Brooklyn Lindsey

A letter to the class of 2018 // I hope you shock the world.

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 18:39:00 +0000

So, I wrote a little letter to my 8th graders today. It makes me smile to see who they have been, who they are, and imagine who they are becoming. We're heading to the Goon Docks on May 17th for their 8th grade grad weekend (Typhoon Lagoon - register here) and we'll be celebrating them then!

Shouting out prayers for the Class of 2018. All of us here at HP Youth (HPNY) like you a lot. You are gorgeously created, unique, and wonderful. Here are my hopes for you.

Hey friends,

It's funny to think about the day I came to Highland Park Church.

You were seven years old, or eight. Bright eyed and looking forward

to youth ministry. These last three years you've shown your commitment

to showing up, to growing, and to serving others. You have even cheered each other on even when others

decided not to keep doing some of these things.

I love how the awkward sixth grade insecurity has turned into less awkward 8th grade confidence.

I like how you're not afraid to come to church looking like you feel, carrying each other

sometimes when you don't feel like coming in the first place.

Your small group leaders have laughed and cried and bribed you with candy for three years.

And you still love it. I'm going to miss seeing you sit in circles together. But I know those

circles will still be there for you through high school.

I know this, because the adults in our ministry care about you. They care about you because they know that they are significant and have something significant to offer you. I want you to know that we will do our best

to make sure that you always have trusted adults in your life to help you through some of the things

you'll face in high school.

You aren't always going to want to trust us. But we will keep fighting for your hearts.

And on the days you decide to continue trusting us, we will listen.

We will have fun--even on those days when tears are thicker than our laughter.

There may be some things we miss, or mistakes we make. Thank for loving us through that.

It seems funny to say that we love you.

Because at this point in your life, you're not mushy like that.

But we do.

I do.

We love you.

And I think you're brave for opening up your lives to the possibility of God's grace.

Will you keep doing that?

Even when you doubt it, will you return to it?

We don't mind your questions.

We do mind when you disappear.

When life gets busy--keep coming back.

You'll never regret the time you spent seeking Jesus.

Jesus is worth seeking.

Jesus is worth experiencing.

Many of you know this so well by now.

And many of you are spiritually contagious like the flu virus.

So keep doing that.

We have a lot to learn from you.

I want you to know that we are paying attention.

And even though you're moving on from one ministry to the next.

We aren't moving on from you.

I pray that the words you have learned from us here at church and in your small groups (and hopefully

made visible in our lives) will continue to sink deep into your hearts. That you'll be able to reach

for them when you need them most and offer them with others need them most.

I am incredibly blessed to be able to say you were in our youth ministry.

Thank you for loving us back.

With over confidence, with competition, with sheer insanity, with all-nighters, with hashtag everything, with pure joy, with matching outfits, with caffeine induced hyperactivity, with your axe spray, with your genuine hearts for worship, with your compelling leadership, with chaos, with your all-in approach to things you are passionate about.

This step into high school is a big one.

But the one that watches over your steps is a bigger ONE.

And that ONE's eyes will never leave you.

So, we may not be at your locker every day.

But we will be cheering for you and available if your locker is overwhelming,

or if your parents don't make it, or if you're confused or hurt.

We'll be here. Just call.

My hope is that you'll shock the world.

With your life.

With your purity.

With your bravery.

With your passion.

With your faith.

With your togetherness.

With your relentless pursuit of Jesus.

Shock them.

Show them what you're made of.

Shock the world with the something different that is in you.

We'll be right here--shocking the world with you--one step at a time.

Love,

Your Youth Pastor

Summer Camp Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 19:54:00 +0000

I can't help it.

I've been thinking about summer camp for most of the day.

Last night, I found my 6th grade autobiography, my first writing project for Mrs. Leedale. In one short chapter, I wrote about my weekend at 6th grade camp with my class at Wilson Middle School.

"It was the best time of my life."

"I miss my counselors. They really cared about me."

"I want to do something like that someday when I'm done with journalism school."

These were my actual thoughts. I don't know why I seem to think that landing in youth ministry was something haphazard and God blessed it because God is good like that.

I was actually wired for it.
It was something that changed me and gave me life when up to that point the my most special memory was a 3rd grade birthday party featuring a real horse and a Popple.

So, I'm not apologizing about spending an hour creating a Pinterest board for my ladies. Guys, I'll have Coy make one for you. I stink at picking out muscle tanks.

Here it is, a good start to summer camp awesome.
I hope you enjoy it.

Follow Brooklyn's board one piece peace (girl style for summer camp) on Pinterest.

The Word That Can Change Your Life & Ministry

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:40:00 +0000

I get asked the same question every day. It may be a text or a snapchat or a real time sentence spoken from from a friend. People want to know.

'Sup?

How are things going?

What are you doing tonight?

What's the plan?

Are we doing something later?

Go ahead.

Check your texts.

I’ll wait.

You've got a few don't you?

I think there's a good reason to ask about "doing".

What you’re doing usually says a lot about what you care about.

And what you care about is usually what you’re going to give your time to.

So, when a friend asks, what are you doing tonight?

They are wanting to know what you care about, what you are needing to do,

and if there’s room in your life to care about what they are doing/ caring about/ needing to do. And usually, they would like for you to join them.

I would say--in the many roles we have in ministry--it’s easy to get sidetracked by things--

all sorts of asks. It's not that they're not important. Because they might be. But there are some things that may be more important for others than they are for you.

Nod you're head if you're tracking.

It’s easier to check an Instagram feed than to go to a kids school for lunch.

We'd rather send an email to our leaders (real quick) than to train a leader to lead leaders (takes time). Even though face-to-face relationships are a priority. Even though leaders are the heart of our youth ministry. We find ourselves exhausting our time and resources avoiding the things that are most important to the vision, strategy, or life of our work.

It’s great to figure this out. Even better to find a way to fix it.

Fixing it means accepting a new way and abandoning an old way.

The default way that leads to distracted leadership can be summed up in a word: DELAY.

We have to make a decision to change from delaying what's important to doing what's important.

Instead of delaying that phone call.

We do it. We pick up the phone and commit to getting it done.

Instead of delaying the planning of the next quarter calendar--we map out the calendar. We put the time into making it happen. It isn't a course in astro physics. It's more like a basic understanding of cause and effect relationships. I'm pretty sure my teacher in the third grade explained it well. There are many moments in the life/ work flow that I need the reminder that things get done when we put effort into doing them. Crazy to think that I'd forget something like that, but I do.

That's why I’m not saying it’s easy. But I am saying it can be done.

I replace the temptation to delay what I do, with a commitment to do what I do.

I set goals every day.

If you know why you do what you do.

Then you’ll want to do what you need to get done to do it.

Maybe backing up to answer the "why" will help you with the desire that makes doing possible.

I picked up something from Donald Miller’s storyline productivity schedule that is helping me do this at this point in my journey. It's a question that I ask myself right away, every day, before my feet hit the floor in the morning, “if I could live today over again, I would….”

Asking that question at the beginning of the day helps me decide to do the things that I might be tempted to delay.

I will spend time on the floor with my kids.

I will take care of that project that matters to me.

I will finish painting my child’s bedroom.

I will rest and reward myself.

I will make that decision that I’ve been putting off.

I will go for a walk.

I will Instagram things that I like, not things that I think other people will like.

We can change the way we work by deciding to DO what needs to be DONE.

Let's start today.
Let's abandon delay.

"Whatever your task, put yourself into it, as it's DONE for the Lord and not for any other..." *Colossians 3:23

*BLT, Brooklyn Lindsey Translation

How Angela Ahrendts Is Leading Me In Youth Ministry || 10 Leadership Qualities

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 19:39:00 +0000

Want to get to know the woman behind your apple products?
I did. I wanted to get to know her and thanks to a story featured in Fast Company, I was able to do just that--in a small way at least. Maybe someday, I'll get to go to her office with her because I'd really love that. But for now, I'm just really happy someone listened to her story and wrote it down for us.

Her name is Angela. She's one of the most
polished, tenacious, creative, and well respected VP's on the planet.
I love that she's a wife, a mother, a thought leader, and an entrepreneur.

I think we have a lot to learn from her--and her 20 billion dollar company.

I first became acquainted with Angela Ahrendts through an article that I read in Fast Company magazine. It took me a few days to get through the article because it seemed at every paragraph there was something for me personally. Something I needed to dwell on and discover (or recover in some cases) in my own leadership style. I had to sleep on it and mull it over. I think this particular magazine holds the record for "longest time spent in my tote".

Angela transitioned from CEO at Burberry, a place that she brought to life with experiential shopping experiences and viral social media campaigns, to Apple who from the start had fallen in love with her collaborative spirit.

There's a word.
Collaborative.

I want to pause there.
Can we be more collaborative in our leadership?
I want to think so.
I also have failed at this before.
I have tried to get a job done in my own strength.
That's pride.
That's a mistake.
It's just flat out stupid.
That's the "I can get this done faster if I just do it myself" mentality that will cripple the creativity and longevity of my ministry and of yours too.

So, we need to get a grip on that.
Stat.

And there are other things. Things that Angela does that we can learn from and try to do better in our roles as advocates for the love of Christ in our world.

I want to show you a side-by-side. What her choices look like for her companies (VP perspective) and what those same choices could look like for our ministries (YP perspective).

VP Quality #1

Compassion. Humility. It's saying "thank you".
Fast Company tells the story of a compassionate leader who doesn't shy away from a genuine care and concern for others. She acknowledges when others do things that benefit the company or other people around them. She is a mirror becoming compassion and reflecting it too.

YP Quality #1

Compassion. Humility. Saying "thank you".
This way of life and leadership is not only possible for us--but desired of us. When ministry chaos increases. We can be tempted to forget acknowledging those who help us, those who serve us, and those who need us. We have the greatest opportunity in our own homes, in our offices, and with our volunteers and lay leadership.

VP Quality #2

Angela is a conversationalist who listens more than she speaks.

YP Quality #2

It may seem hard to do this, especially if you're the main communicator in your ministry. But with a little effort, this reality can switch. The more we listen, the more we will understand. As we understand, we will feel more compassion. Compassion and passion are tied together--if we are truly "suffering with" or having empathy for or walking in solidarity with those around us--nothing will stop us in our creativity to connect, create, and lead well.

VP Quality #3

The VP at apple asks lots of questions.
She puts herself in other people's positions.
She listens.

YP Quality #3

The youth pastor waits. Observes. Listens. The focus shifts to others.
She puts herself in other people's positions.
She listens and listens and feels what's happening.
Then she leads the way.

VP Quality #4

She believes empathy is one of the greatest creators of energy.
There is a knowledge that this kind of creators of energy will feel counterintuitive because it's selfless.

YP Quality #4

He puts self to the side daily. He understands that it may not feel natural to empathize because it's a learned behavior, a replacement done by the work of the Holy Spirit--so we ask for help and we look for ways to create energy with genuine empathetic responses.

VP Quality #5

VP's take an Alice In Wonderland class in college. Joking. But you might think it. Angela is a curious leader. She asks, "why are we doing this"? "What is new?" "What would this look like if we didn't have limitations."

YP Quality #5

Youth leaders become curious and curiouser.
We walk into rooms, into planning, into conversations with eyes wide open.
We are the great question askers. We imagine what could be as we ask "why" and "why not?" What would lives look like if we made this change? Or took this risk? Or said no to some things? Or said yes to some big things?
The greatest question of my undergrad career, posed by my friend and professor Rick Ryding was, "why do you do what you do when you do it" and we have to keep asking that question.

VP Quality #6
Negativity isn't found in Angela's intensity.
She isn't a pressure leader. She is a possibility leader.
She shares big news with her team first. She thinks of them before she thinks of herself.

YP Quality #6
She is full of positivity. Even when changes are needing to be made. Even when things don't go as planned. Even if the tide shifts in an unexpected direction, she looks into the future with God's potential in her pocket. She is living the great commandment to love God and love others with the same intensity. If that is her goal, she will struggle to be negative in anything she does. Because she will be less than we in her mind.

VP Quality #7

Angela usually has one main message. It's "thank you."
She'll do a weekly video update to her large team.
She will treat it as just as important as a meeting with high level execs.

YP Quality #7

Youth Pastors spend a lot of time working on and preparing for those times when we get to communicate with our leaders. We get creative. We send videos. We make it easy for them to hear from us. We say thank you. Again and again.

VP Quality #8

She puts a project before her team.
Occasionally, at Burberry, Angela would make a request.
"If you make a personal call to one customer today, if you all do this, we all win."

YP Quality #8

The youth pastor knows her top priority.
She focuses her team and her students on that by giving them something to do.
She inspires meaningful cooperation and participation because she sees the win and sees
the win being accomplished together.

VP Quality #9
She has a routine--a pattern for alone time.
No leader can lead on empty.
For Angela, it's reading, a bath before work, rest and focus.
It's time spent in the pages of Maya Angelou and John Maxwell.

YP Quality #9

The youth pastor makes space every day to recover for some time.
To pour out requires equal pouring in.
All of us have different nozzles for the filling.
Mine is exercise, being outdoors, reading, listening to music.
It's time spent in the pages of The Gospels, in the book of James, with Kathy Escobar, Gary Haugen, Tsh Oxenreider, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Donald Miller, Reggie Joiner, and Michael Hyatt.

VP Quality #10

Her job is to be a brilliant brand ambassador. She doesn't sell.
Her vocation is to build and amazing brand experience that
brings natural effects.

YP Quality #10

Youth ministry isn't about selling Jesus. It's about seeing Jesus and knowing Jesus and doing everything we can to be an ambassador in experiences built around Jesus. It's a vision to create an environment that champions spiritual formation and family. As we do this we advocate for the church and continue to be the messangers of God's good Story that we were called to be committed to from the start. Created in God's image and bearing it---we become the experience and we share it with others. The natural side effects are too many to count.

What can you learn from the successful people around you?

Brownwyn & Brooklyn // 2 Things I needed to move forward from fear.

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 18:08:00 +0000

The view that day.

When I’m afraid, I’ll cover myself with feathers and hide. (Said nobody, ever.)

A more realistic look at a fearful situation might look something like this. When I’m afraid I’ll act disinterested. I’ll get suddenly tired or sick. I may miss my alarm and wake up late. Oops.

This is how I feel every time I get a chance to go surfing.

I’m not afraid of the things that you might guess

Shark attacks, for example.
Meh.

Jellyfish stings.

Whateves.

Sharp reef or rigid rock poundings.

No big deal.

Suffocating in seaweed.

Worse things could happen.

These are all valid concerns for anyone going for a dip in an ocean. But nothing terrifies me more than cold water.

That’s right, cold water.

I’m a wuss when it comes to cold water. Sharks, rocks, reef, stings, all of these things are probable but cold water is inevitable. It’s shocking. It takes your breath away.

It’s been the thing that has kept me from going out in the water for years. I have a board. I have an ocean. I have a solid surfer husband. But if the weather isn’t blazing hot and the water temp isn’t warm/ tropical/ bath-like…I stay on the beach, wishing I had the guts to get out there.

One time, I ended up at one of my favorite places on earth, on the beach in San Diego, on my birthday. It wasn't planned. But it could have been the best birthday surprise that I can remember.

My husband and our friends were surfing a fun little break in California--while I stood on the beach watching. It was still the best day ever, even if I wasn't in the water.

Then, I met a girl named Brownwyn.

Brownwyn was a senior at Point Loma, with a generous heart. She and her friends walked up out of the water and onto the beach and I asked her if she wanted to take a crazy person surfing.

We were strangers but I felt like we were friends because she could do something that I wanted to do someday and because they were smiling. Smiling is an instant qualifier for friendship in my book.

After we talked and I shared my irrational fear of cold water. She told me to come by her apartment sometime. She would let me borrow her wet suit and her board. She also told me she’d go with me.

They next day when the guys snuck away to go surfing I had them drop me off at her house. I had to do it. Or at least give it a try. I knocked on her door and hung out with her. She was one of the nicest people--her friends too. How weird was I?! But I was going to go for it. I put on her suit (she is about 5’4…I’m 5’11 so there may have been some pulled muscles just stretching it to fit me).

We hiked down the cliff, scaling the rocks with our boards, to the place where my husband and friends were in the water.

Once we reached the beach. She walked right in and paddled out.
I followed. Like a puppy trusting it’s owner, I walked into the unknown.

The surprise. I wasn’t cold.

The shock. I wasn’t fearful.

We paddled out in between sets like I’ve been doing it my whole life.

It seemed too easy.

Her confidence spilled over into my day and I caught a wave.

It was almost too much for me. And I started thinking about what the difference was between now and then--the then when I wouldn't get in.

All of this time had passed and one little thing stood between me and those waves.

Protection.

A wet suit was all I needed and a friend to guide me in….

I’m sure you’ve been afraid before. You may be fearing something now. That test. That text message. That weekend with your stepfather. The girl at school. The feelings of anxiety. The next game. The next opponent. The ridiculous assignment. The “what ifs” and the “why nots”. The unexpected. The unpredictable. That choice. The weird sound coming from your car when you drive it.

I’m sure you’ve decided that you’re better off avoiding the source of your fear (for me cold water) because who wants to see someone taking cover, running for your life, freezing to death, being made to look scared?

So we avoid, instead of doing the thing that is best for us.

Taking cover, getting protection, then moving forward.

We spend more time thinking about what we'll do next weekend than we do planning our life today. That day, I planned my day by finding what I needed to take the next steps. In that moment, it was protection and friendship.

Where does our protection come from? For a surfer it comes in a seal like suit. Some wear hoodies an booties, for the extra icy temperatures.

For us, in our every day- just living life lives, protection looks like the Word of God. It looks like friends who get our fears but don’t let us drown in them. They look a lot like Brownwyn who calmly led me out to what she knew I could do once I had been prepared.

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.” Psalm 91:4-6

Give God your fears.

Ask that he cover those fears with his feathers.

Rest under his wings away from the thoughts that hold you captive.

His unchanging faithfulness will guard you.

Nothing will cause fear in that place of protection.

And know that that place of protection goes with you, it’s not a secluded alone in your room place or hidden in a cave or stuck under a rock, that place of protection, like a wet suit of warmth, goes with you as you go, as you trust, as you dive into deep waters that yes, could harm your life and your limbs. But the fear will not keep you from taking those courageous steps that can bring you to life again. Go together, with a friend, with someone who also trusts in that same protection. He or she will be a reminder that can do this. You don’t have to be afraid.

God, I pray for those who feel sad or afraid right now. Give them a wet-suit. Give them a friend. Remind them that you're right there with them, right now, right with.

A March Madness Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 20:05:00 +0000

there aren't any words.

only this video.

and a few shining moment tears.

(you're welcome. i am happy to bring you relevant and grammatically correct videos for your youth ministry environment. proceed with your best john wall with thanksgiving in your heart.)

x

Leading Students To Justice: A Conversation with Neely

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 04:31:00 +0000

There's This Dare

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 03:06:00 +0000

How old are you?

15?

51?

I hope it has occurred to you that it doesn't matter your age, but what you do with the minutes that add up to the sum of who you are.

There's a book I read recently called "Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally In A Chaotic World" by Tsh Oxenreider. I honestly didn't want it to end. I purposefully spent hours alone laughing and crying and reading (sometimes two or three times) the pages. It's only been a week and I'm ready to read it again. *First for me. Second for we.

One thing is certain. I'm not going to be able to digest this book in one blog post. So I'll just stick with the forward for tonight and try to share as many thoughts as I can as I have time.

I agree with Ann Voskamp (author of One Thousand Gifts) that this book oozes with
refreshing possibility.

Whether your 13.

Or 31.

Or 62.

Or 93.

Wherever we are, our minds can be renewed. Our reality transformed to match the vision of God.

There's no other way but with God's help, but I'm certain we have to wake up to the idea of it before we can even move in that direction. Saying out loud that a revision is needed is a good place to start, saying it's important to live on purpose, for a purpose, and free of shame.

King Solomon, who wrote in the book of Proverbs, once said "without vision, the people perish."

He was revered as wise for a reason.

Tsh points us to find or recover our vision in every area of our lives.

As I read I imagined teenagers deciding to live and be different because they have a new heart, a new courage, a new purpose. I see moms and dads not surrendering to the status quo because they have decided to take time to shape their children's hearts. I see adults in frenetic places, quieting and knowing in the stillness before God that there's a better more peaceful and more purposeful way. I see all of these people, including myself, saying yes to leaving the other option (chaos) behind to explore the goodness of God found in every waking moment--even if that waking moment be chaotic--there is stillness to be found at the center of it.

Ann, in the forward of the book, describes the dares she finds in it's pages:

-a dare to live fully right where they are--right where they are called to be
-a dare to live their dreams instead of living their default
-a dare to do more than make a living someday--a dare to make a life
-a dare to intentionally live the life they intended to live

There's a journey for you, a road sign with your name on it.
Have you found some space this week to ask yourself who you are?
Whose you are?
Why you live?
What you are living for?

Are you actually living?

As I read the forward to the book and smelled the meal my husband and I had prepared together in the kitchen, I could see it. I could see a glimpse of this intentional life. Balanced by more than my yes and my no. Balanced by a contentment and a wakefulness in the moment that we have before us.

And the phone rings.
She's 14.
And she needs to talk to someone.
I am here in that moment.
Silencing my thoughts to listen.

Friends meet up at the lake for a run with the setting sun.
We breath in humidity and exhale laughter and relief.
Blood flows. Lungs expand.

I tuck them in. I kiss their foreheads.
I tell them they are loved with a beautiful without end love.
I am here in that moment, receiving their joy and innocence.
Giving them my presence and my love.

I reach out my ice cold toes toward that warm body laying on the couch next to me.
Relaxing and saying with no words at all--I'm so glad you are here with me.

So, there's this dare---Tsh and Jesus are calling us to it--to live as if this whole heaven thing were real (and it absolutely is) to live as if it could be real here and now (because it can and will be if we wake up to it).

.

$3 Pirate Prom | Because What Would a Prom be without Pirates?

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 21:18:00 +0000

It may be surprising to some. But us youth leaders, we pretty much don't do anything.

Many thanks to Carol, one of our volunteer leaders, for seeing the best in us and suggesting that we tell the world the truth about what we do all day.

Video props to gunnizle. Who else? He's the only one who actually works a few hours a week.

Oh, and we're having a prom again. But we felt like something was missing.
Pirates were definitely missing.

Learning To Lead Small

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 16:20:00 +0000

-->

This is us.

Sarah, Neal, Brooklyn, & Tomy

Four people who represent the age ministries of Highland Park Church. (0-5) (6-11) (11-13) (14-18 ish) Combined our team has hundreds of leaders and volunteers who fuel the ministries that we lead.

For the last 6+ years, we’ve had a growing desire that we would begin to align our ministries better. We are a church is a community simply seeking to lead others to love God and to love others. And how we do that for our children and youth is important to us--it's important to begin aligning our strategy in order to live on mission.

We are at a point in our growth that we see the value of layers of ministry echoing the same heart. Not just lip service, but for real on the same page plans and actions service.

Some of it boils down to shared leadership, genuine partnership, and a willingness to listen to each other. And some of it boils down to nailing down a strategy—and defining our target.

This fall, the four of us and a dozen of our leaders attended a ministry training weekend together—called Orange Tour.

At the end of the weekend, we were all thinking Orange could be the thing that helps us with our goal to be a family ministry to children and youth but also a ministry for and with parents (since parents are where it’s at when it comes to who has the most chips in a child’s experiences).

Image source: ReThink Group

There are other organizations out there and resources as well for youth ministries to move in this direction, to value the significance and influence of the family as well as teach us how to take steps toward a more intergenerational approach to ministry, I feel like these things have primed the pump so to speak, for a shift in our thinking.

After we attended the tour together, we began integrating Orange strategy into our ministries-part of this strategy is how we lead in small groups.

Before I explain what I feel is the most exciting part of our learning—I should probably tell you what Orange is.

I like how they say it on their website,

“As children we were in constant wonder—the dazzle of life provoking us toward discovery. And as we turned over rocks and stared at the stars, we found something surprising. We found a light glimmering in our hearts. The light of passion.

Orange is a path, a strategy with the intent to return to that glimmering, that passion, and to rouse it in the next generation. You can find the Orange Strategy in the color: combining the strength of two—red and yellow—for the brilliance of another, Orange.

So, an Orange thinker asks, “What if church leaders and parents synchronized their efforts to fuel wonder, discovery and passion in the next generation?” By combining the critical influences of the light of the church (yellow) and the love of the family (red) the Orange Strategy shows a generation who God is more effectively than either could alone.”

I love being on the same page. And in this case, a literal page. I read a book that I picked up on tour called Lead Small. And we are excited to begin to work with our leaders on this next step in their ministry development. My friend Elle Campbell has some incredible experience leading her small group leaders around Lead Small ideas and I can't wait to use some of the things she offers to other ministries like mine. (Check out this awesome parent | leader breakfast she did! We're currently working on this.)

We are just getting our feet wet but one of the big wins for us has been a rethinking of the role of the small group leader.

Here's a little outline of some priorities that were expressed in the book (that we'd like to adopt at HP Youth) and also a few ideas about how we're going to get started in each area. We currently have hundreds of children and youth gathering in circles with fun and loving adults. I can only imagine how we will grow as we become even more intentional about what happens in those circles.

We want to adopt five priorities for building faith in the next generation (source: Lead Small)—because we are learning that,

a. Every generation needs a bigger story

i. Psalm 78:4-7 “We will tell the next generation of the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord”

b. There is POTENTIAL in the family to influence their own kids

c. Families can believe in the POTENTIAL of the church to influence their sons & daughters

d. A combined strategy (family with faith community) demonstrates the message of God’s story, and influences another generation.

e. Synchronizing with others leaders ALIGNs leaders and parents to lead with the same end in mind

“The essence of strategy is in choosing what not to do.”(LS)

We’re going to pick five things that are taking energy away from strategies and stop doing them in our ministry areas.

“Just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean that it’s not incredibly stupid.” (LS).

What does saying no to 1000’s of programs and projects give us an ability to do?

1) Partner with Parents

2) Integrate Strategy (leaders/ parents/ church staff)

3) Enhance Student Worship (Come)

4) Multiply Small Groups (Grow/ Relationships)

5) Offer Student Experiences (Serve/ Significance)

f. What does refining the message look like for us this year?

i. focus on using fun as a means

ii. using understandable language (work on this…being crystal clear..make the complicated awesomely simple…say less…more often…intentional layering of who says it…creativity)

iii. take responsibility for whether or not it connects (make changes)

g. What does reactivating our ministry with parents as partners look like?

i. demolish the 1/5 ratio (1/5 parents nationally say that they have never been contacted by their church

ii. apply strategy: connect with PARENTS TO DISCUSS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO INFLUENCE THEIR CHILD SPIRITUALLY

1) Give them a plan.

2) Show them how it works

3) Tell them what to do today (specific instructions)

iii. Define spiritual leadership for them.

h. What will it look like to elevate community?

i. life groups invest strategically

1) Leaders are present

2) Leaders create a safe place

3) Leaders Partner with Parents

4) Leaders make it personal

i. What it will look like to leverage our influence of Life Groups/ Leaders

i. plan 3 adventures/ experiences/ points of significance each year

1) Cause Event & Outreaches

2) Camp

3) Mission Experience (Camp/ Trip/ Local/ Abroad)

And there's a critical question:

What makes us think that children/students will do ministry when they leave Highland Park if they never do ministry while they are with us?

Lastly, how will we evolve our communication style to connect?

ii. evolve style (creative efforts increase, hands on learning trumps old school rules)

iii. maintain value for the truth (we continue to hold up the truth of God's Word even when our teaching styles and methods change)

I loved this book and think every person who has ever sat in a circle with children or youth should pick it up and remember why we do what we do. It’s important not to miss the potential that sits in that circle and the possibility of future faith that increases when we become even more intentional about the things we say and do with a few.

Reading for "Me" & Reading for "We" | A Change In My Approach to Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 04:40:00 +0000

Two months into 2014, I have read three books, from cover to cover.

What is wrong with me? (Or better said, what is right with me?)

It's been a long time since I've read a book all the way through and I'm not proud to admit that there are dozens of books on my shelf that I have read exactly 1.5 chapters and the conclusion.

I used to live for reading. I used to check out 16 library books (the max) in the 5th grade because they let 5th graders do that and I would stack them up in my room and open them up and devour them from cover to cover--staying up way to late and barely being able to wake in the morning because I loved reading so much. Consequently, I learned about the life of Mozart and Beethoven and a person named Nancy Drew. I also learned astronomy and about robotics and about a really sad love story that was way over my head. I even read a book that I didn't formerly "check out at the desk" but informally tucked away in my bag because I was too ashamed to let anyone know that I really wanted to learn about how bodies worked and why my body was changing. I returned it after reading it and and traded it for a gripping John Grisham laywer mystery novel.

Then I decided murder mysteries were my thing and I read every Christopher Pike book ever written.

But I slowly gained a few layers to my life. Two little girls who I would rather read Olivia's tales of world travel to or stories about a boy and his bear Winnie-the-Pooh use some of this time previously spent for my own enjoyment. It's been busy in ministry and I like being outside and I like working out and I like getting to make spur of the moment plans to watch a movie at the theater with my family on a school night. There are a lot of things to consider and sometimes I miss letting myself sink into a book for the pure enjoyment of learning or for the simple curosity of peering into another world.

I made a decision to take better care of myself this year by not letting myself highlight or "use" anything I was reading until after I have read it for myself, enjoyed it for myself, experienced for myself.

This is the temptation of being a youth leader, pastor, writer, teacher....
we are mining books, blogs, media for "thought gold" and denying ourselves the opportunity to grow and learn as the receiver.

It's also why it's important to read the Bible in a non-planning, non-preaching, non-tweeting mode at some point every day. May we be so empty, that we can be so full. And out of that fullness we can serve, lead, teach, create, and offer up wonderful things to others.

While finishing three books in their entirety may not seem like a mountain, it has been for me and I'm in awe at all that I'm learning as I read slow, not to only to know something more, but to grow something within.

Now, I'm heading into round two on all three books, this time to read it for others.

I think this is a better way. It may not be that I'm always afforded the luxury of reading books twice, once for "me" and once for "we" but it seems like a pretty great plan so far.

I look forward to talking about what I'm learning in the posts to come.

Here are the books that are settling in my bones right now.

1. Jesus Feminist - Sarah Bessey
2. Lead Small - Reggie Joiner, Tom Shefchunas
3. The Blue Bike - Tsh Oxenreider

I've read all three. And each has been a wonderful adventure for me.
I'll take the time to read all three again and share my thoughts on how they can apply to life and youth ministry, then move on to three more books.

Looking forward to how this will work out--and I would love to know what you are reading for you and what you're reading for others and if they are the same things.

Heart Stuff | The Prayers of our Students

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:03:00 +0000

Small group leaders are the jam.

They have such an incredible connection with our students and faithfully carry the burdens
of their few. We've been focusing on spending more time in prayer with their groups.
I've been gathering their requests and literally carrying them in my bag everywhere I go.
They're real and raw and I don't want them to get lost in the programs that we prepare. Their
hearts are asking for relief.

Since we are a place where people can find and experience Jesus--we pray. Together with their parents and small group leaders we practice a trusting faith, that includes sharing our burdens.

Will you carry these burdens in your heart as you pray--burdens that our middle school students carry around with them--and they're heavy--will you pray over them with us? And we'll pray for your students too.

Here are a few that we carry...

"I pray that God would help my friend be safe."
"Girls think I'm invisible unless I'm being funny."
"I am envious."
"God, please help my dad."
"I feel like I'm growing away from God, like I'm falling to pieces. I am just a shadow."
"Help my mom make a friend."
"My best friend has suicidal thoughts and is depressed."
"Help me not love food so much."
"My grandma. She needs to stop smoking."
"Can you help my friends become real and talk to me more?"
"The parents are having issues."
"I'm really sorry for the ones I have hurt."
"Protect broken hearts."
"Can my family stay healthy?"
"Help"
"I want to be pure, but it seems impossible."
"Protect the ones who are bullied in my school."
"The divorce."
"Cancer, can you take it away?"
"I pray that we can start loving life again."
"Grades. Stress. History Fair."
"I'm insecure about the way I look."
"I miss being able to talk to my mom about everything."
"Help me not be anxious."
"I'd like to trust people again."
"It's hard never being someone's first choice."
"I look in the mirror and feel sad about my body."
"I feel like I am a burden to my family."
"I lie to my mom and fight with my brothers. I really want to stop."
"Can someone pass the ball to me?"

Cereal Is Better At Night

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 20:11:00 +0000

Cereal is better at night. If you don't know this yet, then please try it very soon. You're missing a huge part of God's created order.

I also like writing at night. But lately, my evenings have lacked the environment I need to focus past my cereal to the keyboard. Mainly because we have a nighttime ninja in our house. Her name is Mya. She just turned four and she thinks she is invisible. So, she runs around, blond hair streaking behind her, gathering toys and books like a squirrel and playing games on a cell phone we didn't even know she had while hidden under pillows or in corners of the house. It's sort of fun watching it happen just moments after we have put her back in bed and have asked her nicely not to get out of bed again. Ok, it's funny for like a second. I love this time and I've learned to worry less about what's getting done and pay attention more to what is getting taught by my attention or inattention to my children. I sort of feel like we are doing OK in this area because I usually only need one or two bowls of cereal on nights like these instead of a whole box.

In other less distracted moments this year I've been writing away on some topics that matter to us in the movement of our every work with teenagers and adults in the church.

I feel like the conversation is richer when more people are involved in it--so I'm grateful for these organizations who give my writing a wider ministry.

Here are some things I've been writing about in 2013-2014. I hope you'll pour a bowl of your favorite cereal and join the conversation.

Parents | The Other 119 Hours

Ending Childhood Hunger | We Never Need Nobody
Justice | That's Going to Leave A Mark
Poverty | Parker Street Possibilitarians

Camp | 10 Reasons Why It's a Good Idea To Send Your 6th Grader To Camp
Camp | The Picnic Table | Why Camp Leaders Mean So Much To Me
Personal Growth | What Are You Thinking About in 2014?
Personal Growth | Do You Need a Digital Detox?
Heart | Why Small Stuff is Really Big Stuff
Advice | Making the Team
Camp | Those Chairs & Why We Need To Sit In Them
Students | Back To School Bucket List
Students | Never Too Small

Team | 5.5 Ways to Really Connect With Others At Work
Heart | God If I Were You....
Personal Growth | R Words and Twitter Haterz
Conflict | Kill Your Emails Not Your Friends
Generosity | From Deep Wells
Creativity | 15 Ways To Rescue Your Creative Side
Summer Service | What I Wish I Knew
Personal Growth | Youth Ministry Yoga

Students | What Can Happen In A Day
Serving | To Be Known
Education | 5 Things I Learned During the 30 Hour Famine

Can the Holy Spirit change the future of your ministry?

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 16:54:00 +0000

Without the Holy Spirit, I wouldn’t be in working in the church.

Without the Holy Spirit, I wouldn’t stay in ministry with the church.

Without the Holy Spirit, I’d be doing ministry for all the wrong reasons.

I boast in my weakness.

I am tempted to chase after temporal things. Because I was born with DNA that gave me above average height, clear skin, an athletic frame, and long limbs (not that I’m complaining)--it became easy for me to believe, even at a very young age, that I had to be one of two things. A model or a basketball player. After scoring a lot of points on my basketball team (for the other team), I sunk my heart into a Victoria’s Secret catalog and dreamt that I’d be on those pages someday. For all the wrong reasons, I truly wanted that.

If it wasn’t for the Spirit’s gentle and convincing work in my life, chances are I wouldn’t have ditched this empty dream for a full one that has led me here, to the most fulfilling life I could live--modeling to a different crowd--and for different reasons.

The Holy Spirit helped me see how my life could be transformed through a conduit of trust. The Spirit knew what I needed when I needed it--and gave those things to me. The Holy Spirit led me into youth ministry.

So, this part of God--the part that walks beside me and lives in me--is the same part that fuels the vision, mission, values, and practices of a ministry for and with teenagers.

The Holy Spirit is my counselor.

Jesus said he would give us “another counselor” (John 14:6) and he has done that for me. As I serve the church my Counselor helps me with everything from the smallest decision to the really big ones. My Counselor helps me to live my life in His life. I need a clean heart to be able to see where there is jealousy, anger, and unloving attitudes. There is a rigorous replacement happening, my will for his. And when I’m stubborn and stall, I’m comforted to know that I’m still not alone or abandoned in the process.

We need the presence of the Holy Spirit to help us ditch plans sometimes and go with God, in our plans, in our relationships, in how we carry out youth ministry in our communities.

The Holy Spirit is the power. (Acts 1:8, Luke 24:29)

When the Spirit is given space to purify my heart, to perfect love in me, I have power in ministry. I’m able to lead and speak with confidence, even in my weakness! Because His power is made perfect in those moments.

There is always the temptation to be all about me, to worry only for my own comfort, goals, and ideas. But the Holy Spirit guides me surrender selfishness for a genuine awareness of others. I can’t do it on my own. I don’t have enough light in me to be what I need to be, but the Holy Spirit is able to do this.

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in me. (1 John 3:24)

It’s what happens at the altar at camp. It’s what happens in our conversation at Chic-fil-a. The presence of God fills our smiles, our high-fives, and our hugs for those with tears. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in my sermon writing--the check in my gut that says “now is the time to talk about this..” or “maybe you should go in another direction”.

We try to look for the Holy Spirit at work in our students as well. We can overlook that God dwells in them--just as he dwells in us.

We make it known to our students and leaders that the Holy Spirit is given a free pass to roam the halls and rooms of our ministries, and our hearts, we want to be following close enough to receive inspiration and direction.

Life and ministry is never empty. God is here with me and God is with all of us. My prayer is that the Kingdom of God would be larger for our willingness to be filled with Christ, that youth ministries would receive power as their leaders receive it, and that we would be living in grateful and prayerful response for the gift of the Spirit.

How is the Holy Spirit changing the shape of your youth ministry?

Original Slant Blog Post: By Brooklyn Lindsey
Used with permission. www.barefootministries.com

Image Rights: Vladstudio

Prayer Spaces: Selfies And Space to Rest

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 20:16:00 +0000

It's been awhile since I've written about prayer spaces.

Maybe because I feel like our lives have been a little schizophrenic since our last vacation (the one where we almost didn't go on vacation because I forgot to check the expiration dates on our children's passports, the one where I had to look my little girl in her precious eyes and tell her that I'm sorry and that I was disappointed in myself and that we wouldn't leave her there in Miami alone...thank God for miracles and for grace and for that one lady who saw the grief in my eyes and made an exception for us to continue our magical cruise vacation, even though there was no reason we should have stepped one foot on that ship without birth certificates and valid passports).

And, we've had a lot going on at our church.
Incredibly good things.
Messy things.
Wonderful seasons of "aha" this is making a lot of sense.
Junior high ministry is exploding in healthy ways.
Saturday night church is on fire.
Weekend ministry is beautifully chaotic and relational.
I could stay busy all night and all day--thankfully I'm rescued by our volunteer leaders who would never let me do that in a million years.

And at home, Coy is on a mission to fix all that is broken...
He painted the entire house over our Christmas vacation and last night we painted exactly one half of each daughters room.

Some days I get to write or speak or think on different things.
I'm learning how to manage that well. But it takes some time to figure out what that balance looks like for me.

And then there's the unexpected funeral, the need for a doctor's appointment, a birthday that needs planning, and an overwhelming desire to organize my house and my office via the "I don't care where it goes but it can't stay here" method.

There are days, when I feel like it would be easier to give everything away.

One cup for me.
One cup for you.
Repeat with clothes, things, books, everything.

So yeah, prayer.

It's vital.
Necessary at this frenetic pace.
It's the easiest thing to throw out unintentionally.
And the thing that we can't afford to live without.

It's why I try not to forget our teenagers to pray, or at least to consider how it
might look and feel different than their presumptions.

Here's what we're doing this Wednesday in our junior high ministry.

I've come up with a few new ones to add to the mix.
One based on this video that literally brought me to tears.
I couldn't help but think about how this could be translated
in a ministry context with both guys and girls. I was
really thankful that one of our leaders forwarded it to me.
It's the inspiration for the "selfie" space described below.

Each space (just click the title) is linked to a PDF poster that we print as instructions.
We also add in some art spaces each month. I'll post those when we figure out what
we are doing in that department (we've got a whole day to prepare!).

Selfie

Set up:
Prepare a background with good lighting for selfies
Some students may not have cell phones (get a few leaders with phones to take care of the ones who need a camera)
Pick a hashtag (we are going to use #wonderfullymade

Instructions:
Ask the students to take a selfie capturing the thing that makes them unique (instead of trying to capture the pressures of our society). Have them post it to social media with a caption that talks about being thankful for what makes them unique.
*In the future, I'd like to do this as an experience with parents and teenagers. We can print them, hang them, and write sticky notes of encouragement around the room. So many great options here!

Space To Rest

Set up:
Pillows on the floor.
A box or container
Index Cards or scrap paper
Pens

Instructions:
Students can write down prayers and symboliccally give
them to Jesus by putting letting them go from their hands
into a safe place. They are then invited to rest for
as long as they want to. Laying down, sitting up,
curled up. Some students never leave this spot. And that's ok.

Confess

Set up:
Communion Elements
Butcher Paper (or other colored paper)
Markers
White Out

Instructions:
Students can make confessions on the wall with markers,
participate in communion led by a volunteer leader (I like for the students to have name tags on during this station so the leader can say the teenagers name as they receive the elements.)
Then they can go back to their confession and use white-out to cover up what they wrote symbolizing God's grace and forgiveness.

Speak

Set up:

String yarn or lightweight rope in an area of your space.
Provide clothes pins.
Small Paper Bags
Battery Operated Tea Lights (1 per student)- This is optional
Scrapbook paper cut up into small sections big enough to write a few words.

Instructions:
Everyone is given some paper and a pen. They can speak up to God on behalf of those who need prayer, writing specific requests, names, and heart cries down. Once they have written their prayers they can place them in a bag with a battery operated tea-light and hang it on the line.
It makes a beautiful scene with or without the lights.

Receive

Set Up:
A table
Pitchers of Water
Clear Cups

Instructions:
Pour a drink of water. Think about how God can satisfy the hungers of your soul. Before you take your first sip, whisper for God to help you with whatever it is that's holding you back.

Say Thanks

Set Up:
Net (optional)
Sea Shells (real or fake, try Hobby Lobby or Oriental Trading)
Permanent Markers

Instructions:
Students give thanks by writing what they are thankful for on the shells. You can put a noise machine on the ocean setting in the space or use an ocean white noise track on someone's phone.

Bring Your Burden

Set Up:
Large rocks (you can get a bag at a home improvement store for less than $10)
Permanent Markers
A few backpacks full of rocks (make them heavy but not too heavy, some 6th graders weigh less than 60 lbs)

Instructions:

We usually don't do this space on the same night that we do the "confess" space but if you have a large group it's nice to have another minimal prep option for the students to be able to spread out better. Everyone starts by picking up a heavy bag and carrying it around the room for a little while. When they return, they pick up a rock from the table and write the things that they'd like to give to Jesus.

Worship

Set Up:
A piano (baby grand is idea for writing space)
Butcher Paper or Bulletin Board paper
Markers

Instructions:
Students write their own worship psalms as a pianist plays and/or sings.

Learning to be still...in chaos.

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 21:52:00 +0000

Beautiful still in the midst of chaos. It's possible.

But it's not something I learned over night.

Let's say I learned it over multiple nights....

It was time to write about something in ministry that unavoidably takes time.

Blinking curser.

It’s not funny when a blog subject is too palpable. A divine appointment? Maybe.

I was growing impatient trying to think of the things that take the most time in my ministry. Impatience morphed into indecisiveness. Flustered, I shut my laptop as if in shutting it I had won my own mental tug-of-war. Not. Letting. A. Blog. Get. The. Best. Of Me.

There. Take that.

Then I went to bed.

Day two, and one day past deadline.

I’m riding my bike to work and thinking of all of the reasons it’s better to ride my bike to work. (Even though my legs burn a little on the next-to-nothing uphill grade in the road. Even though I eat bugs for breakfast. Even though my white jeans get grease on them sometimes).

Reason 1: It chills me out. It’s nature’s detox. Love it.

Reason 2: I can say hello to the people I pass along the way.

Reason 3: I save money on gasoline.

Reason 4: My kids run to greet me at the end of the day like I’m the Queen of England. That never happens when I drive up in my car, too dangerous.

Reason 5: I see and smell. I smell other peoples trash and am glad it’s not my trash. I smell my own trash and am happy that it’ll be taken soon. I see life, new little froglings dodging my bike tires. I see death. Road-kill armadillo is pretty freaky.

Reason 6: Thinking happens.

Reason 7: I learn from mistakes. I’ve only wrecked once while running my tire parallel to a curb instead of straight over a curb (one should not try to jump curbs on a cruiser, unless you’re 12, then go for it). I’ve only had to take my shoes off once, putting them in my basket and wading through 8 inches of “who knows what’s in this water” when a main broke during road construction. Not funny at the time. Funny now.

What I’ve learned from riding is that the patience process is similar in our ministry settings. Not everything needs to be slow. There’s a time to pick up the pace, a time for exhilarating speed and change, but there are equally important moments of waiting, slowing, and understanding.

Being a chilled out, no chip on my shoulder, content and flexible leader takes time. When I first started out in youth ministry. Everything made me cry. Tears are no stranger to me but it takes an 8, 9, or 10 on the emergency/ priority/ challenge/ change scale to wreck my mascara. My heart is still in it, but over time, I’ve learned to be still.

Getting to know the people takes time. It took some years to have a good relationship with our neighbors. Day by day, one hello at at time, helping each other move furniture, sharing cookies and celebrations, to praying for each other and missing them when they are gone. It’s the same in our ministries. So often we jump in and hope for the relationships to instantaneously happen (they often do with teenagers) but our consistency over time builds the types of relationships that no other strategy can.

Building a team and learning how to creatively use a budget to support the purposes of your ministry takes time. It took me about ten years to realize that my budget dollars needed to match the goals of our ministry. It’s more than a game supplies fund. It’s a resource for God’s kingdom purposes.

Learning from mistakes. Seeing challenges as opportunities. Knowing that teenagers are on a life time journey of transformation. Knowing that our superiors, whether it be a lead pastor or a director to whom you report, are also on a journey that takes time. We become fearless yet humble. We become confident yet meek. We seek the untamed strength of our Lord and also find the gentle comfort of a shepherds staff.

Patience.

Is a willingness to hold on for the ride of your life.

Is a commitment to community and conversation.

Is a decision to grow.

When I’m on my bike, I start to smell like outside (because I have indeed been outside). When we serve faithfully in ministry, over time we begin to smell like it too. Glorious.

Hop on your bike (or into your ministry)--bust the cycle of impatience, be step with God, and remember for every long stand up hill there’s always the freedom of the other side, ease and joy and an “I can’t believe this is my life” type of rest.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. JAMES 1:2-4

Used by permission of Barefoot Ministries

How far will you go to love someone?

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 13:59:00 +0000

When Jesus began his teaching ministry on earth he mentioned the Kingdom of God often. He would tell stories about what the Kingdom of God is like. He would repeat that the Kingdom of God was near.

And it was. It was near in Him.
God came close to us in human form.

God gave of Gods self in unfathomable ways.
Our world didn't deserve this sacrificial love.
We didn't recognize God's nature or authority.
We worshipped other gods.
And sometimes still do.

But God came close, hurtling obstacles, finding
the closeness of conversation and human touch,
God reached out to us with the human hands of Jesus to save us.
To be all that we couldn't be on our own.
To stand in our place.
To teach us the way.

The Son of Man came to seek and to save that
which was lost. As we are found in Christ, and realize
our need, we run home with tears in our eyes.
We are accepted and embraced.
We begin to resemble our true family again.

As we look
to Jesus Christ,
from that day forward,
we begin to live and look a lot more like him.

The Holy Spirit works, nudging us to go to great lengths to love others.

Christ in us reveals Christ in the world today...
God chooses us to echo the message of the Son of God.

I watched the video "I AM" this morning as I was preparing a message
to teenagers.

I'm not saying that it was written with Christ in mind. But I can't help
but see the story depicted as one that resembles a heart filled with Christ.
I can't help but imagine those who follow the Way of Christ doing similar
things.

Don't let the stereotypical rich brother reaches out to the poor brother
story get in the way of the message. Love changes everyone.

Love is
symbiotic.

I have gone places to serve and to love only to find myself the one
who was farthest from home and needing a compassionate embrace.

It doesn't matter what we have to work with when we have Christ at work within.

We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Jesus has made it possible.
We are able to have a relationship with God and we're able to have
a relationship with those around us, even if they are far from where
we think they should be. We honor them as we go to great lengths to love them.
We pray that others will do the same for us. Often, we don't realize when we've wandered
and in need of rescue.

How does your life say "I love you" to those struggle in your midst?
How does your ministry say "I love you" to those who are on the edge?
Are you in need of the strength of love in your life? What's keeping you from reaching
out and telling someone your need?

Stop. Collaborate and Listen.

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 21:40:00 +0000

I was thinking about strengths this morning and how they guide the way we do things.
I like that smart people have created assessments to help us make some good guesses about
our personal operating systems.

It is weird to see how strengths seem to come and go as I repeat assessments over the year.
Somewhere along the way WOO (the magnetism to win others over) dropped completely off my list (it used to be my #3). Not sure what happened there, it could have been middle school ministry. Or parenthood. Or just my panicky over stimulated existence in general.

Regardless, I can see my list at work.

Ideation
Input
Maximizer
Activator
Strategic

I love and am drawn to spaces where "we" is greater than "me".
I feel alive in places where ideas surface and thoughts can be discovered and shared.
I feel the most joy when ideas and input connect in places and with people
who can make them happen. I guess that's why I like making new friends.

I love seeing how other peoples personalities and perspectives can work
for the greater good.

This happened recently when my husband and I were having a conversation about
culture and the church. I was curious about a song--sort of a sad song--that the world is singing and responding too. I felt like there was something there that we needed to tap into but I wasn't sure how or when or why. What I know about my husband is that my questions aren't wasted on him.

He has strengths of his own..if I'm remembering correctly, a few of them are, discipline, learner, communication...He can typically make something more of my questions and get to the heart of why I'm asking them.

He did it by writing a message for this weekends services that left truly moved and inspired.
I don't think I blinked. As the song of my questions was sung in the space, I was curious. What can we learn from this?

And our team of musicians, each in their own style in their unique venues, owned a song that the world is singing. I love that kind of collaboration. It's never owned. It's shared. And it means that we are listening to each other.

You may laugh at the reference. But, Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake were on to something when they wrote the lyrics....stop...collaborate... and listen. I hope to be doing a lot more of that this year. Yes, brand new inventions.

Want to read my husband's perspective? Here is Coy's blog on how he is learning to communicate with pop culture. "Say Something"

Release The Feast: 30 Hour Famine 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 06:08:00 +0000

Watch Release The Feast

It's time for our 30 Hour Famine. It's one of my all time favorite events because it's outward facing, significance building, Kingdom resembling, and life changing.

A little background. The 30 Hour Famine is an international movement of students fighting global hunger together. Each year, our students learn to see the world differently as they participate in becoming educated, fundraising, and fasting for a 30 hour period.

Why?

Fasting is good for a few reasons. It's a spiritual thing. It helps us break free from our mental clutter and it can bring us closer to Christ.

Fasting changes our worldview. It will give us a taste--a reminder--an empathy--for those who we are helping. When we can identify we can offer more of ourselves and experience others more abundantly too.

Fasting brings our youth group together. Our adults light up as tribe leaders. Our students unite for this purpose. We learn about each others quirky coping skills when we are hungry. We forgive. We laugh. We make memories. There's really nothing like this experience.

This years theme is RELEASE THE FEAST.

Bascially, our 30 hours is an unfeast to release God's resources to those who need it most.

The HPNY junior high and senior high famine starts on Feb 7th and ends on Feb 8th 2014. We have less than 30 important days to focus on what we can do to love God and love others by fighting hunger together.

I thought I'd share what we did last week to get things started.

(World Vision provides loads of resources, helps, and instructions. We choose from many of them and have some of our own ideas as well. I encourage you, if you haven't already, to visit www.30hourfamine.org to see how your group can be involved.)

1. Kick-Off Night

We planned a worship service that will set the stage for sign-ups.

We sang.

We danced.

We played hunger trivia.

We inspired each other.

We gave a challenge.

We use the time to give meaning

and shape to their understanding of the famine. We want to provideintrinsic motivation for our students to get involved. Our
hope is that they will feel compelled to say yes and that they won't
grow weary in doing good because they feel connected to their own
"yes" from the very beginning.

Later...

We fast.
We pray.
We learn.
We rest.
We serve.
We celebrate.

We had at least 100 students decide to particpate in our
famine this year. I'm excited about the goals that they have
set for themselves.

Our challenge was for every student to participate. In a big or small way, we wanted them to be a part of the journey. Some students aren't able to fast. Some aren't able to come to the overnight experience. We want them all to know that you don't have to have an event to love God and you don't need a packet to do something for others. To reinforce that, we give them ways to get involved outside of the 30 hours. One of the options is to fast and pray in a different every day for 30 days leading up to the famine. Students can find the challenge every morning on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter.

We also have a GENERATIONAL GOAL this year. We hope that moms and dads, teachers and friends, grandparents, and cousins of participants will join the 30 day prayer challenge to support those who are learning, fundraising, and fasting.

Does your church or family participate in the 30 Hour Famine?
What are your best practices?

The Song We Mumble With Tears In Our Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 22:35:00 +0000

New Year's Eve.

It's special to me. My throat tightens when I hear that song. When I hear the collective voices in New York City singing "auld lang syne" after the ball drops and the new year has been rung in ( of course this is all watched on our TV because what person in what's-left-after-Christmas mind would ever go to a freezing place lacking in facilities with her kids and family?!).

I hold back tears as people exchange kisses, as confetti is flies, as party horns are blasted. Across the miles, states, countries, and continents, even in the most remote places there is celebrating around fires and even in the quietest places.

I think about the one alone in the nursing home, who even though she may not speak she remembers so vividly.

I think about the one in Malawi, surrounded by her brothers and sisters and entire extended family, in the dusk of the night, they pound out the corn just like they did the day before that, and they celebrate.

I think about the one in pain. Who before 2013 things were just fine. Now the whole world is upside down. She wonders if anyone knows how terrified she is.

I think about the overcomer, tears streaming because she made it through it...she made it through it.

I think about the one who knows that there is sadness coming in 2014. Those papers. The finalization. The fragmentation. Her family taking a new shape and including people she never imagined it would need to include.

I think about the one who breathed her most sensitive secret to the only soul she trust on earth. Her resolution, to let it go, to let them know, to grow out of shame.

And I think about us.
I think about the mix of emotions that we experienced this year.
Even with the lowest low.
I can only say one thing.

My God.
You have been SO GENEROUS with us.
I can only THANK YOU.

For two active and excited little girls, gifts who teach us every day what love looks like with skin on.
For one man of valor, a husband of sacrifice and of vision.
For a missional community, a place to grow and serve as a full time vocation (Highland Park).
For an influential identity, youth ministry has given me a platform to love the brains and the hearts of young people, students, and leaders.
For dreams come true, two more books to add to a legacy that I hope will be catalysts for hearts being drawn to and reconnected with God and with their neighbors.

So I sing the song. I'd be lying if I told you I knew the words.
But the sounds of it say "the old times of last year speak".
They tell a story that is our story.
They are our cup of cheer and our cup of grief.
And all of it is our story to continue as long as their is breath in our lungs, that
it means something.

Life has so much meaning.
It's infused with the breathe of God
as we've been created to love and receive love.

Every person, no matter where she celebrates, can sit at that
table, where their Creator waits. Whether we run there.
We hid there. We dance there. We cry there.

There is always room there.

And the song reminds us that the tradition of story telling
should go on. In us. For another year.

And, just in case you'd like to know the words that
we mumble in between the auld lang syne's. Here they
are my dear. Sing them with cheer.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely you'll buy your pint cup!
and surely I'll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we've wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

A Jesus Free Nativity?

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 16:07:00 +0000

Christmas.

It's sort of an annual thing.

Yet, I'm shocked every year at how quickly it lands in our laps and how little time I am able to dedicate to giving honor the most important human life that ever came to be. I want to honor that time when God humbled himself and entered into a tiny embryo which formed into a small and seemingly insignificant human son. I want to honor that time when hope cried out into the world and gave us a chance to respond.

I've been watching friends who are much better at bringing Advent into their homes than I am on their pages and blog sites. And I found one that I liked so much I decided to go ahead and plan for Christmas 2014.

Yah, I know. It's the last thing you want to do the week before "Happy New Year". But I think, and this is just a hunch, that if I'm planning Advent all year long, the chances will be greater that my heart will get stickier for the coming of Christ in my life every day--not just Christmas Day.

Meet Janette.

A little about her: she's children's pastor, grad student, and wife who nannies on the side. She's passionate about advocating for children and families impacted by special needs, and she feels called to educating and equipping churches to be inclusive of them. I look forward to hearing and learning more from her so I asked her to blog about her Advent traditions for me (and for us in family/ student ministry) so I'd have a starting point. Maybe you'd like to join us, together with your families, on a more intentional Advent journey next year!

A Jesus Free Nativity (Until Christmas Eve)

My husband and I have been married for three years and it seems that, so far, each Christmas is a little different as we try to navigate past traditions from each of our families and create new ones as we begin our own family. This year we wanted to come up with ways to incorporate the season of Advent. It's really easy to overlook these four, short weeks and skip right to Christmas, but the anticipation is such an important part of our celebration. Advent gives us meaningful ways to understand Jesus's birth by realigning our posture from worldly consumerism to holy longing and expectation. (I really love the word "realign" Janette!)

In addition to using an Advent devotional book and having Advent candles in our home, we decided to change up the way we decorate our Christmas tree. Instead of decorating it all at once, we have been gradually decorating it each week with a different color that represents each week's Advent theme. Most of the decorations we already owned are red and gold, so I wanted to make sure we used those rather than buy all new decorations. Here's what has worked for us:

• We put the gold decorations on the first week to serve as a base color. It matches everything on our tree so it sort of brings it all together.

• I made ornaments for each week using chipboard shapes, scrapbook paper, and paint
that have the week's theme word painted on them. You could probably buy these somewhere
if you didn't want to make them, but it could be a great family activity to make them together!

• Week one's theme of Advent is HOPE, and we chose the color purple to represent
it because that is the traditional color associated with Advent. I decided to use purple as
my ribbon color, and we also added a string of purple lights in addition to the homemade
ornaments and a few glass balls.

• Week two's theme is LOVE. We decided on red for this week and used the ornaments
we already had, and we also used this week to add our sentimental ornaments. (You
may have celebrated PEACE on week two instead of LOVE. It seems that protestant
congregations are kind of split down the middle on this. You may want to talk to your pastor
ahead of time to find out which order the themes are being used in your local congregation
and match your home celebrations to that.)

• Week three's theme is JOY, and we chose the color pink because that's the color of the
candle for the third week of Advent. We added a few hot pink decorations last Sunday and the ornaments I made.

• Week four's theme is PEACE (or love), and we chose blue to represent it, so we'll
add those on Sunday. We used little glittery balls I found at Goodwill and the homemade
ornaments, so it was fairly inexpensive to add to our pre-existing decorations. I think on
Christmas Eve we'll add a few white ornaments (if there's any room left on the tree!) to signify the birth of Christ.

This is a system and color scheme that works for us, but feel free to talk with your family about colors and ideas that work for you. Have fun with it as you anticipate and celebrate the birth of Christ! (You can see how her tree came along on her Flickr account. It's really beautiful.)

Another way we anticipate the birth of Jesus in the weeks leading up to Christmas is to set up our nativity scenes without Jesus until Christmas Eve and without wise men until January 6th (Epiphany). It just serves a visual reminder that Christ hasn’t come just yet! Some of our friends think it’s kind of silly, but it’s a great conversation starter, and it helps us remember to take the time to prepare our hearts for his arrival.

I'd love to hear your thoughts - do you think this is something you might try in the future? How might it work in your home?
______

Thank you Janette for sharing your tradition with us. I'll look forward to setting up the nativity with our family next year. And thank you for giving me reason to decorate for Christmas for an entire month! I think we'll have a Christmas crate with the items waiting each week. I love your creativity and am excited to hear creative ways to celebrate Christmas with children with special needs!

The Picnic Table | Why Camp Counselors Matter So Much

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:06:00 +0000

I recently wrote a blog about a piece of furniture that holds great meaning. I don't own the piece. I never have. My father has a furniture store in Ohio. So, there have been many pieces that have come and gone from our homes and from our family store. But there is one piece, a piece I will never posses that drew me to a place of life change. I wrote about it for a camp blog that our youth group adores.

I wonder where you experienced love so deep? Where is your spiritual real estate?

Mine is found in some rotten wood that likely still sits in the middle of Missouri.

***
I wonder how many years the table sat there waiting for us. How many inches of snow piled up on those benches. Year after year, through winter and warmth, she waited. I wonder if the hands who constructed her knew how far the grains of wood could reach into the future? I wonder if she knew, even though she was plain and unassuming, that her value could be found in the way she would connect people, bonding them over time. I wonder how many walk past her and miss it–the strength of her magnetism–positioned perfectly in the shade of a tree.

How We're Growing | Co-Pastoring on Saturday Nights

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:16:00 +0000

When I met 17 year old Coy Lindsey he already knew what he wanted
to be when he grew up. I didn't. I was still uncertain about future stuff
so I headed in the direction of ministry.

Ten years later, we found ourselves married with our first baby on the way. There was a big decision to make about who would stay at home with her during those precious early days.

It was difficult for me to put my mind around it, the notion that I would continue working while my husband stayed at home. It felt weird. It seemed selfish. He assured me that it wasn't. He was tenacious about reminding me of the reasons for us choosing me. He was certain that I couldn't quit. Which meant that he had too, at least for a little while.

Shortly after the birth of our daughter our living and ministry situation changed. We relocated to Florida, moved into an apartment just a mile away from church, and Coy began his stroller walking routine.

Every day, sometimes more than once a day, he would walk our baby girl to my office for me to feed her and he'd walk her home. She sat on the kitchen counter in the bumbo while he did the dishes. He never complained one day about it and hasn't since.

Now, our girls are a bit older, and we've been co-pastoring the Saturday Night community for a couple of years. I told someone early on that it feels like I'm getting to know my husband in a completely new way, as I hear him preach, interpret the Bible, be led by the Spirit, serve others, flex his commitment to the least of these...it's just so encouraging to watch.

That's why it makes my heart happy to see him doing what he was called to do since he was four years old. That's why I'm so grateful that we work for a Pastor who cares so much about young leaders that he is willing to give some of his preaching ministry away to them.

Some of the people we left in Texas when we moved to Florida--eventually landed here too. Working together is changing us--it's shaping us--and we're finding that there really is so much wisdom in stability.

I want to thank the tech team for making so much of what we do each week possible and for capturing our hearts as we preach. We can't wait to see how Highland Park Church will continue to grow in the next year.

What a teen wants (and needs) for Christmas 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 14:01:00 +0000

Peek into Kate's journal of awesome.
Find out what she's wishing for this year and how
she made it happen.

(P.S. Kate isn't a real person, but a person I made up who reminds me of a few people I know.)

Her book list linked up for you. You're welcome.

1. 99 Thoughts for Junior Highers
2. Mockingjay
3. Divergent
4. Fangirl
5. The book thief- enhanced movie tie-in edition

For mom's and dads. You're welcome again.

1. A Parents Guide to Understanding Teenage Girls
2. A Parents Guide to Understanding Teenage Guys
3. Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child.

10 Days Away: A Book for Junior Highers!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Brooklyn Lindsey) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 02:18:00 +0000

Seriously guys, I can't believe it, 10 days!

(Oh, and when I say guys you all know that I really mean guys and girls. I'm originally from Ohio. Guys is synonymous for everybody who is listening.)

So anyway, it's just 10 short days. 10 days stand between me and the epic mini doughnut cover that I'm absolutely beyond words thrilled about. How rad is a tiny doughnut? Tiny doughnuts are ALWAYS rad. Even more rad, when there are 99 thoughts inside.

December 2nd is the day we're able to offer a book dedicated to the people I have fallen for over the past 13 years. The most energetic and squirrelific humans in all of the world. The visionaries. They are often without boundaries. They are most truthful with opinions, daring in their questions, compassionate in their responses, and developmentally exploding. They aren't afraid to take a risk or be bold. They might be fine with quiet, I've seen some hold so much wisdom that you think that they are old. They are junior highers. And I love them. So. Very. Much.

That's why, when my friend Marko asked me to write a book with him, for them....well, that's like asking Winnie-the-Pooh if he'd like an extra pot of honey. The answer is always yes, when it comes to my favorite friends in the whole world (especially those at Highland Park Church--you just don't even know how much fun it is to get to walk with you and your parents on this sweet journey called life.)

We were on a tight deadline. There may have been more than a few up-til-3AM writing sessions. I may have organized my socks and sorted my clothing drawers a gazillion times procrastinating because this one was just too good to be true and I didn't really want to mess any of it up. This one is for them--the peeps in the seat.

This one is for you.

If you're an adult reading this post, will you help me share it with them?
If you're a student reading this post, will you help me share it with your friends?

I'll be posting an Instagram countdown every day until December 2nd.
Like it up and tag friends if they are in junior high!
Pin or share this blog for anyone who knows someone in 5th-9th grade!

Free giveaways will be on the way (once I have a few on hand) so be looking for
news on how to get one of those in the next week.

Thanks for getting excited with me on this one. I'm too giddy not to share.
Yessssss! I'm such a junior higher sometimes. What a cool thing to be!