On Campus Christian Club Support

One of my favorite things to do in ministry is “On Campus Club support”.  However, I find that people don’t know what that is or why it is needed. 

On Campus Christian Clubs are official school clubs that are initiated by student interest and leadership.  In other words, the Spanish teacher can decide that he would like to do a Spanish club.  He calls a meeting, students show up.  The Spanish teacher may even decide what activities will be done.  He can invite his students and even give them extra credit for coming to the Spanish club.  The Spanish teacher can be very comfortable in his role as a Spanish teacher and the Spanish Club sponsor.  The roles are quite compatible.

The on campus Christian Club functions with a different set of rules.  No teacher can decide that she would like to sponsor a Christian Club and announce that she will have meeting in her room.  She cannot decide the topics or activities or give anyone extra credit for attending.  The only thing she might be able to do is announce that she would be interested in sponsoring a Christian Club and see if any students follow up and ask her to be their sponsor.  Maybe at the beginning of the year in her all about your teacher talk. 

It is almost like there is one set of rules for all the other clubs on campus and whole another set of rules for the Christian Club.  When there is a meeting of faculty for all club sponsors, the Christian Club sponsor – first of all, is likely to not be included and if she is, she is the exception to every rule.

To start on campus Christian Club, a student has to go to the teacher sponsor and ask if they would sponsor their Christian Club.  It takes a whole another level of leadership to start a Christian Club.  Sometimes, students think and wonder about starting a club for a while before they do anything.  Can you imagine the student side?  You have 5 to 7 teachers.  There might be 100 teachers in your school – Teachers would be hesitant to announce matters of faith – who would you ask?  How would you figure it out?

If you go to your principal, if she is supportive, she might refer the student to a teacher she knows attends church.  If the principal is unsupportive, she might tell the student:  Separation of Church and State – you can’t do that here.

Principals are sometimes unsupportive for a variety of reasons.  The primary one seems to be the potential hot bed of political correctness and possible parent complains.  It is just easier for a principal to not have a Christian Club on her campus.  Or any other controversial club for that matter:  A Satanic club, a Future Pole Dancers Club, a Pro Life Club.  All of those are legally possible in our public school system and frankly, the Christian Club will get lumped in with this list.

On the other hand, a wise principal knows that a Christian Club will be an asset to her school.  That this club will encourage students to do right, follow the rules, stand up for what’s right, be good citizens.  It will encourage the kind of students she wants more of.  But, a Christian Club is still risky.  Those kids could want to pray before the football game,  share Jesus with their peers, put risky words on their club flyers:  pray, bible, Christian!, pray at the flag pole!

However, an astute principal also knows who will organize the school food drive or the clothing drive for the hurricane victims in Haiti.  She knows who will lead in the good.

Let’s go back to our Christian Club sponsor.  The Christian Club sponsor has to be asked by the students.  A school is a system where teachers do the asking and the leading.  To sponsor a Christian Club, the teacher has to be asked by the students to be a team member:  the sponsor – a necessary team member.  The teacher who is use to leading now has to let students lead.  She also answers to the principal for the conduct of the club, so she will have to maintain the status and involvement to cancel the fundraising plan that involves mud wrestling or other student ideas that are silly, unsavory or just downright dangerous or ridiculous.  This role as a team member is in contrast to anything a teacher probably does on her campus.  The students have a lot more freedom and are expected to show a lot more leadership than probably any other place on their campus. 

So, this on Campus Christian Club system is in direct contrast to the normal operating methods for both teachers and students.

Can you see why both student leaders and club sponsors would need some help with their roles?  My solution:  On Campus Christian Club Support.  Can you see why it is needed?

25 years ago

  Once upon a time, there was girls chaplain who worked with juvenile delinquent girls.  She loved those girls very much and called them her "Angels".  The male chaplains all thought she was a bit off and out of touch with reality.
  One day, this girls chaplain sat with a girl and listened to her.  This precious girl was what we would now call a victim of sex trafficking.  This girl spoke of the horrors of her life as casually as you would tell me about getting a cup of coffee from Starbucks.  
  Because 25 years ago, we didn't talk about child sex trafficking victims.  We arrested them and put them in jail.  One day, sweet angel girl told said girls chaplain about her day in court as the witness to a murder.  The chaplain listened to the terror, fear and horror.  She held the sweet angel girl while she cried.  The chaplain held those horrible things in her heart for years and wondered about the angel girl.  
  The chaplain remembered the angel girl's name and as time and the internet progressed, she would put the angel girls name in google.  Because she wondered:  how she was.  Where she was. 
  About 2 weeks ago.  
http://truthbetoldcommunity.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/daras-journey-back-inside-to-share-her-story/
  She is alive and well.  She is doing awesomely well.  

Rejoice with me:  This child who I loved is alive and well!   

My God Moment

   I'm trying to talk about My God Moment.  Crying again now.  It is hard to explain that how the God of all creation and all knowing, reaches out to you and in a seeming single moment communicates more than I can write on 5 pages. 
   And believe me, if I wrote it, you would be lost in the fog of the background and the finer points.  Your head would be swirling as you tried to keep up!  Me too!
   So here let me try.  Start swimming. . . .
   In a single moment, God showed me that our children, are being tricked by the enemy and that during the stage of life, where they are most likely to make a decision for Jesus, they are in a world that is almost untouched by the church.  Their schools.
   I am now on the 2nd row of my church, sobbing for students. 
   In a single moment, God revealed that I am His Missionary, called to schools.  That I have been following Him and I have learned methods to help communities reach their schools.
   I am now on the 2nd row of the my church, sobbing in awe of my God and in awe of my calling.
   In a single moment, God showed me that, I was going to leave HIS calling on my life because of fear and finances and God only know how many students would be unreached because of that decision.
   I am now on the 2nd row of my church sobbing for the students I so love, overwhelmed my shame and overcome by the mercy of God, who cares enough to call me back to my calling.
   In a single moment, God showed me that I was wasting my life selling meaningless junk on eBay, when He had called me to help communities reach their students.  Their lost, going to burn in hell students.
   I am now on the 2nd row of my church, crying for students and the time I had wasted. 
   In a single moment, God showed me the connections between what I had done and how I was on the track to help communities reach their students. 
   I am now on the 2nd row of my church, crying because I know what I'm suppose to do.

The moment everything changes

I’m in McDonalds and I have 10 minutes to write this. 

 

Sunday, I had one of those life altering experiences:  this moment of clarity that changes how you see things.  At least, at this point, it feels that way.  One of those twists in my thinking that changes everything.

 

For months, Dean and I have been struggling financially.  I had gone thru the sudden closure of the ministry I had been working for, a explorative job search and then the realization that while I could get another job, the best choice for me and my family, was for me to stay in ministry.  For me, staying in ministry means embracing fundraising.  Most ministry people do not eagerly embrace fundraising.

 

Then the next curve ball was that my new ministry did not have their official non-profit status.  So, now, I had former donors who were willing to become current donors, but not until the tax deductible status was in place. 

 

So much for embracing fundraising!  Several things happen.  The gift of a mobile home.   A truck fire.  A garage sale.  A family member is moved to organize other family members to help us.  All very helpful in helping us to make ends meet.  And much appreciated!

 

Those struggles are significant because the financial pressure in my life is becoming overwhelming.  I hate it when the bottom line issue is: What does it pay?  What does it cost?

 

As things go on, I feel more and more LOST.

 

So here is the insight that changes everything:  I am a missionary who has allowed herself to be under prayed for and under funded.  This has caused my mission to suffer and it has nearly caused me to leave the mission field. 

 

On one hand, I feel this overwhelming shame:  How could I have allowed this to happen?  On the other, I feel this overwhelming calling, clarity of vision, a sense of purpose, a renewed passion to help others reach students for Christ.

 

The other thing God gave me in that moment was this insight of how much I know about helping churches and communities impact their schools for Christ!  All the sudden the pieces became clear. 

 

And today, when people ask me how are you?  I am amazed.  I am astonished that I am not glowing.  That I don’t look completely different.  In that moment, everything changed and yet, I don’t know how to talk about it.    

Celebrating the Christmas Story 2/15 Magi

  Today I am celebrating the Christmas Story.  I am considering the Magi's journey.  There was planning and packing, mapping - All things I love.   But today I am thinking about the trip down the Joseph's street.  I always pictured the Magi arriving during the day, but I reread Matthew 2 and realized, if they are following the star, they must have arrived at night or the evening.  
  I'm sure everyone isn't into the details like I am.  They arrived.  That is the important thing.  That is all that matters, Dottie.  
  But, you know arriving during the day is different than arriving at night.  Arriving at night and camping out on the doorstep until morning is different than knocking on someone's door at 1 am.  
  I also wonder about the conversations.  Like what was said between the Magi, Mary and Joseph.  These guys traveled for days, weeks, months even?  I would think the Magi had to have expectations building up about what you are going to find, what you want to hear or say.  
  I've seen the paintings that beautifully depict the giving of the gifts.  Perhaps because my love language isn't gifts, I can't imagine traveling thousands of miles to drop a good size lump of frankincense in front of a toddler king that the King of his country hasn't even heard about.  Finding the king the stars proclaimed in a working class neighborhood with a carpenter as a father, not being properly trained in culture and class to rule!
  I just can't help but think that the Magi walked away shaking their heads and wondering why they made the trip.                 

Still celebrating the Christmas Story - 2/14 - the journey

  I am still celebrating the real Christmas story.  The journey from Bethlehem to Egypt has me fascinated.  Today, I am thinking about Mary and Joseph's neighbors and what they must have observed.  
  I have been taught that Joseph, as a carpenter, established shop in Bethlehem and worked, until it was a better time to travel for Mary.  That Jesus was about 2 years old when the Magi arrived.  That Joseph and family lived in a working class neighborhood.  
  So, this working class neighborhood watches this entourage of animals and foreigners parade down the road to Joseph's house.  I can't image this was quiet or that people just continued with their tasks.  When I was a kid, we all stopped and commented when we saw a car in reverse on our road -  hey, it didn't take much. 
  Did the neighbors talk to the entourage? It's hard to imagine that the children didn't ask questions.  I wonder if there was a language barrier.  Did they watch the parade of gifts and watch the value of Joseph's home double? triple?  Did every housewife on the street decide she was taking Mary a fresh pomegranate tomorrow, so she could hear the scoop straight from Mary?  
  And the next morning, Joseph's house was vacant.  Except for a small pile of fresh pomegranates.  
 And in just a bit, all the babies were gone as well.      
She refused to be comforted,
    because her children are dead.” Jeremiah 31:15
Do you think the neighbors ever connected all this?    

Celebrating the Christmas Story 2/13 - the Journey

I am still reflecting on and celebrating the Christmas Story.  The midnight, join the witness protection program, journey to Egypt has really gotten my attention.  I think about how many times I have packed to make a weekend trip to visit my parents and forgotten some essential item.  More than once, it has been my tooth brush.  I get there and make the store run to get the essential forgotten item. 


I can't imagine packing for such a essential trip:  in the dark after struggling to go to sleep after such an incredible visit from the most amazing most important people you have never heard of you that could ever meet, who come and kneel before my baby boy and offered gifts of incredible value.  That they traveled thousands of miles to bring to him.  (and I failed to send them a shower invitation!)  I would either fall asleep exhausted after all that or lay there and contemplate what it all meant.  Or if Joseph was a listener, I would talk endless circles around it all, just trying to figure it all out.  Sleep?  Who could?


And then, just when I drifted off, Joseph would be shaking me to wake me up, rattling about nonsense, packing, dream, angels, Egypt, Herod, etc.  I would be trying to remember who I am, what day it is and where am I?  And WHO is this insane man telling me to pack?  


Packing wasn't always so stressful for me.  However, when I got a daughter who was stressed out by changes, packing and trips, who shared her stress with the entire home by melting down, screaming and arguing:  All the sudden, I am arriving at my weekend destination without my tooth brush.  


It is a little like having a two year old.  Oh right, Mary had a two year old . . . I wonder if she got to Egypt with her tooth bush.