Fall Adventures 2012: Day Two

Yesterday I started what I hope will be some consecutive posts about the various projects I have spinning these days. I am beyond grateful at what God is bringing my way! His creativity and generous grace astound me. 

So in honor of "consecutive day" (10/11/12), here is my second, consecutive installment! (After a month of posting nothing, don't be impressed.)

To begin with, I will readily admit that some old friends of mine are allowed to chuckle that I have the Westmont logo posted here because I've always been one to tease pals about their fancy private Christian education, given that I spent my first twenty-two years at public institutions. To be a Christian in Santa Barbara just about inevitably means you will rub shoulders with Westmont in some way, shape, or form though. I cannot deny that a few times over the years I have had a frustration or two with in-jokes or shared memories that Westmont alums around me have shared in such a way that I felt was exclusive.

HOWEVER, I can happily say just as quickly that I have experienced so many great things from Westmont, mostly in the form of lovely people who graduated from there and went on to represent Christ and the Kingdom of God in amazing ways both big and small. I would venture to say that dozens of former youth leaders I have worked with have been influenced by Westmont, and I have known some remarkable faculty and staff.

And now, I am pretty darn surprised (and thankful) that I now actually find myself to be a paid (though extremely part-time) employee of Westmont. Who'd a thunk it? After three different Mayterms of teaching a five-week course on internships, the Religious Studies department asked me this summer to take on their RS190 internships elective. 

However, this decision was not confirmed till a month before school started this fall. Students had enrolled for their fall classes the previous spring, so the only way I could get some students to register for my course would be if they were willing to either pile onto their academic loads further or by dropping a course. Miraculously, on the first day of class (August 30), I had ten students in class! I was thrilled. Though the quickly joy abated just a bit as the "I hate to tell you this but..." emails rolled in. Pretty quickly some students came to realize they could not take the course for one reason or another, and by the second week, enrollment had whittled down to five. 

You don't hear me complaining though -- teaching five students is a dream. They are engaged in discussion, diligent in their reading, teachable in spirit, and relatively timely in completing their assignments :) It's a somewhat unconventional course in that it only meets for two hours once every two weeks, since the bulk of their time is to be spent at their actual internships. Two are serving in youth ministry, one is serving in a tremendous ministry that reaches out international students, and the last two are serving the poor on the Westside in a variety of ways. 

We are spending the semester integrating theology and practice in real settings, and our class discussions are great fun (for me at least). Slowly I am working through eight core competencies that I consider crucial for living out our faith in ministry settings. (Nope -- not gonna share 'em here. You need to take the class to find out what they are!) In these last years I have really discovered how much I want to equip and develop young believers in leadership principles. But I do not want to just inundate them with theories and aphorisms, sprinkled with some nice stories. Instead, I pray I am able to give tangible, compelling tools and a deep conviction to dive in and take some faith-filled risks.

Admittedly, I am also sad that due to the small enrollment I was not able to fill several internships that I sought out from colleagues around town, so I am praying that I will get another chance to teach this course. Nevertheless, I am not dwelling on that; rather, I'm maximizing my time up there as much as possible (aren't you surprised?). I have already had guest-taught in two other courses, and been invited to two more. And I served as the retreat speaker for the First-Year Retreat (AKA, freshmen). This was pure delight for me! I am still hearing from students I met on that retreat, asking to meet for lunch or coffee. Pinch me, I'm dreaming.

I share all this, hopefully not sounding like humblebrag. I am truly stunned at what I am getting to do. These verses from my morning reading today sum it up well:

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank,

    with roots that reach deep into the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat

    or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green,

    and they never stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

As I noted yesterday, I rejoice in how these opportunities are allowing me to thrive in so many ways... I feel like a sturdy little tree with roots going down deep, and am blessed by God's persistent love and grace.

So What is Youth Ministry, Exactly?

I will try to restrain myself. I feel a rant coming on.

This has been quite a week, in big ways and small. (Personally, I'm just fine, but in terms of issues of youth ministry in the media...) I've been emailing back and forth with a few friends about Invisible Children (IC) and all the uproar over the Kony 2012 video. I tend to block out hype, but this one is more personal.

A former student got my attention about IC when they started, some time around 2005. We watched the movie in youth group right away, and we were shaken to the core. That day we committed to supporting the work, and collected funds for the cause weekly for years, also periodically taking time to catch up on ways to pray for the organization and the greater horror of Joseph Kony. So I paid attention as I saw and heard running commentary all week about IC and the viral documentary.

Facebook posts from students and youth pastors I know buzzed all week with comments. I don't personally like to get manipulative and overly dramatic to get the attention of young adults, but I was glad to hear the video went viral, if only to profile the horror that has gone on the last 20 years through Joseph Kony in order to spur people to action.

So what is incredibly painful now is to read the yuck that came out tonight about the Kony 2012 director. I'm saddened that just as much press, if not more, will be devoted to this tragic turn of events for Jason Russell than to the ongoing horrors of Uganda and the Congo. The high highs of IC getting so much press and visibility in the media as young Christians making a difference now plummets over night into the low lows of trash and drama. Sigh.

Closer to home, today I was made aware of a story in the local paper that came out yesterday as the lead story on the front page (really?!) about a local youth group that had some sort of male bonding weekend that included face paint and greased pigs and the slaughter of said pigs. I read it, and all in all, it did not paint the church in a good light - but I also understand that the media can skew things. Fortunately, the church came out with a rather humble statement that does a good job acknowledging how it could have been handled better. But I would say that some damage has been done.

Two major stories in my neighborhood, one big and one small, that tell the world (those who are not going to church, or might have some significant cynicism about it) some pretty wacky things about two things I have devoted my adult life to: Jesus and teenagers. I know, I know, I need to remain calm. There are some huge international stories emerging in Afghanistan, but once the fervor dies down on the stories I mention at the beginning, the issues will remain the same: society does NOT know what to do with teenagers and young adults, and heavens, the church overall seems generally lost as well.

Even though I have stepped back from running a youth group (since 2009) and from teaching students weekly (as of December 2011), I still consider myself very involved with youth ministry, as I have been since I was a senior in college in (gulp) 1982. From writing articles to training youth pastors to meeting weekly with youthworkers in the Free Methodist Church in Southern CA to perhaps most important of all, lunch with an actual high school student this past Wednesday :)... I'm still thinking all the time about how to love students well, encourage them to lead, and how to get as many people doing that as possible.

Pop culture wants to portray teenagers as shallow, selfish, sex-crazed party animals (see the Project X trailer if you don't believe me -- or don't, because it's hideous), but the church seems to want to counter this "sex, drugs, rock 'n roll" culture with greased pigs and gross games that get kids to vomit. IT MAKES ME WANT TO THROW MY HANDS UP IN THE AIR AND HOLLER. Good grief, Is that the best we can do??! We expect so little of students, when they have so much to offer.

I want to fight for one simple thing: quality ministry over the long term. The implications for that goal are huge, I know, because that requires dollars and manpower and education and so on. But my heavens, I have built my life on this and I can say with no reservation that it is worth the investment. The apostle Paul, in writing to the churches of Asia Minor in his letter to the Galatians, says it well:

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

Paul has labored long and hard for the believers there, and reacts deeply as they fall prey to heretical teachings. He needs to give them guidance again.

Yet that simple verse describes the bottom line: His job is never finished. Each of us who invest in young people (and on into adulthood, if we really get it) will go through labor again and again--and let's not forget how painful labor is! Eugene Peterson says it best in The Message Scripture paraphrase: "Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ's life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you."

This week I received a simple note in the mail from Mission Impact, a ministry I deeply believe in, who does exactly this (labors long and hard) in Guatemala. I have brought students down there 4 different times simply to learn from their faithful year-round missionaries, and I have a dear friend who remains there to do the same with her husband. Out of my times down there I decided years ago to support a young girl at one of their schools so she could continue attending. In the villages of Guatemala, girls are only educated up through the 3rd grade. This boggles my mind and breaks my heart. So one little thing I can do is help a girl get an education that I take for granted here.

Here's the photo I received this week:

I should celebrate that I got to support Sandra until graduation... But in 6th grade?? She's only getting started!! This was the grade that my youth ministry started with here in the US. Oh my goodness. 

O Church, may we not waste the opportunities we have here to truly pour into our young people, that they would be salt and light for years and years to come. May we not dawdle frivolously with silly games (I confess my guilt at doing this many times) and emotional hype and drama that ultimately only manipulates. Instead, may we persist in consistent, faithful, deep and meaningful relationships and solid, thorough teaching that model maturity and authenticity. I don't think that is too much to ask.

Providence Hall in the Headlines

Very cool. The two students profiled in this article are really, really great. I am excited for them to get the attention. Read about Providence Hall below :)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Santa Barbara News-Press

By MARK PATTON NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER

J.T. Royston of Providence Hall drives against the Dos Pueblos High junior varsity during a summer league game.

Faith Emerson is a key player for a Providence Hall team that has gone undefeated during its first season of junior varsity summer league play. THOMAS KELSEY/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

July 9, 2009 10:49 AM

J.T. Royston felt all alone last winter as he toed the free-throw line during the defining moment of his sophomore basketball season.

No time remained on the clock and the Lions of Providence Hall still trailed by a point.

But Royston will tell you that he had felt much lonelier just a year earlier - during the opening week of practice at the new school.

"We had a few people come in and out the first day," he recalled, "but the next day, nobody else was even there."

He made both free shots to make Providence Hall a winner, and a rush of teammates promptly hugged away the loneliness.

A lot is indeed changing for Santa Barbara's newest high school.

"That actually happened twice last year, when we were down a point and J.T. was shooting a one-and-one with basically no time on the clock," said coach Keith Luberto, who doubles as Providence's athletic director. "He made them both - both times."

The Christian school, which shares a stately, two-story building with a Catholic grammar school at the corner of Anacapa and Micheltorena Streets, opened in 2007 with 27 students. Its enrollment grew to 41 last year, and the expectations are for up to 60 students this fall.

Providence has a lot going for it, including support from parent/super model Kathy Ireland, an enthusiastic Christian community - and a handful of standout athletes who are giving its athletic director some ambitious goals for their first official CIF basketball season of 2010-11. The enrollment is projected to be in the 80s by then.

"The expectations are that we'll make the playoffs and do well there," said Luberto, who is arranging a schedule of mostly home-school varsity teams for next season. "And if our girls' team keeps progressing, it'll have a chance to become Southern Section champs."

Providence also fields teams in cross country, girls volleyball and track.

Its athletic fortunes have benefitted from the providence of some family connections. Former Santa Barbara High basketball star Cara Emerson, whose daughter Faith plays for the powerhouse Blazers basketball club, works as the assistant to the headmaster.

"I found out that the academic standards were outstanding," said Faith, a 5-foot-9 freshman, "so I said, 'Let's go there! Let's go there!' "

But then it hit her: "Where's the team?"

Royston had a similar exchange with his mother, Joy, who served on Providence's founding board of directors.

"My first choice was to go to DP," he said, referring to Dos Pueblos High School. "But one day my mom said, 'You're going to Providence.' I said, 'OK ... Is there a team?'

"She was like, 'Well, we just got a coach.' I said, 'All right then.' "

But a coach was about all Providence had at the time.

"For awhile, it was just him and me out there on the basketball court," Royston said. "Knowing that we didn't have anybody else, that was really hard for me. I mean, I'm just one person.

"The first year was extremely rocky. We had just enough players to have a team, and most of them were seventh and eighth graders."

Providence, playing against primarily club teams, won only two of 14 games.

The fortunes of the Providence boys turned around when a new player showed up during last year's local frosh-soph summer league. Her name was Faith Emerson.

"We twice beat a local public school by 25 points - I won't name the school," Luberto said. "In one of the games, we were shooting a foul shot, and their boy came down with a rebound - and Faith just ripped it out of his hands.

"She then scored right in his face while getting fouled. The way boys are, I was thinking, 'This kid isn't going to live this down for the rest of his life.' "

The Providence boys went 12-3 last winter with a lineup that also included Nicki Burgo, Royston's teammate from the 805 Basketball Club. Ireland's son, Erik Olsen, even joined the team to help fill out the thin roster.

"She's come to a lot of games, even when Erik wasn't playing," Luberto said.

"I remember our first game and the boys' first game, and the big turnout we got from board members, faculty and students," Emerson added. "It was so incredible that our student body could support each other like a family."

The boys have continued their success in this summer's junior varsity league.

"We played against what DP expects to be their JV and lost by only three," Luberto said. "We were up by four with a couple of minutes to go, but we've only got seven guys, and all these teams have like 14 or 15, and so we get worn out at the end."

They could've used Emerson, but she's been busy this summer with an unbeaten Providence girls' team that's added other Blazers including Lindsay Beebe, Sydney Hedges and Lacey Gonzalez.

"They've been beating all the other JVs by 20, 30 points," said Luberto, who hired former UCSB stars Sha'Rae Gibbons and Jenna Green to coach them. "Just watching them practice, I can tell they're good players and that they're well-coached."

Providence will join CIF in 2010 as a free-lance school, but Luberto would like to join a league.

"The Condor League is local, for the most part, with Laguna Blanca and Cate, and several schools from Ojai and the (Santa Ynez) Valley," he said. "But there's also a group of Christian schools in the Ventura and Camarillo area called the Omega Conference that looks appealing.

"But they already have eight teams, so I'm not sure where we'll end up."

Finding court time is a more immediate concern. Providence has practiced and played in the gymnasiums of such institutions as the Page Center, Girls Inc., St. Mary's Seminary and even the Montecito Convenant Church.

To keep up his spirits in the search for a gym, Luberto carries a book called "The Miracle of St. Anthony."

"St. Anthony is a school that's never had a gym and has still won three national championships," he said.

Westmont College did offer Murchison Gym to Providence for one night of basketball last season. The college has strong ties to the school, with its former president, Dr. David Winter, having come out of retirement to serve as Providence's first headmaster. One of Westmont's faculty members, Dr. Jane Wilson, served last year as the academic dean at Providence.

"They've really kind of adopted us as their little brother or sister," Luberto said. "We had about 400 people come out to our game there. A lot of Westmont students turned out - we bribed them with pizza, but they were still there.

"Coach John Moore has offered to do a mini-camp for our guys and Kirsten Moore, their women's coach, is interested in doing those things, too."

Several of Westmont's baseball players even helped Royston and his basketball teammates with their weight training.

Royston has dreams of playing NCAA Division 1 basketball some day, but Emerson liked what she saw at Westmont.

"I just hope maybe I can get to the level where I'd be accepted there," she said.

The team from Providence has already gained acceptance in her club basketball circles.

"They used to ask me what school I go to, and I'd tell them Providence, and they wouldn't know what I was talking about," Emerson said. "But now we're out there, beating these other JV teams by a lot, and they're going, 'Oh, you go to Providence.' "

The name now rolls off the tongue, as easily as the victories.

Job Update #2

Hello! Thanks for your emails, comments, and encouragement about my latest work stuff. I sure do appreciate your support. Lots. It's a real gift.

If you haven't read Installment #1 of the Job Chronicles, please look at my post from July 4. I am still very excited to fill you in on Eden Reforestation Projects...

Another big piece of the puzzle is my new part-time position at Providence Hall High School. I taught there for several weeks from January through March of this year. I spent a few weeks in the Book of Philippians, exploring various qualities of true leadership. Then the school asked me to spend five weeks teaching doctrine through a study of the Apostles' Creed. Out of that time at the school, Providence Hall approached me last month and asked to be the Campus Pastor as of July 1, for the 2009-2010 school year.

My energy will be focusing on 3 areas:

1. Teaching the Foundations of Christianity class. The student body meets two mornings a week for studies in the history, beliefs, and applications of the Christian faith. Occasionally I will also have others come in to teach short-term series.
2. Expanding Community Service at the school. I've already contacted a couple of ministries in Santa Barbara for the students to serve with. This has always been a passion of mine, as you know, so it will be wonderful for me to get to continue guiding students in what it means to be a truly selfless servant.
3. Organizing a new community-wide series called "Providence Presents..." Providence is in a unique position to cross denominational boundaries and offer larger-scale parenting seminars. Over the years I have had a few topics come up consistently with parents, and I want to explore those. I am very excited about this! Stay tuned for specifics on this - we hope to advertise in the paper and get the word out. This will be a great resource for folks to bring their neighbors to as well.

I will also do my best to represent Providence Hall in the community: at the monthly youth pastors' fellowship that I have been involved with since the beginning of my Young Life days, with community service organizations, and in the schools.

As I have said to many of you, I am really impressed with the staff and the mission of Providence Hall. I also really love the students! They are earnest in their faith, diverse in their backgrounds, and incredibly fun and welcoming. A surprising addition to all of this is that my housemate & best friend's brother, Tim Loomer, has just been named Academic Dean at Providence. So it's going to be even more gratifying to build my relationships within the staff and student body. It is a wonderful family.

Check back in soon for more details on other projects in my pipeline. I'm having a great time!