STRIVE, and phone calls

So our student ministry, OSM, does a fundraiser every year called STRIVE.  It stands for Students Turning Responsibility Into Valuable Experiences.  It is a one day work-a-thon style workday where students get pledges from people and then for one whole day do work in our community.  All the money goes toward making our ministry happen.  That’s right, we fund our ENTIRE ministry this way.  This IS our budget.  We teach our students that this effort helps them become great owners and stewards of their ministry.  Part of the process is for students to call people and ask for money and pledges.  A lot of them are VERY INTIMIDATED by this and have actually verbalized that they have no clue where to start.  That is where this video comes in.  It is a humorous look at how to make a call like this.  This comes from our STRIVE BLOG.  Enjoy:

OSM Christmas Party

We had a blast at the Oakbrook Student Ministries Christmas party.  Here are some shots from the night:

we had a great night of food, talent show, and games.  Merry Christmas.

A little thanks goes a long way…

so this past Friday I surprised our leadership team of Oakbrook Student Ministries by having an appreciation dinner.  These guys do so much and run so hard both in Student Ministries and other ministries in the church… most of the time with little to nothing in return.  So I figured it was time to show them how much we appreciate them and value them.  It was an awesome night. Parents made and served the meal… and then parents and students wrote letters of appreciation to the leaders.  I guess I just forget sometimes how far a “thank you” can actually go.  The best part of the night was just to hear team members speaking into the lives of other team members and some of our team leaders bragging about their teams.  We were able to celebrate wins together and be encouraged by other leaders and how they serve.  It was one of the best nights in youth ministry for me in a while… and it really had nothing to do with students.  so… the lesson learned: Say Thank you often… in many different ways.

       

re:MADE in OSM – week two

Here is part two of re:MADE.

reMADE Pt 2 from Travis Carpenter on Vimeo.

re:MADE in OSM – week one

here is week one’s re:MADE video.  this is a series about how God wants to remake our lives to become like Jesus in his attitudes and actions.  This video series is a spoof of the MTV show “MADE.”  enjoy:

reMADE Pt 1 from Travis Carpenter on Vimeo.

mustache week ‘08

So i saw this on another blog and I thought it was hilarious.  I’m not sure if I’ll participate… I’m fairly certain that I have what Joel McHale of E’s “The Soup” calls the “creepy flesh colored beard,” so I’m not sure it is worth the “No SHAVE, No KISS” house rule violation.  So I shared this funny week with the guys in our High School small group and said (basically) “grow ‘em if ya got ‘em.”  Then the unpredictable happened.  I was shown a photo of one of the senior guys in my small group… he was wearing a fake mustache.  He looked like BORAT!  So I’m challenging him to wear it all week in honor of Mustache week ‘08.

happy mustache week!!!!!!!

OSM opener

here are some shots from the OSM opener last night.  These shots were take during worship time.

BIGSTUF… it’s just around the corner!

we leave for BIGSTUF camp this friday night @ 8.30pm.  It is such an awesome time.  We actually take a charter bus for 18 hours through the night and arrive @ panama city beach, Florida on saturday @ around 2pm.  If you’ve never been to Bigstuf… then you should totally check it out.  It is an amazing week.  God moves huge in not only the lives of teenagers, but also in the lives of the leaders that are there.  I am looking forward to it.  Tonight we have our meeting with our leaders for bigstuf… I can’t believe that I actually have an agenda for the meeting tonight other than “here’s the info and your room list.”  It should be a great meeting.  check back periodically for BIGSTUF updates!

Who is Jesus – week 3

here is the transcript for week three of our “who is Jesus” OSM talk.  this was the final talk in our series.  A lot of the info that we used for this series can be found in this book.  here is the transcript:

who-is-jesus-week-3

youth ministry minute – # i forget

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these… so I forget which one I’m on.  Summer is a great time to pause, slow down, and reflect on what new changes and directions your youth ministry needs to take.  It’s also a great time to look back over the past year and celebrate wins.  That’s what I’ve been doing today.  I’ve really been feeling the need in our student ministry to create SPACE.  We (youth pastors) are great at creating content and context… but often not very good at creating space for students to reflect.  We’ve got songs to sing, sermons to preach, games to play… but how often do we create space for students to slow down and absorb?  I can’t remember the last time I pushed the pause button long enough for students to reflect on what’s going on in their life.  I guess I started to think about this today because we are in the process of decking out one of our break-out rooms and I started dreaming about what this space would be used for… small groups? check.  Pizza hang outs?  check.  massive video game parties?  check.  spiritual reflective space?  WHAT?!?  the more I thought about it though… the more I realized that is what students {and you and I} need.  We need all of the above.  Let’s get great at creating SPACE for reflection and absorption.