Youth Ministry brothers and sisters,

Merry Christmas. I hope this holiday brings you a time of renewal and joy. Enjoy the time with family and do spend some time in prayer and the Word. For the arrival of the Christ child is truly a life changing and a life shaping moment, one we would do well to ponder.

Can you pass the egg nog?

Article


Thoughts?

There is a group from the Newark church (along with our University of Delaware campus ministry: Blue Hens for Christ)that will be going to the Gulf Coast to help with hurricane relief December 28-January 3 and December 28-January 12. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to leave and as we are down there working. I will try to update daily (hopefully with pictures as well) on my blog (http://www.matthewjameswilson.blogspot.com).

Here is the list of members of the Gulf Coast Mission Trips:

Darrell Swanson
Tom Deadmon
Cliff Bates
Diane Bates
Dave Blackwell
Angie Blackwell
Jon Ginter
Naomi Ginter
Michelle Wood (U of D)
Christina Plack (U of D)
James Lansing (U of D)
Matt Wilson
Caleb Smith
Rachel Friedline
Alayon Friedline
Joel Friedline
Anna Henry
Sean Henry
Curtis Hull
Lindsay Robison (U of D)
Stephanie Robison
Jared Ali (U of D)
Tim Kim (U of D)
Sherol Chen (U of D)
Ryan Matthews (U of D)
Jenn Tretto (U of D)
Tony Francioni
Tiffany Button (U of D)
Gina DiScala (U of D)
Frank Hutton (Nashville)
Phil Williams (Nashville)
Don Knieriem (U of D)
Virginia Besche(U of D)
Laurie Rohm (U of D)
Laura Armstrong (U of D)
Anna Rogers
Kelly Potter
Sarah Kinsley

We will be staying at the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. If you would like to see the relief effort with this group check out http://www.toccrecovery.blogspot.com and http://www.whereisawjesus.blogspot.com

***A side note: we are looking at having another trip during University of Delaware's spring break. This will be a CAMPUS WIDE/INTERFAITHS trip. It will be a great experience for this campus to come together under one cause. Keep it in your prayers and as more details come together I'll keep you informed about it.***

I wrote this last year and thought to share again Here:




'Twas the Night Before Youth Ministry

'Twas the Nite Before Youth Ministry,
When all through the church
Not a church was stirring, not even a pastor.
The budget minutes were done for the year with care.
In hopes that funds for the ministry next year would be there.
The church-goers had gone. All full of themselves.
With visions of only thinking of Thyself.
The Leadership wanted the last say on everything.
And the Senior Pastor had to be right on every theological thing.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter.
Several of us had sprung out of the church to see what was the matter.
As we entered the church parking lot What did we see?
But Angry parents and students wanting youth ministry for FREE!

More rapid than insults, the crowd made demands.
They had expectations of what they thought youth ministry looked like and added their demands.

They started to name the youth orgainzations by name:

Now "Youth For Christ, Young Life, FCA, and such, Campus Life, CEF, First Priority too let's put all these youth pastors to shame"

"You need to be like Bo Boshers, Doug Fields or some other mega church name ...maybe its 180 and putting all others to shame."

"To the top of the denomination, to the top of the glee of the crowd, we'd rather have glorified babysitting and we want it now."

So as the demands of the parents, full of themselves ....
Several others had cried as the silly demands had abound.

Youth Ministry is not a thing dressed up and made good.
It sometimes speaks of sex, drinking and peer pressure as one should.

It isn't about looking cool.
Or even having a Dodge Viper or Hummer or 2.

Youth Ministry is sometimes about stuff you don't have a clue.

It's about Jesus, church, loving God and others too.
And not another marketing tool.

All of the gimmicks make me want to laugh.
"Teach like Jesus" or get this item for half price and have your church grow without having the Spirit in it at all!

O the marketing - be the next Mega Thing rather than
Be Who God created you to be and not something else.

When will we learn?
When will we turn from this youth ministry as glorified babysitting thing?

Then I knew I had nothing to dread.
Jesus loved me, instead of these angry parents instead.

Jesus spoke such kindness and did such a good work.
He gave of Himself, and never was a jerk.
He was born as God's Son.
Human became.
Loved, died, rose, and is Coming Again!

As I think of Jesus, Youth Ministry and all ....
Its about being the church
And not this programming call.
So the next time someone gives you a complain.
Turn to them and proudly proclaim:

"I serve my Christ offering Him to all;
Love God and others is my Call."

Thus Youth Ministry is a calling and not sort of thing.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.


Parody by Gerrard R. Fess.

Copyright 2004. Permission granted to share everywhere just note the author

I have been so moved by the comments made from Gary that I took the time to encode the Oprah show into an mp3 that you can download by clicking here. Not sure about the legality of this, but the subject is just too important to be kept "analog." Don't worry the commercials have been removed and it's only about 40 minutes.

Originally published August 9, 1976 by Charles Shultz

The Us versus Them

Saw this over at YSMarko's site
and thought contributed much to the dialogue of the Critics of the Emergent Church. Here it is:

"I feel with many critics, the talking and arguing goes on and we keep missing each other because of the words we use and the different meanings behind them. Conversations can sound a lot like this . . .

church?
emerging church!
ahhh . . . no absolute truth?
no . . . church formation!
ahhh . . . building?
no . . . pub-house-coffeeshop!
ahhh . . . small group?
no . . . church!
ahh . . . youth?
no . . . wider!
ahhh . . . GenX?
no . . . worldview!
ahhh . . . contemporary, CCM?
no . . . yuk . . . hell no . . postmodern!
ahhh . . . hate modern?
no . . . after modern!
ahhh . . . critical theory?
no . . . emergent theory!
ahhh . . . no absolute truth?
no . . . truth!
ahhh . . . philosophy?
no . . . culture!
ahhh . . . culture over Scripture?
no . . . Scripture before culture!
ahhh . . . hate church culture?
no . . . love church!
ahhh . . reforming church?
no . . . fresh expressions!
ahhh . . . traditional church is stale?
no . . . need contextual!
ahhh . . . compromise?
no . . . prophetic!
ahhh . . . charasmatic?
no . . . more holistic!
ahhh . . . new age?
no . . . one true church!
ahhh . . . ecumencial?
no . . . missional!
ahhh . . . overseas?
no . . . cross-cultural right here!
ahhh . . . mission project?
no . . . missional movement!
ahh . . . exploiting?
no . . . redeeming!
ahhh . . . dominating?
no . . . emerging!
ahhh . . . no absolute truth?
no . . . what? . . . shut up!
"

Saw this on Oprah yesterday and I plan to show it to my kids this Sunday. It was very powerful and heartbreaking. You can watch and read the segment with Kirk Franklin by clicking here. If you are interested in showing it to your teens let me know and I could possibly send a copy to you. I DVR'ed it and plan to transfer it over to a VHS (remember those) tape.