eZine 04.29.2008

TheSource4YM.com
	Jonathan’s Resource Ezine

• Featured: Making it Special for Graduates
• Something You Can Use This Week: Learning from Miley’s Decisions
• THE SOURCE Podcast: Episode #14- Jonathan Shares the SEVEN SINS OF TRYING TO UNDERSTAND OUR YOUTH CULTURE

Even though you might not use these exact ideas, I think they’ll get your gears turning.

INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS WE LIKED

It was amazing to see all the fun and creative ideas that came in. Many had similar elements. Some of the basic ideas for ceremonies included the following components:

• A celebration dinner decorated to the hilt, with great food, beautiful cakes, etc.
• Cap and gown ceremonies
• An invitation not only for the students, but to families as well
• Video of family and friends talking about the graduates
• People appointed by the family to give a short speech on behalf of the graduate
• Posters, collages or even entire booths full of memorabilia displayed for each graduate
• Pictures/plaques of all the graduates with all their names hung in the youth room each year
• Graduates writing letters to themselves that are mailed to them later in the year
• A ceremonial reading of “Oh the Places You will Go” by Dr. Seuss

People also came up with some great “senior trip” event ideas:

• Weekend retreats
• Bike trips
• Camping trips
• Senior NASCAR trip (with pit passes)
• Senior Disneyland/Disneyworld trip
• Senior trip to Hawaii

Some of the gifts that were suggested were:

• Nice leather bound study Bibles (CLICK HERE for Bibles at Cost)
• Photo albums filled with pictures and memorabilia, and journals filled with letters from kids and youth leaders
• A Pillow case signed in Sharpie by all the kids and leaders
• Engraved gifts like a silver picture frame or even a unique item like a hammer
• Books like Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Faith,” “The Case for Christ,” or Dobson’s “Life On the Edge“
• CD compilations with Christian music like the music like the ConGRADulations 2008 CD or the ConGRADulations 2008 CD and Hardback Bible

THE TOP FIVE IDEAS
Out of all the ideas, a select few stood out to our team at THE SOURCE. The following five are our top picks:

#1- Senior Night… and Then Some
Submitted by Leo Barnes, Christ Community Church, Zion, IL

JONATHAN’S NOTE: Although we had many people submit ideas about “graduation ceremonies” of some sort, Leo had some very distinctive elements that we loved (for example, bringing the college kids in for a unique portion of the ceremony and the freshman kidnapping). Thanks for the great ideas Leo!

Every year we do the following for our graduating seniors and 8th graders:

In Church: On the Sunday before graduation we bring all of our graduating seniors to the front and I give a short (2-3 minute) talk, followed by a name by name recognition of each senior. As they leave the stage they always receive a book from our pastoral staff, this year it will be Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ.”

In Youth Group: That same evening we bill our youth group event as Senior Night. We project a slide show of pictures of the seniors from as many years back during their youth group time as we can. Inevitably, the non-seniors appear in the shots as well and it becomes a great time of looking back and reminiscing. Then, in place of a message from me that evening, we have the seniors all sit at the front of the room and let everyone else share their favorite memories of the seniors. We get a mix of “most embarrassing” stories and genuine encouragement from underclassmen about how some of the seniors have shaped their walk with Christ. We then give every senior a chance to share a piece of advice with the underclassmen. We as staff are always amazed by some of the things we hear/find out that night. Then we take the underclassmen out of the room for an activity and bring in current college students who graduated from our youth group and have them talk with the seniors about the challenges of being a Christian in various college environments. We get more positive feedback from this night than any other night of the year.

Freshman Kidnapping: One of the final tasks of our seniors is to assist with our annual Freshman Kidnapping. With permission from parents, our high school students show up at the homes of our graduating 8th graders at about 7:00 AM on a Saturday morning and pull them out of bed “as is,” with some obvious provisions for modesty of course. They then take them out to a local restaurant where our staff are waiting and the church treats them to breakfast. Students talk about their kidnapping experiences for years to come. Once the kidnapping has occurred, the 8th graders are then an official part of the high school youth group.

Seeing Much More of Miley

Miley is regretting her decision big time.

But haven’t we all regretted decisions at one time or another? That’s why this is a great opportunity to discuss decision-making with our kids. (Note: I’ve included discussion questions with a scripture passage below)

Here’s the skinny: Last week I was surprised by an email from a blog subscriber telling me that Miley had just taken some shots of herself in her underwear and one shot of herself pulling her shirt down exposing her green bra. I didn’t post anything because there was some debate as to whether it was truly Miley or not. No statement was issued.

Well… this morning a new set of photos have emerged… and it’s no secret. Associated Press spells it out:

The picture doesn’t show any nudity, but it shows the shirtless Miley covering her front with a blanket and showing her bare back to the camera. Even though this picture isn’t pornographic, it disturbed Disney and Miley enough that they both issued statements. And most people agree that Miley had been duped so Vanity Fair can just sell magazines.

Obviously this makes me sad. Miley is one of the few superstars that I’ve felt pretty good about my kids watching and listening to. She seems to have a faith (I’ve blogged on that before), although I’ve never heard her talk too specifically about it (Remember people, just because she said “I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” at the recent awards, that doesn’t mean anything. Don’t ask me to list the people who have said those exact words receiving awards). But, as I’ve mentioned in a previous blog about Miley, her parents are once again proving to demonstrate questionable judgment.

THOUGHT FOR DISCUSSION WITH OUR KIDS:
So what can we as youth workers and parents do about this? I think that this issue like many issues is a jumpstarter to dialogues with our kids about decision making. I’d use this statement from Cyrus in the Associated Press article:

CNN expands on this:

then this…

Then I’d ask our kids:

1. Why do you think Miley changed her mind after she saw the pictures?
2. Have you ever made a decision and regretted it later?
3. When we make decisions based on “what feels right at the moment,” are those decisions always right?
4. What guideline should we use for making decisions?
5. The world sometimes puts on a lot of pressure to do wrong. Miley said that it was hard to say no to Annie… with her puppy-dog-look she was very convincing. Is there someone it’s hard for you to say no to?
6. How can we equip ourselves to make good decisions even when “the pressure is on” to make bad ones?

Jonathan McKee is president of The Source for Youth Ministry and author of numerous youth ministry books like “Do They Run When They See You Coming?” and “Getting Students to Show Up.” Jonathan studies youth culture and trends, speaking and training across the country and providing free online resources, training, & ideas for youth workers at www.TheSource4YM.com

I always tell people, “I think you should understand it… dabble to understand, but don’t immerse yourself in it.” …I mean, I teach this to my kids: this stuff affects us!

Guess what? It affects us as adults too. And if we immerse ourselves in this stuff, and we’re like, “Yeah! I just gotta stay current with youth culture. That’s why I watch MTV for two hours a day! Hey wait! ?Tila Tequila’ is on! I can’t miss that!”

FURBY: Ha ha. “I just gotta know my kids.”

JONATHAN: Yeah! I just gotta know my kids…

But the fact is, there’s a lot of us that… use it as an excuse, to allow some of this stuff into our life.

FURBY: Totally.

JONATHAN: I’m just saying, that’s a sin. We cannot allow this stuff into our lives… I’ll just be honest. In a society where addiction to pornography is a reality, and stuff like that, I don’t go on MySpace unless my wife is in the room. And my wife and I work in the same office, we got chairs across from each other, and I’m like, “Hey, Lori! I’m gonna get on MySpace.” Because you know why? You know that you can’t browse MySpace for 3 minutes without seein’ a girl in a thong…

We need to be careful and guard ourselves if we’re gonna do some research on some of this stuff, fine. We can do the research, but don’t immerse ourselves in this stuff.

We just mentioned A Lil Bit Podcast example of Josiah in Second Chronicles. Josiah, when he heard the truth of the Word, he not only tore his clothes, but he went around and he started just emptying stuff out of the Temple. And some of us as youth workers need to kinda clear out our CD cases in our cars and stuff like that….

FURBY: The thing is, we need to become, we need to be students of the culture and we want to know the students but we don’t want to become the consumers of this culture.

JONATHAN: Yeah. Supporting it-that’s even a different thing.

FURBY: Yeah, I mean it’s just… we have to go in with a guarded heart. I mean Proverbs says, “Our heart is the wellspring of our life.” And if we don’t guard our heart, if we don’t take very cautious actions when we are listening to the lyrics or looking at the whatevers on the Internet. We just have to be so careful that we don’t become what we are trying to keep our kids from…

• Jonathan shares the SEVEN SINS OF TRYING TO UNDERSTAND OUR YOUTH CULTURE
• In the Youth Culture Window section, they discuss the number one new show of audiences age 18-49… A MOMENT OF TRUTH
• Jonathan gives you the opportunity to jump… or dump!
• Furby talks about an “unofficial” Bible Study that has emerged in his ministry that the students requested and has both junior high and high school students in attendance.
• In the HELP ME section Jonathan and Furb answer some questions asked by all of you.
• Furby confesses his deep dark desire to trip irritating kids when they walk by.
• Furby shares about his ministry’s Relationships Retreat, a weekend where they talk with junior high students about their decisions when it comes to relationships and sex.
• Jonathan asks you all for comments in his blog this week to share about resources you have used to talk with kids about sex.