Middle school retreat: boys. disney. sugar. worship. community.

Well, I’m writing this will sitting at the at the airport with a good cup of Starbucks joe. It seems like the appropriate time to write down my reflections on the weekend.

What I experienced was a range of middle school girls who were boy crazy and some who were still Disney crazy. It’s hard to believe that the range of age for this age bracket is only one or two years apart. The last night every student wanted to stay up late. Reports came back on how each gender used their time: The girls were either burning excess sugar off by running circles in the lodge or looking through a name book, talking about what they’d name their children. The boys proceeded to pile themselves up in-between a stack of mattresses. The middle school years are a hyper-extended time of development, no doubt.

Sugar was plentiful all week. Some day youth leaders will learn that when they hand out candy during the meetings, they will pay for in their cabins that evening!

Worship took various forms all weekend. I saw students singing to God; taking short, but important moments of silence; listening to stranger-speaker-guy; laughing; getting involved; reaching out to their friends with a kind word or gesture; playing hard. And I saw I saw leaders give and give and give.

We dialogued at our leaders meeting this morning about how we judge the success of a retreat and explored the idea that quite possibly, “success” is judged more by the giving than the receiving... the serving rather than the results… the gift rather than the payoff. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who serve the least of these in my name,” not “blessed are you if you see results.”

Youth ministry is about giving and about giving freely.

Z is a leader who’s been doing middle school for 14 years. I asked him what keeps him going. We got interrupted by a group of middle school boys who sat with us to talk about… well, not much and yet everything. After they left, Z said, “That’s why I do this. For conversations like that.” Right on, Z. Beautiful.

The group hung with me and I felt really honored to be included in the group. I heard reports that some students thought I spoke “teenager” and I was assured that this was a great compliment. I’ll take it that way, but I promise all of you I never used the word “dude” once.

We concluded our retreat reflecting that following Jesus in community is essential for following Jesus. The light of Jesus shines brighter as God’s people follow God… together.

Back home tonight, work tomorrow… and sleep sometime.

Peace, friends.