This week for Body shop we had more meetings than usual as we are focusing even stronger as leaders. We had an hour long lunch the day of CRASH (the Wednesday night ministry) as leaders and discussed in detail how we were going to cover over the message and the discipleship groups properly. We discussed tying the discussions together properly in order to communicate to the kids in a clear way. We brain stormed creative ways to communicate and help the kids understand. Before CRASH started I showed up an hour early, at 5pm, and led a prayer group. We prayed around the building, over each room, for the leaders and for the kids. We spent an hour covering the ministry in prayer. At 6:15 the doors opened and we started service. From 6:15 to 8:00pm I helped the kids engage in worship through song and pay attention to the message given. Within this time period me and 3 other leaders led the boys in a discipleship group discussing being a living sacrifice to the Lord. After the Discipleship group was done we hung out with the kids by playing dodge ball. When the kids went home and cleared the building by 8pm, all the volunteers went out to relax at Dairy Queen for about an hour.
This week was our first time meeting an hour early for prayer like we did. Although there were only 3 of us, I felt a stronger focus in the ministry for my heart personally. I have learned that praying with others over a ministry helps my heart focus in on what I am actually doing the whole ministry for. In prior weeks I felt like I was simply spending a few hours out of my week to hang out with middle school kids. This time, I saw seriousness in other volunteers through sacrifice of an extra hour and sincerity through their prayers. This was a huge encouragement to me this week. Last week we had a large problem with all the volunteers in one discipleship group. This week we had a specific select few to lead the one group. This group was me and 3 other leaders and it helped a large amount. It was more controled. We still had glitches but it was much improvement from last week. Our communication has been 90% better sinse we brought it up and discussed it. So the communication allowed the ministry to flow with more understanding from one another as leaders.
Honestly, my spiritual life hasn't mean struggling to stay strong, but it has been being attacked lately. My friend back home hung himself over Fall Break and thats truly impacted my heart and bummed me a little bit. I found that the prayer before CRASH helped me focus. Leaders prayed over me so that I could focus on those who were there and it helped a lot! CRASH ended up being a highlight of my spirituality for the week. I have been klinging to the Proverbs lately and they have been teaching me how to be wise in the hard times with what I saw and how to act around others. So, this week has been rough but it is a small taste of what is to come in the future.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Report #3
This week at body shop I arrived at 6pm and hung out with kids and supervised. For the first hour (6pm - 7pm) I hung out with the kids and worshiped along side them, leading by example, and helped the speaker for the night with her illustration. For the next hour (7pm - 8pm) I helped lead a discipleship group that for the middle school boys. I would help the boys understand certain if they had any questions and make sure they were paying attention. Once all the kids were gone for the night, I had a debrief with some of the leaders, discussing how the night went and how we could make it improve. The discussion lasted from 8pm to 9ish pm, possibly a little later. We brought before Julia and discussed things with her as well. After that I talked with Julia one on one about details as a Body Shop speaker, which took roughly a half hour. After that was done I discussed issues from the night with fellow Body Shop volunteers, allowing them to know how the night went and how we planned to improve in certain areas from our experience this week. I talked with them for about 45 minutes about these issues.
Communication is key: Body Shop this week was interesting. I have been a little confused on how things go when I am not speaking. Only speaking the first Wednesday of every month, I am a little confused on what I do as a leader on the other nights. This Wednesday I found myself a little misunderstood on how to encourage the kids during our worship songs. I was misunderstood on if I should laugh and goof with them during the music or if I should be 100% serious. Last year for Wednesday nights Body Shop worship songs were crazy with dudes running around and jumping over chairs. This year the songs are slower and more heart felt and the worship leader, Jeff, shares scripture and explain songs. So I was struggling with that this week. We also had troubles in our discipleship group this week. We had too many leaders within the group and ¾’s of them didn’t understand their roles to well. We had leaders putting in their two cents and completely taking over the conversation and also making the leader in charge look like an idiot. The discussion became so confusing that even I, a leader, didn’t understand what we were talking about. By the end of the discussion kids were slouching in their chairs and everyone left confused. Our debriefing time wasn’t planned but I sat us down and we had one due to how bad the night had gone. Through our discussion, we all agreed that there was an enormous lack of Communication within our ministry. I was personally frustrated because no one allowed me to know anything. And I am a main speaker for the ministry! Through this weeks experience I learned the importance of communicating with your fellow leaders. I learned the importance of knowing the order and mind set of the services. Our ministry will crash and burn without communication. I truly saw the importance of knowing everyone’s roles, whose in charge and whose there to supervise. Communication is key.
This week my spiritual life was amazing! I grew so much more in depth in understanding my own body. I did the Daniel fast this week with a friend and it helped me with humility, self discipline, and focusing in on God to a deeper level. Through this fast I was constantly feeling God’s help throughout my days. It helped me focus on Him stronger even when I wasn’t in solitude. My mindset was sharply focused on Him the whole week because my stomach wouldn’t let me forget. It was an amazing time of growth and beating my body into submission. I started reading in Proverbs, studying the importance of wisdom. That has been helping my thought process form more maturely. Time with God has been strong this week because of my fast.
Communication is key: Body Shop this week was interesting. I have been a little confused on how things go when I am not speaking. Only speaking the first Wednesday of every month, I am a little confused on what I do as a leader on the other nights. This Wednesday I found myself a little misunderstood on how to encourage the kids during our worship songs. I was misunderstood on if I should laugh and goof with them during the music or if I should be 100% serious. Last year for Wednesday nights Body Shop worship songs were crazy with dudes running around and jumping over chairs. This year the songs are slower and more heart felt and the worship leader, Jeff, shares scripture and explain songs. So I was struggling with that this week. We also had troubles in our discipleship group this week. We had too many leaders within the group and ¾’s of them didn’t understand their roles to well. We had leaders putting in their two cents and completely taking over the conversation and also making the leader in charge look like an idiot. The discussion became so confusing that even I, a leader, didn’t understand what we were talking about. By the end of the discussion kids were slouching in their chairs and everyone left confused. Our debriefing time wasn’t planned but I sat us down and we had one due to how bad the night had gone. Through our discussion, we all agreed that there was an enormous lack of Communication within our ministry. I was personally frustrated because no one allowed me to know anything. And I am a main speaker for the ministry! Through this weeks experience I learned the importance of communicating with your fellow leaders. I learned the importance of knowing the order and mind set of the services. Our ministry will crash and burn without communication. I truly saw the importance of knowing everyone’s roles, whose in charge and whose there to supervise. Communication is key.
This week my spiritual life was amazing! I grew so much more in depth in understanding my own body. I did the Daniel fast this week with a friend and it helped me with humility, self discipline, and focusing in on God to a deeper level. Through this fast I was constantly feeling God’s help throughout my days. It helped me focus on Him stronger even when I wasn’t in solitude. My mindset was sharply focused on Him the whole week because my stomach wouldn’t let me forget. It was an amazing time of growth and beating my body into submission. I started reading in Proverbs, studying the importance of wisdom. That has been helping my thought process form more maturely. Time with God has been strong this week because of my fast.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Report 2
On Sunday morning I showed up to JC Body Shop at 9am to help Pastor Matt set up things and go to some stores for him to grab some suplies. From 9am to 10:30am I helped Matt with whatever he needed until service started. Service began at 10:30am. I stayed until 11am supervising and helping volunteering with things. At 11am I left for my church service at Exit 59. On Wednesday I showed up to Body Shop at 6pm and left at 8pm. My night consisted of helping set up for the message that another volunteer was giving, supervising, hanging out with kids, and leading a small group with the middle school boys. That took up the whole 2 hours.
This week helped me learn the importance of community. I truly felt that Wednesday night was a strong community of family. A boy that found the Lord last week returned and everyone made him feel super welcome. Our discussion in small group was sincere and genuine. I've been seeing these students mature through the ministry God has allowed me to partake in. It's been amazing! The more I treat them like friends instead of mentees the more they seem to enjoy learning about the Lord and thats what I care about. It truly feels like a family!
This past week my spiritual life has been refreshing. I have been spending incredible time with God where He allows me to feel cared for and taken care of. I've been showed some fantastic nature. I have had great times sitting and simply existing in His presents out in nature. It's been so refreshing for my spirit and my mind. Because of that I have been able to focus strongly on the mission God has set before me!
This week helped me learn the importance of community. I truly felt that Wednesday night was a strong community of family. A boy that found the Lord last week returned and everyone made him feel super welcome. Our discussion in small group was sincere and genuine. I've been seeing these students mature through the ministry God has allowed me to partake in. It's been amazing! The more I treat them like friends instead of mentees the more they seem to enjoy learning about the Lord and thats what I care about. It truly feels like a family!
This past week my spiritual life has been refreshing. I have been spending incredible time with God where He allows me to feel cared for and taken care of. I've been showed some fantastic nature. I have had great times sitting and simply existing in His presents out in nature. It's been so refreshing for my spirit and my mind. Because of that I have been able to focus strongly on the mission God has set before me!
This week at Body Shop I gave a message for the open house event. The last few weeks have consisted of brainstorming of how I wanted to prepare the message. One night out of this past week I spent an hour walking and structuring my message in my head. After that I had the actually manuscript within my head. Another night shortly after that I spent roughly an hour reciting the message in my room. About a half hour before Body Shop began on Wednesday I recited it again. From 6pm to 8pm I was active at Body Shop supervising and hanging out with kids. 20 minutes out of the activity was my actual message. The rest of the time I hung out with the kids. The Great thing was that I got to talk to one of the boys who accepted Christ for the first time that night!
I have been learning so much in a pastoral position for Junior Highers. Simply understanding that I need to acknowledge each individual kid as much as possible. I understand as a speaker that the ministry isn't 100% on the stage...that may not even be half of it. I have been gaining great relationships with the kids. I havent been goofing around as much as last year. I have been treating them more like adults, that way they know that they can be open with me and open to understanding my messages. I have been trying to find the best way to have kids accept Christ in their hearts without feeling embarased. I have been struggling with understanding how to encourage kids to tell me or a leader that they made the decision. That has been hard. I have been giving them goofy, fun things to come up to me and do if they do instead of telling me word for word and that has been most effective so far. It is also interesting merging such passionate, life changing messages into a more crazy rest of the night. We do giveaways and play dodge ball after my messages so that has been interesting. It has been so great to work with such an interesting structured event. I am really enjoying the experience!
My spiritual life this last week felt dead on. I felt that my seeking for God's direction for the message was very respectful and open to His leading. I spent good amounts of time in solitude with the Lord going on walks and praying. I prayed for everyday things but within that time I would pray for the right thing to communicate to the teens for that night. My heart felt so good and content with the message topic (Real Eye's, Realize, Real Lies). I have been waking up at 8am and studying Acts before my days begin so thats been keeping my head strongly focused on preaching the gospel with passion wherever I go. I have felt very sharp in my discipline in the scriptures and meditation. It's been Great. When my heart is in line well with God's, I feel that my message are more accurate to the hearts of those listening.
I have been learning so much in a pastoral position for Junior Highers. Simply understanding that I need to acknowledge each individual kid as much as possible. I understand as a speaker that the ministry isn't 100% on the stage...that may not even be half of it. I have been gaining great relationships with the kids. I havent been goofing around as much as last year. I have been treating them more like adults, that way they know that they can be open with me and open to understanding my messages. I have been trying to find the best way to have kids accept Christ in their hearts without feeling embarased. I have been struggling with understanding how to encourage kids to tell me or a leader that they made the decision. That has been hard. I have been giving them goofy, fun things to come up to me and do if they do instead of telling me word for word and that has been most effective so far. It is also interesting merging such passionate, life changing messages into a more crazy rest of the night. We do giveaways and play dodge ball after my messages so that has been interesting. It has been so great to work with such an interesting structured event. I am really enjoying the experience!
My spiritual life this last week felt dead on. I felt that my seeking for God's direction for the message was very respectful and open to His leading. I spent good amounts of time in solitude with the Lord going on walks and praying. I prayed for everyday things but within that time I would pray for the right thing to communicate to the teens for that night. My heart felt so good and content with the message topic (Real Eye's, Realize, Real Lies). I have been waking up at 8am and studying Acts before my days begin so thats been keeping my head strongly focused on preaching the gospel with passion wherever I go. I have felt very sharp in my discipline in the scriptures and meditation. It's been Great. When my heart is in line well with God's, I feel that my message are more accurate to the hearts of those listening.
Friday, October 1, 2010
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