever-popular position of complaining about something to finding myself deeply entrenched in a ministry I love that I wouldn't be able to willingly give up (not that the thought has never crossed my mind). Unlike others in this ministry who have spent years dedicating their time to these kids, I'm relatively new to the game.
So let's rewind - About this time last year, Ted and I watched from our very comfortable seats around the table of the Wednesday night meals as the number of "community kids" at those meals rose. We shook our heads when they left their tables a mess, watched in frustration as they ran wildly throughout the gym and thought to ourselves "OUR kids will never act like that." Then we moved on to our bible class and listened to other members lament about those children that ran through the hallways unsupervised. After we got home that evening, we'd discuss what needed to happen to show these kids how they needed to act when they came to "church". And then we'd start over again the next week.
Finally, the chaos at the meals and classes became more than our "fix-it" personalities could take and little by little we found ourselves becoming more involved. I started helping in a 3rd grade class that was full of some rowdy kiddos and became the unofficial elevator guard ("Your legs work just fine. Take the stairs!!"). Ted joined the clean up crew after the meals and ended up more often than not helping out in the youth group class. Suddenly our "suggestions" of what needed to happen got a little more personal and made their way on to a list that was sent out to some people in an email. It was at this point that we found out that many of our genius ideas had already been tried or at least suggested by those who had been working in the ministry for years. However, the elders gave Ted the go-ahead to start organizing a committee and we were off...
I'm going to attempt to highlight some of the events that followed.
1) We had a meeting to figure out what the next steps were going to be. It was decided that our first goal was survival and to do that, we first needed to get to know the kids we were working with. So, a registration system was implemented and we started giving out name tags as their "tickets" to the meal. To help alleviate the dead time between the meal and classes, activities (games, coloring pages, jump ropes, etc) were organized. Last but definitely not least, help was recruited for the Wednesday night classes. And with those changes, we did make it through the remainder of the school year and into the summer where we came face to face with a very important decision...
2) The Wednesday night meals were the reason most of the kids were coming to Levy. Typically, the meals cease during the summer and start up again in early September. The problem with that is that we lose the kids during those 3-4 months. So, the committee had to decide whether to be responsible for continuing the meals or risk losing the kids and the progress we'd seen in the past few months. It was decided that we would continue the meals thanks to some dedicated people who volunteered to be in charge of one meal a month. The focus of the summer meals was to get to know the community kids, but all of the Levy members were invited to come as well (and many of them did). And so the meals continued.
3) But unfortunately, the meals weren't the only issue of the summer. We also had a large group of 7th-12th graders coming who weren't making an easy transition into the youth group class. The reasons why could probably be debated for centuries, but the fact remained that we had many young people coming in with little or no Bible knowledge who did not understand or adapt well to a setting that was mostly singing, prayer, and "devo-style" lessons with limited discussion and interaction. So, the decision was made to offer two classes to all of the youth group. One was the "devo" class and the other was a more "interactive" class. In other words, the kids played youth group games for the majority of class and then discussed the point or lesson at the end. Not surprising, the kids coming from the community preferred the games and short lessons and naturally drifted to that class. And so the summer came and went...
4) As the school year started up again, a few other changes were made. The first was that we again had to address the dead time between the kids finishing their meals (around 6:30 at the latest) and the start of bible classes (7:00). After a lot of thought and consideration, it was decided that we should start letting the kids eat at 6:30 instead of 6:00. Obviously, that was not something the kids were super excited about or overly willing to comply with. So, we set up "fun rooms" in the upstairs portion of the gym with movies, crafts, games and coloring. The kids came in the building and went upstairs to get their name tags. They then stayed there until the mass release at 6:30. Even though this new set-up was not without problems and has constantly needed tweaks, it has helped tremendously in cutting down the chaos at the meals and specifically the problems that were occurring between the meals and classes.
5) At this time we also decided on some rules/expectations and the consequences that we were going to hold these kids to and started to hold "orientations" to go over these rules. After a kid went through orientation, they signed a contract saying that they knew the rules and consequences if they chose not to follow the rules. That allowed us all to get on the same page and also take care of the "but I didn't know" excuse that we were running into a lot.
6) We also took the start of the school year to reevaluate the youth group classes. While the interactive class was great for the summer, we wanted to transition the community kids into Bible classes more similar to the youth group class. However, there were approximately 40 7th-12th graders coming from the community and the option of pushing them into the youth group class seemed to be a recipe for disaster. So, we took the only option we could come up with at the time and offered a girls' class and a guys' class. The Levy youth group class continued to meet and have the devo-style class and all of the community kids were given the option of going into that class or into the split classes down the hall. The guys' class went through a series on God, steps to salvation, and Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The girls' class studied the fruits of the Spirit, women in the Bible, and steps to salvation. For the most part, the community kids have remained in the split classes, but occasionally a few have chosen to be part of the youth group class. Our goal still remains to integrate these classes into one, but we've yet to come up with a painless way to that. We welcome any and all suggestions. :)
7)Some other fun events worth mentioning...
In January, some members took the high school community kids to Harding University for a tour and basketball game. It was a huge success.
Also in January, some of the ladies took six 6th-12th grade girls to Memphis for a Girls' Retreat. Also a great success.
In February, Bill Ehlig came to Levy and presented a Poverty Seminar for all of the Levy members who were interested in attending. Bill Ehlig has worked extensively with Ruby Payne in her work with poverty in the schools and adapted that to the church setting. He had some great insights to offer as far as the hidden rules of poverty and working with the families in our community.
8) A few weeks ago, Levy had it's first annual Community Day. It was huge and really needs to be a post of it's own. I'll get Ted working on that asap :) But the results have been outstanding - 20 baptisms, countless connections and bible studies, and a renewed interest from Levy members in evangelism to those in our community.
Whew...I'm tired. And I know I've left some things out. To the other "authors" of this blog - feel free to fill in whatever I didn't cover.
Our goals for the immediate future - 1)reorganize the 1st-6th grade classes for Wednesday nights to best meet the needs of ALL of the kids in those classes, 2) reach out to more of these kids' parents, and 3)recruit even more help from Levy members. If you're one of those people out there reading this, don't sit and complain before getting involved. Trust me, it's a waste of time :). Just give us a call and we'll put you to work.
I know I've written a lot and if you've hung in there through it all, good job! I'll just end by saying that I believe with all my heart that God has a plan for these kids and even when I'm at my wit's end, I'm grateful that He's included me in just a small piece of the plan. I'm also grateful for those that God has given us to work with in this ministry. May the next year be even more fruitful than the last!
Allison
For me, this last year has taken me from the ever-popular position of complaining about something to finding myself deeply entrenched in a ministry I love that I wouldn't be able to willingly give up (not that the thought has never crossed my mind). Unlike others in this ministry who have spent years dedicating their time to these kids, I'm relatively new to the game.
So let's rewind - About this time last year, Ted and I watched from our very comfortable seats around the table of the Wednesday night meals as the number of "community kids" at those meals rose. We shook our heads when they left their tables a mess, watched in frustration as they ran wildly throughout the gym and thought to ourselves "OUR kids will never act like that." Then we moved on to our bible class and listened to other members lament about those children that ran through the hallways unsupervised. After we got home that evening, we'd discuss what needed to happen to show these kids how they needed to act when they came to "church". And then we'd start over again the next week.
Finally, the chaos at the meals and classes became more than our "fix-it" personalities could take and little by little we found ourselves becoming more involved. I started helping in a 3rd grade class that was full of some rowdy kiddos and became the unofficial elevator guard ("Your legs work just fine. Take the stairs!!"). Ted joined the clean up crew after the meals and ended up more often than not helping out in the youth group class. Suddenly our "suggestions" of what needed to happen got a little more personal and made their way on to a list that was sent out to some people in an email. It was at this point that we found out that many of our genius ideas had already been tried or at least suggested by those who had been working in the ministry for years. However, the elders gave Ted the go-ahead to start organizing a committee and we were off...
I'm going to attempt to highlight some of the events that followed.
1) We had a meeting to figure out what the next steps were going to be. It was decided that our first goal was survival and to do that, we first needed to get to know the kids we were working with. So, a registration system was implemented and we started giving out name tags as their "tickets" to the meal. To help alleviate the dead time between the meal and classes, activities (games, coloring pages, jump ropes, etc) were organized. Last but definitely not least, help was recruited for the Wednesday night classes. And with those changes, we did make it through the remainder of the school year and into the summer where we came face to face with a very important decision...
2) The Wednesday night meals were the reason most of the kids were coming to Levy. Typically, the meals cease during the summer and start up again in early September. The problem with that is that we lose the kids during those 3-4 months. So, the committee had to decide whether to be responsible for continuing the meals or risk losing the kids and the progress we'd seen in the past few months. It was decided that we would continue the meals thanks to some dedicated people who volunteered to be in charge of one meal a month. The focus of the summer meals was to get to know the community kids, but all of the Levy members were invited to come as well (and many of them did). And so the meals continued.
3) But unfortunately, the meals weren't the only issue of the summer. We also had a large group of 7th-12th graders coming who weren't making an easy transition into the youth group class. The reasons why could probably be debated for centuries, but the fact remained that we had many young people coming in with little or no Bible knowledge who did not understand or adapt well to a setting that was mostly singing, prayer, and "devo-style" lessons with limited discussion and interaction. So, the decision was made to offer two classes to all of the youth group. One was the "devo" class and the other was a more "interactive" class. In other words, the kids played youth group games for the majority of class and then discussed the point or lesson at the end. Not surprising, the kids coming from the community preferred the games and short lessons and naturally drifted to that class. And so the summer came and went...
4) As the school year started up again, a few other changes were made. The first was that we again had to address the dead time between the kids finishing their meals (around 6:30 at the latest) and the start of bible classes (7:00). After a lot of thought and consideration, it was decided that we should start letting the kids eat at 6:30 instead of 6:00. Obviously, that was not something the kids were super excited about or overly willing to comply with. So, we set up "fun rooms" in the upstairs portion of the gym with movies, crafts, games and coloring. The kids came in the building and went upstairs to get their name tags. They then stayed there until the mass release at 6:30. Even though this new set-up was not without problems and has constantly needed tweaks, it has helped tremendously in cutting down the chaos at the meals and specifically the problems that were occurring between the meals and classes.
5) At this time we also decided on some rules/expectations and the consequences that we were going to hold these kids to and started to hold "orientations" to go over these rules. After a kid went through orientation, they signed a contract saying that they knew the rules and consequences if they chose not to follow the rules. That allowed us all to get on the same page and also take care of the "but I didn't know" excuse that we were running into a lot.
6) We also took the start of the school year to reevaluate the youth group classes. While the interactive class was great for the summer, we wanted to transition the community kids into Bible classes more similar to the youth group class. However, there were approximately 40 7th-12th graders coming from the community and the option of pushing them into the youth group class seemed to be a recipe for disaster. So, we took the only option we could come up with at the time and offered a girls' class and a guys' class. The Levy youth group class continued to meet and have the devo-style class and all of the community kids were given the option of going into that class or into the split classes down the hall. The guys' class went through a series on God, steps to salvation, and Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The girls' class studied the fruits of the Spirit, women in the Bible, and steps to salvation. For the most part, the community kids have remained in the split classes, but occasionally a few have chosen to be part of the youth group class. Our goal still remains to integrate these classes into one, but we've yet to come up with a painless way to that. We welcome any and all suggestions. :)
7)Some other fun events worth mentioning...
In January, some members took the high school community kids to Harding University for a tour and basketball game. It was a huge success.
Also in January, some of the ladies took six 6th-12th grade girls to Memphis for a Girls' Retreat. Also a great success.
In February, Bill Ehlig came to Levy and presented a Poverty Seminar for all of the Levy members who were interested in attending. Bill Ehlig has worked extensively with Ruby Payne in her work with poverty in the schools and adapted that to the church setting. He had some great insights to offer as far as the hidden rules of poverty and working with the families in our community.
8) A few weeks ago, Levy had it's first annual Community Day. It was huge and really needs to be a post of it's own. I'll get Ted working on that asap :) But the results have been outstanding - 20 baptisms, countless connections and bible studies, and a renewed interest from Levy members in evangelism to those in our community.
Whew...I'm tired. And I know I've left some things out. To the other "authors" of this blog - feel free to fill in whatever I didn't cover.
Our goals for the immediate future - 1)reorganize the 1st-6th grade classes for Wednesday nights to best meet the needs of ALL of the kids in those classes, 2) reach out to more of these kids' parents, and 3)recruit even more help from Levy members. If you're one of those people out there reading this, don't sit and complain before getting involved. Trust me, it's a waste of time :). Just give us a call and we'll put you to work.
I know I've written a lot and if you've hung in there through it all, good job! I'll just end by saying that I believe with all my heart that God has a plan for these kids and even when I'm at my wit's end, I'm grateful that He's included me in just a small piece of the plan. I'm also grateful for those that God has given us to work with in this ministry. May the next year be even more fruitful than the last!
Allison
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Heaven is Heavenly
So, I guess my ritual will be to blog each wednesday night about how class went. The reason why I named this post what I did is because we talked about heaven tonight. And we also only had 8 boys. So that is why heaven is heavenly. I know that is not the reason why it is heavenly but it sure did feel like it tonight. It was nice to talk without stopping and get through a lesson in a organized manner. We were able to talk casualy instead of dictator to servants. I know we joke about being tough on these kids and sometimes it is needed but I sure did enjoy talking with them like adults and not treating them like little kids.
I also talked with Phillip and he said that the elementary age classes are going better with the d-hall room set up. I am glad to here that because it was defintley a concern and worry that I had. We said from the beginning that we didn't want to drive any members off because of this ministry.
Ted told me tonight that Rico won Golden Gloves. He is an 11th grader that comes randomly now but was a regular for a while back in the summer and fall. He is a wild cannon but he does respect our church now and the people that help out on wednesday nights and I guess that is about all you can expect sometimes. So congrats to him, and I hope it takes him far.
If anyone is reading this that is not involved on Wednesday night, I invite you to join us. It really is an eye opening experience and if you were ever looking for a place to step out of your comfort zone, boy do we have a place for you.
I'll leave you with this and Mark said this earlier in his post but, LOVE NEVER FAILS AND OUR TIMETABLE FOR THINGS ARE NOT GOD'S TIMETABLE.
Justin
I also talked with Phillip and he said that the elementary age classes are going better with the d-hall room set up. I am glad to here that because it was defintley a concern and worry that I had. We said from the beginning that we didn't want to drive any members off because of this ministry.
Ted told me tonight that Rico won Golden Gloves. He is an 11th grader that comes randomly now but was a regular for a while back in the summer and fall. He is a wild cannon but he does respect our church now and the people that help out on wednesday nights and I guess that is about all you can expect sometimes. So congrats to him, and I hope it takes him far.
If anyone is reading this that is not involved on Wednesday night, I invite you to join us. It really is an eye opening experience and if you were ever looking for a place to step out of your comfort zone, boy do we have a place for you.
I'll leave you with this and Mark said this earlier in his post but, LOVE NEVER FAILS AND OUR TIMETABLE FOR THINGS ARE NOT GOD'S TIMETABLE.
Justin
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Church and Community - A History from My Perspective
This is a post that I've been struggling to write for my personal blog for quite awhile. I've started and stopped several times trying to find the words to express my thoughts and feelings about Levy and our place in the community. When Ted started this blog I told him what I'd been trying to write about and that I'd post it here. So here it is, a look at where Levy has been and where we're going in our efforts of Community Outreach. This is a little bit history, a little bit personal journey and a little bit jumping on my soapbox. This is a long post and I've had to leave out so much (no mention of the police, Christmas overkill, or the VBS experience).
Several years ago our church here in Levy came to a crossroads. Should we stay in our present location or was it time to rebuild elsewhere? A large portion of our building needed to be replaced plus we needed to expand. Like a lot of city churches as the economic level of our membership rose and the economic level of the area fell over the years, we became more of a commuter church than a neighborhood one. We decided to stay, we felt like we needed to be here, there was good that we could do here.
Unfortunately, we didn't do a very good job of reaching those in our neighborhood. I think we had forgotten how. Now this isn't a just a Levy problem, I think it's a problem with most U.S. churches in our situation. As society had changed, churches had become mini fortresses insulating us from the world, effective evangelism became focused on friends and people you knew. We no longer knew the people in our area; we were in the community but not really a part of it. I truly believe that God decided to give us a little help. If we couldn't figure out how to go to the people of our community then He'd just bring them to us. And boy did He!
I don't remember the exact order of the following events, but I believe God used these to open a door of opportunity and then shoved us through it. We had started having Wednesday night meals in our family center behind our church building. This was started as a convenience for working families and as a way to increase Wednesday night attendance. There are some apartment complexes that back up to our property behind the family center, at some point a big portion of these became government assisted apartments. This brought in an influx of single parent households. And we built a new education wing on our church building (more on the importance of this later). Also there was a basketball goal by the family center. Things started simply. A few kids from the apartments playing basketball; Wednesday meals; a few members noticed the kids, began interacting with them, invited them to the meals; numbers started to grow, tensions began to rise. A door of opportunity was opened.
I was oblivious to most of this beginning stage. But I had also come to a crossroads, I was tired of doing church, I wanted to be church (if that makes sense). It felt like something was missing. Be careful what you ask for, you never know what God's answer is going to be. One Sunday morning I was in the church office working on the powerpoint slides for the morning worship service, when a couple of friends who had gotten involved with these kids (I'll call them Doug and George) came in and began discussing the situation, I said I wanted to be involved. Gone was my safe, comfortable predictable Christian life, nothing has been the same since.
The number of kids coming down from the apartments and now the surrounding area continued to grow. Then it was like a shade had been pulled and they saw the rest of the church and the new education building, they were curious, they wanted to start coming to Wednesday night Bible class. Chaos ensued!
Over the next weeks, months, years, decades (I've lost all concept of time) we've stumbled and struggled to minister to these kids. I'd like to say that the church fell in love with these funny, smart, wild, unruly, ungrateful, sweet, rude, broken children and joyfully opened its arms and embraced them, but that didn't happen. I overheard too many of the comments and saw the looks on too many people's faces to believe that. But there were enough that did fall in love with these kids and enough that thought it was the right thing to do to keep things going.
Numbers grew along with tensions over the kid's behavior. A variety of classroom strategies were discussed and tried, unfortunately most resulted in creating separate classes for these kids (a solution George and I never liked but often reluctantly had to go along with). We had numerous discussions and meetings to find ways to deal with the problems (most of which left me frustrated and sad).
Then if Wednesday’s weren’t challenging enough, seemingly overnight most of the kids moved from the apartments. By then we had a connection with these kids, there was something at Levy that they were drawn to, and so they called. Now our neighborhood community ministry had morphed into a bus ministry also (actually a van ministry). Do you know how many kids you can stuff into 12 passenger vans? I’m not going to tell you, but it’s a whole lot more than 12.
One of the dangers that you have to deal with both as someone involved with these kids and the congregation as a whole is getting bogged down in the negative. When most of your efforts seem to be spent dealing with crowd control issues, classroom discipline, inappropriate language, transportation, and just trying to be a buffer between the kids and members that don’t seem to want them here anyway, then you add in the occasional fun of theft, a kid urinating in the stairwell, writing profanities on the mirrors in the bathrooms, a food fight at the meal and 3 fights breaking out on your overstuffed van the first time an elder rides with you, it’s easy to miss the good that’s going on around you. You don't notice how many of the kids are doing well at the meals and in class, soaking up the Bible lessons. You miss the smiles, the hugs, and the sparkle in their eye when they've done well. You miss the small steps forward, the slow lowering of walls. You miss seeing God working.
Two of my favorite moments:
Overheard comment by one of our regular van riders to a friend that she'd invited telling her much she was going to like coming to HER church.
One of our favorite kids had gotten in trouble in class one Wednesday (actually
he got in trouble most Wednesday's) and we'd told him we weren't going to pick him up the following week (we didn't tell him he couldn't come). The next Wednesday, about half and hour after starting the meal, we look up and here he comes pedaling his bike up to the pavilion and sheepishly asking if it was alright that he came. This was a 5th or 6th grade boy who had ridden his bike at least 2 miles (I think it was probably more like 4 or 5, if he lived where I think he did at the time) not knowing if once he got here we'd even let him stay.
Unfortunately,
We failed, I failed, the church failed. While we spent time trying to figure out the best way to fit them into our classes with the least amount of change or discomfort to ourselves, or how far we should drive to pick kids up, or discussing the need for structure and discipline, we forgot something. We failed to show them Jesus.
But God doesn't give up on us just because we fail.
We fell from averaging 40 - 60 kids down to about 7.
Before going on, I want to spend a little time looking at why I think we lost these kids.
Some of it was just the transitory nature of people living in poverty. They move around a lot. Phone numbers changed or disconnected, contact was lost.
Some were lost because we discontinued the Wednesday meals for a while. The meals are where we made our first connections with the kids and the foundation of our relationship with them. For us the meals are just a nice convenience but for these kids it's much more, it contributed to their sense of belonging, of acceptance. When we stopped the meals we took some of that away. Look at Jesus, why did so much of his teaching take place at meals, why did He eat with the poor and the outcasts, why did He use the imagery of feasts and banquets so much? I asked my wife (Dianna) what she thought about the meals and the kids, here's her response:
John 21:
15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you
truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.
We know He isn't speaking only of food to eat, but also spiritual food. Where better to feed our souls and spirit than at a meal? Where do families and friends gather in their homes? How many relationships are strengthened during our conversations and sharing at meal times?
When loved ones are sick, one of the first things we do is take food. We have a whole ministry of organizing meals for Levy families during times of sickness, death, and also when new babies are born. We aren't just assuring they have food, but comforting them, mourning with them, and celebrating with them. We show our love for them by feeding them.
Those of us who never have to worry about our next meal, don't have a clue what it's like to be hungry. Our main concern is what we're hungry for -- which meal to cook or which restaurant to go to. We have plenty and don't give it much thought. There are those who don't have that luxury. They are hungry. They do worry about what their next meal will be, and they especially worry about how they will get it.
"These Kids" on Wednesday nights are kids. They have no control over their background. They don't act the way we think they should because they have not been taught the way we have and they don't have the ability to change their lifestyles yet. We can show them a better future and hope by accepting them, feeding them, and showing them Jesus' love.
Some were lost because even though our heads told us this was the right thing to do, our hearts hadn't quite caught up yet. We couldn't be like Paul and "become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." This is something that we as people are not usually good at. We tend to associate with and seek out people that are like us. Churches are like this also, we set them up to meet the needs of its existing members. Local evangelism efforts are usually aimed at bringing in other people like us. Levy found itself in a unique position - a large number of people coming to us without us really even trying but the problem is that they don't look like us, act like us, or have the same religious background as us. Our initial response has been to try to force square pegs into round holes. We've tried to fit them into a system that wasn't designed for them. Clashes and failure were inevitable. Can we change; can we find a way to work thru these cultural, racial, economic issues? I don't know, the jury is still out, but I do see some encouraging signs. And if we do fail again it won't be because we didn't try.
Ok, back to the history. We're down to 7 kids, we continue to pick them up every Wednesday, eventually a few that we lost because of moves contact us and we start picking them up, then they invite friends. We gradually build back up to 15 - 20.
Things change again. The new Ministry Center has been finished for awhile, the Wednesday meals get reorganized and restarted. I'm not sure how the kids in the apartments rediscovered us, but suddenly we went from 15-20 to 30-40 and then it exploded. This started last spring, I'm not going to write about what has happened between then and now and how we are handling the situation (I'll let some of the others tell you that story).
But to give you an idea of where we are today -
We've been averaging 80 - 90 kids every Wednesday (we had 103 a couple of weeks ago).
We recently hosted a seminar on "What Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty", led by Bill Ehlig, and had about 90 of our members attend. (This has been in the works for several years. Our efforts to get this scheduled failed several times. Apparently, God knew the time wasn't right, until now.)
We just had our first Community Day. As part of our efforts to reach the parents of these kids and other adults in the area, this was done in conjunction with a door to door campaign and gospel meeting conducted by a group from Harding University. We had over 200 people from the community visit. We had games for the kids, information about the church, we had some health information from a few state and local agencies, we served a hot meal, we had the clothing bus from Sylvan Hills Church of Christ, we even had a fire truck. It was a big success. We met a lot of new people, a bunch of Bible Studies were conducted and quite a few baptisms occurred, people were put in contact with agencies to provide help, and a large number of our members (over 100 volunteers) got to mingle and get to know our neighbors a little better.
None of this has been easy; it's been a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. Each Wednesday is a challenge. There are myriad of problems to be solved and opportunities to be explored. Each week we sit at a tipping point between semi-controlled chaos and total out of control mayhem. But it's worth it.
Mark
Several years ago our church here in Levy came to a crossroads. Should we stay in our present location or was it time to rebuild elsewhere? A large portion of our building needed to be replaced plus we needed to expand. Like a lot of city churches as the economic level of our membership rose and the economic level of the area fell over the years, we became more of a commuter church than a neighborhood one. We decided to stay, we felt like we needed to be here, there was good that we could do here.
Unfortunately, we didn't do a very good job of reaching those in our neighborhood. I think we had forgotten how. Now this isn't a just a Levy problem, I think it's a problem with most U.S. churches in our situation. As society had changed, churches had become mini fortresses insulating us from the world, effective evangelism became focused on friends and people you knew. We no longer knew the people in our area; we were in the community but not really a part of it. I truly believe that God decided to give us a little help. If we couldn't figure out how to go to the people of our community then He'd just bring them to us. And boy did He!
I don't remember the exact order of the following events, but I believe God used these to open a door of opportunity and then shoved us through it. We had started having Wednesday night meals in our family center behind our church building. This was started as a convenience for working families and as a way to increase Wednesday night attendance. There are some apartment complexes that back up to our property behind the family center, at some point a big portion of these became government assisted apartments. This brought in an influx of single parent households. And we built a new education wing on our church building (more on the importance of this later). Also there was a basketball goal by the family center. Things started simply. A few kids from the apartments playing basketball; Wednesday meals; a few members noticed the kids, began interacting with them, invited them to the meals; numbers started to grow, tensions began to rise. A door of opportunity was opened.
I was oblivious to most of this beginning stage. But I had also come to a crossroads, I was tired of doing church, I wanted to be church (if that makes sense). It felt like something was missing. Be careful what you ask for, you never know what God's answer is going to be. One Sunday morning I was in the church office working on the powerpoint slides for the morning worship service, when a couple of friends who had gotten involved with these kids (I'll call them Doug and George) came in and began discussing the situation, I said I wanted to be involved. Gone was my safe, comfortable predictable Christian life, nothing has been the same since.
The number of kids coming down from the apartments and now the surrounding area continued to grow. Then it was like a shade had been pulled and they saw the rest of the church and the new education building, they were curious, they wanted to start coming to Wednesday night Bible class. Chaos ensued!
Over the next weeks, months, years, decades (I've lost all concept of time) we've stumbled and struggled to minister to these kids. I'd like to say that the church fell in love with these funny, smart, wild, unruly, ungrateful, sweet, rude, broken children and joyfully opened its arms and embraced them, but that didn't happen. I overheard too many of the comments and saw the looks on too many people's faces to believe that. But there were enough that did fall in love with these kids and enough that thought it was the right thing to do to keep things going.
Numbers grew along with tensions over the kid's behavior. A variety of classroom strategies were discussed and tried, unfortunately most resulted in creating separate classes for these kids (a solution George and I never liked but often reluctantly had to go along with). We had numerous discussions and meetings to find ways to deal with the problems (most of which left me frustrated and sad).
Then if Wednesday’s weren’t challenging enough, seemingly overnight most of the kids moved from the apartments. By then we had a connection with these kids, there was something at Levy that they were drawn to, and so they called. Now our neighborhood community ministry had morphed into a bus ministry also (actually a van ministry). Do you know how many kids you can stuff into 12 passenger vans? I’m not going to tell you, but it’s a whole lot more than 12.
One of the dangers that you have to deal with both as someone involved with these kids and the congregation as a whole is getting bogged down in the negative. When most of your efforts seem to be spent dealing with crowd control issues, classroom discipline, inappropriate language, transportation, and just trying to be a buffer between the kids and members that don’t seem to want them here anyway, then you add in the occasional fun of theft, a kid urinating in the stairwell, writing profanities on the mirrors in the bathrooms, a food fight at the meal and 3 fights breaking out on your overstuffed van the first time an elder rides with you, it’s easy to miss the good that’s going on around you. You don't notice how many of the kids are doing well at the meals and in class, soaking up the Bible lessons. You miss the smiles, the hugs, and the sparkle in their eye when they've done well. You miss the small steps forward, the slow lowering of walls. You miss seeing God working.
Two of my favorite moments:
Overheard comment by one of our regular van riders to a friend that she'd invited telling her much she was going to like coming to HER church.
One of our favorite kids had gotten in trouble in class one Wednesday (actually
he got in trouble most Wednesday's) and we'd told him we weren't going to pick him up the following week (we didn't tell him he couldn't come). The next Wednesday, about half and hour after starting the meal, we look up and here he comes pedaling his bike up to the pavilion and sheepishly asking if it was alright that he came. This was a 5th or 6th grade boy who had ridden his bike at least 2 miles (I think it was probably more like 4 or 5, if he lived where I think he did at the time) not knowing if once he got here we'd even let him stay.
Unfortunately,
We failed, I failed, the church failed. While we spent time trying to figure out the best way to fit them into our classes with the least amount of change or discomfort to ourselves, or how far we should drive to pick kids up, or discussing the need for structure and discipline, we forgot something. We failed to show them Jesus.
But God doesn't give up on us just because we fail.
We fell from averaging 40 - 60 kids down to about 7.
Before going on, I want to spend a little time looking at why I think we lost these kids.
Some of it was just the transitory nature of people living in poverty. They move around a lot. Phone numbers changed or disconnected, contact was lost.
Some were lost because we discontinued the Wednesday meals for a while. The meals are where we made our first connections with the kids and the foundation of our relationship with them. For us the meals are just a nice convenience but for these kids it's much more, it contributed to their sense of belonging, of acceptance. When we stopped the meals we took some of that away. Look at Jesus, why did so much of his teaching take place at meals, why did He eat with the poor and the outcasts, why did He use the imagery of feasts and banquets so much? I asked my wife (Dianna) what she thought about the meals and the kids, here's her response:
John 21:
15When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you
truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
17 The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.
We know He isn't speaking only of food to eat, but also spiritual food. Where better to feed our souls and spirit than at a meal? Where do families and friends gather in their homes? How many relationships are strengthened during our conversations and sharing at meal times?
When loved ones are sick, one of the first things we do is take food. We have a whole ministry of organizing meals for Levy families during times of sickness, death, and also when new babies are born. We aren't just assuring they have food, but comforting them, mourning with them, and celebrating with them. We show our love for them by feeding them.
Those of us who never have to worry about our next meal, don't have a clue what it's like to be hungry. Our main concern is what we're hungry for -- which meal to cook or which restaurant to go to. We have plenty and don't give it much thought. There are those who don't have that luxury. They are hungry. They do worry about what their next meal will be, and they especially worry about how they will get it.
"These Kids" on Wednesday nights are kids. They have no control over their background. They don't act the way we think they should because they have not been taught the way we have and they don't have the ability to change their lifestyles yet. We can show them a better future and hope by accepting them, feeding them, and showing them Jesus' love.
Some were lost because even though our heads told us this was the right thing to do, our hearts hadn't quite caught up yet. We couldn't be like Paul and "become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." This is something that we as people are not usually good at. We tend to associate with and seek out people that are like us. Churches are like this also, we set them up to meet the needs of its existing members. Local evangelism efforts are usually aimed at bringing in other people like us. Levy found itself in a unique position - a large number of people coming to us without us really even trying but the problem is that they don't look like us, act like us, or have the same religious background as us. Our initial response has been to try to force square pegs into round holes. We've tried to fit them into a system that wasn't designed for them. Clashes and failure were inevitable. Can we change; can we find a way to work thru these cultural, racial, economic issues? I don't know, the jury is still out, but I do see some encouraging signs. And if we do fail again it won't be because we didn't try.
Ok, back to the history. We're down to 7 kids, we continue to pick them up every Wednesday, eventually a few that we lost because of moves contact us and we start picking them up, then they invite friends. We gradually build back up to 15 - 20.
Things change again. The new Ministry Center has been finished for awhile, the Wednesday meals get reorganized and restarted. I'm not sure how the kids in the apartments rediscovered us, but suddenly we went from 15-20 to 30-40 and then it exploded. This started last spring, I'm not going to write about what has happened between then and now and how we are handling the situation (I'll let some of the others tell you that story).
But to give you an idea of where we are today -
We've been averaging 80 - 90 kids every Wednesday (we had 103 a couple of weeks ago).
We recently hosted a seminar on "What Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty", led by Bill Ehlig, and had about 90 of our members attend. (This has been in the works for several years. Our efforts to get this scheduled failed several times. Apparently, God knew the time wasn't right, until now.)
We just had our first Community Day. As part of our efforts to reach the parents of these kids and other adults in the area, this was done in conjunction with a door to door campaign and gospel meeting conducted by a group from Harding University. We had over 200 people from the community visit. We had games for the kids, information about the church, we had some health information from a few state and local agencies, we served a hot meal, we had the clothing bus from Sylvan Hills Church of Christ, we even had a fire truck. It was a big success. We met a lot of new people, a bunch of Bible Studies were conducted and quite a few baptisms occurred, people were put in contact with agencies to provide help, and a large number of our members (over 100 volunteers) got to mingle and get to know our neighbors a little better.
None of this has been easy; it's been a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. Each Wednesday is a challenge. There are myriad of problems to be solved and opportunities to be explored. Each week we sit at a tipping point between semi-controlled chaos and total out of control mayhem. But it's worth it.
Mark
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
2 steps forward, who knows how many steps back
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails
Satan does not like success.
Satan does not like success.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Our God is an Awesome God!!!
If you were to tell me a year ago that I would love so many kids that weren't my own, I would have had to tell you that you were crazy. God is so good in so many odd but perfect ways. Today was one of the best days of my life because Antwon decided to follow the gospel. He is a very mature kid for his situation and takes being a Christ follower serious. I pray that the other few that are mature enough take his example and run with it. Also, I agree with Ted, that Community Day was a huge success because one person was saved. But, like we said, this is the beginning, not the end. It is our job not to leave these people in the cold after a month of wrapping our arms around them. I love our church and I love our God for putting us at this church. I started teaching the jr/sr high boys for two reasons. One, to help prepare me for Romania and two, to help my friends. Now this ministry is something that I discuss with someone everyday and now my work in Romania is paying off here at home. I just pray that we can inspire our members to love these kids like we do. Thanks to Ted, Phillip, and Mark for being awesome leaders for this ministry and giving me the freedom to teach these boys.
Oh by the way, Antwon and I were walking up to church on Monday night and an older man from the campaign group walked up and congratulated Antwon. He said the day that he was baptized, a stranger walked up to him and told him to "live it and you won't ever regret it". So he told Antwon that. That is a great piece of advice. So my challenge to us as a group is to keep livin it. We won't ever regret it if we do.
Justin
Oh by the way, Antwon and I were walking up to church on Monday night and an older man from the campaign group walked up and congratulated Antwon. He said the day that he was baptized, a stranger walked up to him and told him to "live it and you won't ever regret it". So he told Antwon that. That is a great piece of advice. So my challenge to us as a group is to keep livin it. We won't ever regret it if we do.
Justin
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