Power of Invitation

I received the following note from a mom of a young man whose been in a small group with me for the past 6 years. I've been investing in the same group of guys since they were in sixth grade and now that they are seniors, I'm really get to experience a great return on the investment. This note could be written to anyone who is pouring their lives into others...

The power of invitation is no small thing. The Lord Himself, the quintessential gentleman, issued His first invitation in the garden. At its essence, it was an invitation into relationship – Come into My home, enjoy My Presence, be My guest and enjoy anything, simply everything in My garden…except that one tree. He didn’t put that tree there to tempt us, but to honor us with the “choice” to except or reject His kind invitation. Of course, we blew it. We traded a relationship of love, trust and dependency for the desire to know, control and be independent.

But He gave us a second invitation. Not because we deserve it, but because He loves us and delights in us and still desires relationship. He requested the honor of our presence in His home again, “Behold I stand at the door and knock…If anyone hears My Voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with Me.” This may seem an odd introduction to my letter but it is crucial to the plot. I have now not only seen an “invitation” extended and received from you to my son three times in the last few months, but the breadth and depth of the” power of invitation” has been so profound, I wanted to share this with you.

All three of my kids are on the shy side of life; not your movers and shakers, not your life-of-the-party type or initiators or extroverts but each possesses their own unique gifts. You have loved my son well over the last six years and I am grateful for that but what I seen in the last few months is the power of invitation that “loves us to life”. I pray everyday that God would love my kids to life internally and externally: internally that they know that they know in their innermost being that they are loved and just as important, that externally that God would love them to life through His people. I believe you have been one of His instruments to love my son to life over the past several years and most recently through this power of invitation.

The first invitation came this summer when you asked him to consider going on the Watermark Amazon trip. Of course he knew about the trip and that is the point. By you coming up to him and personally say “Hey, they could use somebody like you”, you loved him to life.” You gave him a vote of confidence that called him out of the shadows of his insecurity and into the light of both God’s love and your love for him. Think about how many bible studies, programs or trips you hear about and the power or draw it has when someone personally comes up to you and says, “I would love for you to think about coming.”

The second invitation occurred when you asked him to talk at your new leaders meeting and then you wrote such an encouraging thank you note (I saw it on the couch). Once again, you used your gift as an extrovert leader with a heart for kids to unleash my son's gifts of discernment, wisdom, and quiet leadership. Too often I have seen leaders in ministry recruit the extroverts, clowns and studs even though the quiet leaders have every bit as much to offer. Sadly, all too often, the Darwinian influence (promotion of the strongest) is just as prevalent in our Christian arenas as in the world.

The third invitation was just last week when you asked him to speak at your leader’s meeting. He would just about do anything for you. What you have done for my son is not only praise worthy but something I hope you are teaching and sharing with others. Anyone can identify an extrovert from an introvert or an initiator from a responder but a leader in the world’s eye from a leader in God’s eye is quite another thing. My life verse for my son is “that he would continue to “increase in wisdom and stature and find favor before God and man.” You are part of the answer to that prayer. I believe you have seen the wit and wisdom of my son and I am so grateful for you.

Thanks for inviting him to step out of the workshop and into the showcase. You are loving him to life and we are cheering both of you on. By the way, God extends this power of invitation daily on a two-sided coin: one that says “Come…Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden” and the other side that says “Go…Go Make disciples of men.” This is very much what I see you doing for our youth. You issue the power of invitation to “come” and you are truly making disciples that can then “go”… and issue the same power of invitation to others.

Review of Hideaway Weekend

This past weekend we took 3 bus loads of kids and leaders to Pine Cove Camps in Tyler, Texas. We took about 40 more students than we did last year, and seemed to have kids all across the spiritual spectrum. It was a great weekend for our students and leaders. Here's how I would rank the following areas...
Attendance: Above Average (even with tons of scheduling conflicts)
Leader Presence: Above Average: we have some amazing new leaders that are bringing some great new energy to our high school ministry.
Fun Factor: Above Average: David (from this blog) came along and did some really funny skits with Bode. They are hilarious together.
Music for the weekend: Above Average-Patrick Ryan Clark led worship with two students playing electric and bass, and a leader playing the drums. It was great!
Messages: our kids liked them a lot more than our leaders.
Organizational Piece: With a growing number of students going on these big events, I've got some ground to take organizationally for us to be able to look back and see no holes in the weekend as far as the administrative part. We've taken some steps to correct that next fall for our high school retreat.
I've posted a couple pictures here for you to see, but to see a full slideshow of the weekend click here.

Today was sad.

Today was tough.  This morning someone came into my office and told me a student at one of our schools that we pull a lot of kids from committed suicide last night.  I was shocked, and soon after that got a call from this incredible mom who told me her son was pretty close with the boy who died.  Her son and I had been meeting for the last 4 weeks or so, and today just happened to be the day he was coming in.  She said he'd come see me at 4:00, and was pretty worried about her son and how he would react.  

Then I went to lunch with an old friend from college, who told me his pastor just resigned from his church because he was having an affair with someone outside the church.  Sad.  

During lunch I felt my phone vibrate, and checked my voicemail when I got back to my office.  A good friend of mine left me a 2 minute voicemail asking me to pray because he was going to tell his wife that afternoon that he'd been unfaithful to her.  So sad. This is a dear friend of mine. I had no idea it was going on, and was completely shocked. 

Then, my student comes by at 4:00, we talk for an hour, pray, and he feels completely numb. I'm praying for him like crazy. I ran home and grabbed a granola bar, and headed to a prayer meeting for the student that passed away.  There were about 400 high school students there.  2 of our student ministry volunteers pulled into the parking lot at the same time I did, hugged their small group guys, told them they were so sorry for losing their friend, and loved on them for about an hour and a half.  The highlight of my day was seeing 2 committed volunteers love students well.  These 2 guys have invested 5 years in the boys that are in their small group.  I thanked them for being so faithful, and headed home.     

Outside the Camp Leaders Retreat

Our staff had an amazing time with our leaders this past weekend! We had a ton of fun playing together, talking about student ministry, and fueling up spiritually to get ready for a big year. Special thanks to Camp Shiloh for hosting us, and giving us some great memories with our leaders! I look weird in this picture because my good friend Russ is goosing me from behind, which you cannot see.

Mike is Way Excited

This is the first of 5 "video invitations" we're putting together for this Friday's re-launch of watermarkstudents.com. We're making some minor adjustments hoping to increase the effectiveness of our website as a communication tool with students and parents. Props go to Bode for the top notch production of this video...I just can't stop watching it!

I Miss Our Students

Well our summer trips have come to an end, and I am so ready for weekly programming to start back up for our high schoolers in the fall. I am ready for the room to be full on Sunday nights, ready for them to hang with us again on a weekly basis, and ready to see them worship together in a safe environment. I know our students could probably wait for school to start back, but we're ready to open our doors back up for consistent ministry!

Highlights from Camp Barnabas (Finally)

I apologize for just now getting a post up from Camp Barnabas. Most of you have probably never been, so let me just say on the front end that this was the most life changing trip I've ever taken students on in student ministry.

The first thing I would say is that this trip took our students by surprise. If you would talk to some of our students, they would say that they never thought that they would become so close to one person in 7 days. On the last day, the parent of this boy told Jake (pictured below with him) that he had never been so attached to anyone other than his mom.

Wow. After 7 days? One of the reasons they grow so close is that many of the campers do not get a lot of attention during the year. Many of them are mistreated verbally at school, and so to have one person come to spend 7 days of their summer is the highlight not just of their year, but their life! The last thing I'll say about this is that many of my students want to go back next summer, the same term, and are begging for the same camper. Some of them have made threats if I do not listen.

Another thing that our students took away from this trip is a spirit of gratitude. In the picture below you'll see a cross, and if you look closely it has little plaques on it with names.

The names are campers that have come to Camp Barnabas and have passed away since being a camper. The last day of camp they do what they call the Cross Carry. This is one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen. Each cabin holds the cross, prays for the camper's families who have lost a child, prays for the current campers who are terminal, and walks it a few yards to the next cabin. Teary eyed yet?

Pictured below is one of my students Carson hugging his camper who just finished carrying the cross, and is weeping because he knew of the campers name's on the cross.

His camper hugged his counselor, crying, and didn't let go for about 20 mintues. So our students walked away with how good they have it. A brain that works, a body that works, and they live with incredible families. How often do we forget about all of those things and complain about little petty things that don't really have any real weight in life? Remember how blessed you are today!

One other thing I would add is how our kids saw joy like they've never seen before. These campers are more happy because of their relationship with Jesus than we usually are. Look at the picture below and just let that soak in.

These campers love life, and many of them love Jesus, and love to worship Him in the midst of their problems. They are just like you and me, they just have different struggles/issues that they have to deal with. I've never thought of the disabled in that light. I am walking away from this week absolutely committed to making more of a difference in the disabled community, and to going back to Camp Barnabas every summer. If you want to learn more about Camp Barnabas by watching their promo video, click here to watch it.

-MIKE

Camp Barnabas Bound

Our High School students are leaving on Monday for Camp Barnabas. We are way excited about what God is going to do, and can't wait to get there. If you haven't heard about Barnabas it's a Christian camp for disabled kids. Our students will be serving kids one on one, basically being a parent for 9 days. It is going to be amazing! We are also taking leaders whose primary role will be to cheer on and encourage our students in the hard task they are being given. Each of our leaders has taken about 10 students, have already written them notes of encouragement that they'll get on the first day, and will continue to do love on our students throughout the week.

A couple fun things we're doing on the way up there, is eating at Lambert's Cafe (if you haven't eaten there you haven't lived), and going to Doenning Barn Swings (Barnswinging is a favorite of folks in the Ozarks). I found a video of people Barnswinging here, although they haven't mastered it. Both are things that are pretty much the opposite of Dallas culture, and our students should have a good appreciation for hillbillies when they come back.

Bode's Wedding

Bode (pronounced Bo-Dee) got married over the weekend in Saint Joseph, MO and our team made the flight up for the wedding. The weekend was very fun for Holly and I because we got to visit my family, friends from high school, etc... To get a good taste of what Bode does on our staff click here. He does the majority of our editing, video shooting, and all of our fun elements week in and week out. He does a great job and we are way excited that he is married!

Here's a great picture of Braun (our boss), David, and me.

And here's everything I brought up for the trip minus my wife. (She's holding the camera) The two little girls are not always perfect on the plane, and so after flying Ellie about 15 times now I've devised a plan. We take the kids on the plane after everyone has boarded. Then, we take the car seat, kids, backpack, and ourselves on. The first guy that looks at my kids like "oh no I didn't sign up to hear them scream on a plane" wins a seat closest to us. It's a beautiful mess hearing our kids on a plane. If you have two little ones, you also know that all of the luggage you see is not easily transported, and I would not recommend it for the mere man. Ha.

Relational Thought from the Week...

My takeaway this week from my lunch with Ryan is not really that spiritual or life changing. Ryan is 16 and I picked him up today from his summer job. He's doing filing/paperwork at his dad's company. During our conversation he told me that he makes 10 dollars an hour. For real? This is his first job people. My first job was as a sandwich artist making $5.25 an hour. My next job after that was at Applesbees and my official title was G.U. I still have no idea what that stands for but all I did was wash dishes for about 11 hours straight every night. I later quit that job because I was having nightmares of dishes being thrown at me. Ryan told me that simple inflation can explain the difference in pay, but I am not convinced.

What job did you have in high school that you're not proud of?

Estes Park Family Camp

Every other year our church does a family camp in Estes Park, Colorado at the YMCA. This was my first time to go and has been absolutely crazy and amazing. Here's how our week got started...

Our first full day my wife woke up and started puking and cramping up. It hurt to move, and when she did she was hurling in a trash can. So, I was now on dad duty and in charge of all our jr. high and high schoolers. It's about 7:45 in the morning, and I've got about an hour to get the kids ready, feed them and myself in the cafeteria, take them to childcare, and try to be a couple minutes early to teach bible study at 9:00 a.m. It didn't take long to get one of those headaches that make you think you're head is going to explode. Needless to say, the next two days were pretty tough, and at the end of day two, we took my wife to the emergency room in between student ministry scheduling. Crazy.

Well my wife got to feeling better later on in the week, and started teaching bible study with Sarah Beth, and our week has gotten ten times better! This morning was our last bible study time with our students, and they have had so much fun together, and learned a lot too. Thanks Simply Youth Ministry for the great curriculum. Here's a couple of my favorite pictures from the week...

Our student ministry crew The family in Rocky Mt. National Park


One of the few calm moments for my 2 year old this week

Another Amazing Video from Watermark!!!

Steve Vanderheide captured and edited this video from our baptism service two weeks ago. This is the best video we've put up recently...Check it out!

Highlight of My Week

I've been meeting with the group of guys pictured above every Tuesday night (during the school year) in their homes for the past 6 years. They are a part of a small group that I co-lead with Watermark Student Ministries. We began meeting together when they were starting 6th grade and now the guys are wrapping up their junior year of high school. I can't believe that we only have one more year left before the guys disperse for college!

Tonight is our final meeting of this school year. My co-leader and I will be reading letters of encouragement we've written to the guys, reflecting on this year, discussing summer plans, and reviewing and signing our Small Group Covenant for next year.

This type of small group that sticks together year after year has become the norm here at Watermark. The vision for really, really relational ministry has developed into one of the most influential ministry models that I've ever experienced. The community that's being developed and the investments being made by leaders into students' lives has been incredibly rewarding to watch. I feel so blessed to be a part of it and I continue to grow in a passion to help others share the same experience.

One question that keeps me up at night is: Why aren't lasting, authentic relationships the centerpiece of more student ministries?

Baptism Day!!!

This morning at Watermark was another great Sunday, this time a little different. Our entire church went to Curtis Park and had a huge baptism celebration day. We got to hear tons of stories of lives that have been changed by Christ. Our student ministries director Braun and I were at one of the 6 baptism "stations" in the pond, and a bunch of high schoolers came to us to get baptized. After being in ministry for 8 years this is the coolest way I've seen baptism done. People were owning their baptism, and their friends and family were able to support them by jumping in the water with them, praying for them, and even baptizing their family member or friend themselves. Very cool morning and I'm sure David or I will post more pictures from it sometime in the next couple weeks. I've already found a couple on facebook from one of our studnets...Hopefully Steve will make a sweet video of the day.

Shoreline Review for 5/18/08

Shoreline is our weekly meeting for our High School students @ Watermark. We meet on Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. on the 4th floor. Here's my take on Shoreline from this week...

Attendance: Above Average
Fun Factor: Above Average
Leader Presence: Above Average
Music: Above Average
Message: Above Average

Tonight was our last Shoreline of the year :( So sad. But it was an amazing night. Our band did an incredible job leading in worship, the Emo Kids showed up for one final skit, and Bode put together a highlight video from the year. I'll get it posted soon. For the teaching time I had our worship leader continue to play in the background and at the last minute I decided to have a time of corporate prayer that really turned out cool. I encouraged our students and leaders to think about the past year and to thank God out loud for specific things that He had done in their lives, in our ministry, etc... The prayer time was amazing! The prayers just kept coming and coming. I then showed a video that I shot in our church's studio of two of our seniors talking about what our student ministries had meant to them, advice they would leave to our other students, and then invited other seniors to share. It really was a cool night tonight, our students are incredible!

88 Reasons Students Love Leaders (1 of 88)

"I love my two small group leaders because they are both amazing awesome people but spiritual and not too strict at the same time."

Mike & I recently Facebooked (yeah it's a verb) a handful of our students and asked them what they think about the volunteer leaders in our ministry. Instead of dropping all 88 of their responses at once, I thought I'd share them one at a time as a periodic reminder of the value of relational ministry.

Shoreline Review for 5/11/08

Shoreline is our weekly meeting for our High School students @ Watermark. We meet on Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. on the 4th floor. Here's my take on Shoreline from this week...

Attendance: Average
Fun Factor: Below Average
Leader Presence: Average
Music: Average
Message: Above Average

This week we had a very special guest. Pastor Chris Simmons came from Cornerstone Baptist Church in South Dallas and preached to our students. It was awesome! God is doing some amazing things in South Dallas and I encourage you to check out there site and get a picture of what they're up to. I interviewed him on stage in between song sets and then he came up and taught after the slow set of songs. It was very fun, and it was a great change of pace for our students.

Relational Thought from the Week

This week Wilson (pictured above) texted me and said dude mike we need to hang out, can we get lunch sometime? So two days later we found ourselves getting him out of school and heading over to Freebirds, a great place to get burritos, quesadillas, and they have some great queso. I thought this might be a time where he might share some struggle with me, ask me for some sort of wisdom, instead we just laughed the whole time, quoting our favorite movies, etc...Here's the top 5 quotes from our time together:

1. Can't post this one, jr. highers read this blog. And my parents.

2. Mike: "So Wilson, did you have any deep personal issue you wanted to talk about since you called this meeting."
Wilson: "Safety, I just farted."

3. Mike: "So how's school been lately?"
Wilson: "Well today I saw a fight break out between two girls, one of them pulled the other's weave out which had blood on it and she ran around with it like a trophy. Gotta love Lake Highlands."

4. Wilson: "Dude Mike have you seen this movie called Wayne's World? I have it memorized."
Mike: "Hi, we're in _________."
Wilson: "DELAWARE! Dude that's cool that you've seen Wayne's World."
Mike: (i hate saying this) "Bro that came out when I was in jr. high."

5. Wilson: "Hey I forgot my money for lunch. Can you spot me?"

I hear number 5 a lot. More than you'd think with some of the coin our students have. It was a great time with Wilson and I have to say he's one of my favorites in our group!

Shoreline Review for 5/4/08

Shoreline is our weekly meeting for our High School students @ Watermark. We meet on Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. on the 4th floor. Here's my take on Shoreline from this week...

Attendance: Average
Fun Factor: Average
Leader Presence: Average
Music: Above Average
Message: Above Average

This week I had Kyle Kaiggler come and speak about Baptism to our students. Kyle does a number of things at Watermark, and is moving towards only being over the service (aka missions) part of our church. He did a great job of communicating, is very passionate about God's Word, and it was so great for our students to see that. We of course showed the clip from Nacho Libre where he baptizes his wrestling partner, if you have no idea what I'm talking about you can click here to watch it. Next weekend we will be having a huge baptism party church wide that is going to be a blast. We'll be sure to post pictures of it in the next couple weeks. Bode was funny as usual, and can't wait for Shoreline this week!

Relational Thought From the Week...

This week my wife is going out of town to take the kids to see her parents and grandparents, and I 'm staying put here in Dallas. She usually does this one or two times a year and it gives me a week to grab more relational time with students and leaders that I don't normally get. So Gavin (my 7th grade co-leader) and I are meeting all our students at the church, doing dinner, and then heading over to Adventure Landing for Go-Carts, Bumper Boats, Lazer Tag, and Video Games. This will be the second time I've been to this place in the last two weeks, and our guys love it. I also haven't lost yet in G0 Carts; the guys are constantly talking smack on me and I take them every time. That's probably not something to brag about, but it's always fun to win even if it's against a 7th grader. We've invited another 7th grade group to go with us, and we'll probably take them on (and destroy them) in Lazer Tag. Can't wait. Oh, and our guys tried to convince us to turn it into a lock-in, but we turned them down. Just another sign of getting old I guess.