Fun with Bible Mad Libs (or, Why Didn’t I Think of This Before?)

For tonight’s junior high youth group, I decided to use a Bible Mad Lib as a “springboard” into a Bible Study time. I’m sure everybody does this, so I’m sharing it only for the pure delight. These things made me laugh. And by “laugh” I mean cackle.

Here’s the template I constructed, using Luke 5:36-39:

Bible Mad Lib

No one (present perfect verb)*___________________ a piece from a new (noun)______________ and sews it on an old (noun)______________; otherwise the (noun)_____________ will be (past tense verb)**________________, and the (noun)______________ from the (noun)_______________ will not (verb)____________ the (noun)__________________. And no one puts new (plural noun)____________________ into (adjective__________________) wineskins; otherwise the new (plural noun)________________________will burst the (plural noun)_________________ and will be (past tense verb)_____________________, and the (noun)_____________________ will be destroyed. But new (noun)______________ must be put into (adjective)________________ (plural noun)____________________. And no one after drinking old (type of drink)_______________ desires new (type of drink)____________________, but says, “The (first type of drink)____________________ is (adjective)__________________.”’

And here’s but one example of what resulted. Again, cackled.

Bible Mad Lib

No one (present perfect verb)*laughs a piece from a new (noun)Billy Mays and sews it on an old (noun)Whitehouse; otherwise the (noun) couch will be (past tense verb)**blinked, and the (noun) trash can from the (noun) ball will not (verb) catch the (noun) Elmo. And no one puts new (plural noun) Elmos into (adjective smelly) wineskins; otherwise the new (plural noun) heaters will burst the (plural noun) lights and will be (past tense verb) jumped, and the (noun) chair will be destroyed. But new (noun) Atlantis must be put into (adjective) soft (plural noun) fans. And no one after drinking old (type of drink) soda desires new (type of drink) water, but says, “The (first type of drink) soda is (adjective) rough.”’

Confirmation as Collective: A New Culture of Learning, part 3

See the first two posts in this series here and here.

Also, here’s a good review of the book by education policy expert Charles Kerchner.

Now, confirmation and the collective . . .

What if a confirmation class was a collective of self-directed learners? What if, instead of giving confirmands a series of lessons on the doctrines and practices that constitute Christianity, we unearthed some things about faith and church that these students had a personal stake in exploring and then guided their exploration?

If we did confirmation in the New Culture of Learning envisioned by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas then we would marry their internal motivation with an unlimited information source.

I feel sort of handcuffed about finding that internal motivation.

The unlimited information source, though, we have that. Youth can explore the full text of Scripture, all of our confessional documents, and an unlimited variety of Christian faith practices with online technology.

A YouTube search for “lectio divina,” for example, produces these results.

Here’s the full text of the Book of Confessions in searchable pdf form.

Oremus and Bible Gateway are easy-to-use, easy-to-search online Bible platforms.

Here’s a downloadable daily prayer podcast in mp3 format.

We could do this. Our task in guiding students in this process would be to help them see where their particular questions and insights fit into the overall canopy of the Reformed understanding and expression of Christian faith. There are several books and video curricula we can use for this.

Who’s with me?

What does this approach overlook? What could be limited about it?

The Collective: A New Culture of Learning pt. 2

In an earlier post, I introduced Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown’s book A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, asking how youth leaders actually get at the internal motivation that, married with access to an unlimited source of information, drives learning.

Here’s another key idea in the book: the collective.

“As the name implies, it is a collection of people, skills, and talent that produces a result greater than the sum of its parts. For our purposes . . . they are defined by an active engagement with the process of learning.

“A collective is very different from an ordinary community. Where communities can be passive . . . collectives cannot. In communities, people learn in order to belong. In a collective, people belong in order to learn. Communities derive their strength from creating a sense of belonging, while collectives derive theirs from participation.

“[Collectives] are content neutral platforms, waiting to be filled with interactions among participants.”

What if youth ministry were viewed in a particular context as a constellation of collectives? What if, instead of The Youth Group, where one Youth Leader was trying to expose all participants to Scripture study, service, spiritual practice, worship, community building, etc., you instead had a collective of students who were participating in service and a collective that was focused on Scripture study, and any number of youth collectives engaging any number of things?

A student could choose to participate in whichever collective appealed to her. She could form a collective of her peers around forms of participation that don’t yet exist at the church.

In our congregation this year, a particular student has gathered a collective of her peers around her to engage issues of hunger. She recruited them to raise money for and participate in a walk. She got them to do the 30 Hour Famine. What that collective does next I don’t know. But I’m sure they’re not done.

I like what the collective suggests. What are the limitations, though? Does this appeal to you as much as it does to me?

My Church Killed Twitter? Personal vs. Institutional Use of Social Media

Is it better for pastors and churches to use social media institutionally or personally?

I set up a Facebook organization page for the youth ministry at my church several months ago, and it has attracted all of eight followers, most of whom are parents. Most of the content the page features is pushed from a Posterous blog I created to autopost content not only to Facebook but also to a Twitter account and a Flickr photo stream, all of which are “official” church youth ministry offerings.

I’m confident nobody uses those.

By contrast, when I use my personal Facebook page or Twitter account to narrate something going on in the youth ministry or the larger church, conversation reliably ensues.

Personally, I’m interested in people: what they think, what they’re doing, what they want to know. I’m much less interested in organizations. Yet pastors and youth leaders have well-advised instincts to make the things they’re involved in about the organization, the larger collective, and not about themselves. This is standard ministerial competence.

Social media are exposing that, at bottom, things that churches are doing are being done by people, and you can put those people on social map. And that’s okay. In fact, it may be a misuse of social media tools to employ them in the service of organizations instead of actual people.

One of the things from last year’s Theology After Google event that has stuck with me is Monica Coleman’s description of how she came to attend her present church. A friend connected her to the pastor through Facebook, and it was her interest in his theology and vision for the church that drew her to participate in the congregation. It was a person (it could just as easily been an elder or another member), not the organization.

So is it okay to scrap the “official” church Facebook page and instead cultivate the church’s relationship with the world through the personal social media presence of its leaders and members?

Program Or Be Programmed, part 1

“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”

Welcome to Douglas Rushkoff’s latest book, Program or Be Programmed: 10 Commands for A Digital Age. In the coming weeks I’ll use this space to explore those commands from within a context of Christian ministry, often referring explicitly to youth ministry.

Every new communication medium brings with it a capability that people miss. That’s the unsettling observation that spurred the book’s writing (see Rushkoff expound that here). A text alphabet brings the capability to read, but people use it to listen to priests read; the printing press brings the ability to publish, but we use it to read elite authors; digital technology brings a chance to program reality, yet we employ it to publish on platforms programmed by programmers. Every new communication technology realizes in full the promise of its predecessor.

I spend an awful lot of time and anxiety in my ministry setting trying to implement the programs of others. Evangelism programs, education programs, worship programs, service programs: I’m trying to apply other peoples’ programs and so find “success” in my vocation. What I’m getting from Program Or Be Programmed is the bald assertion that I’m a full technology and ministry iteration behind. I need to be programming this stuff myself.

That goes well beyond writing my own youth lessons instead of purchasing them from Youth Specialties. It starts with that (it already has). But it proceeds to ask not simply, for example, how youth ministry can make use of the social media tools that teens are using, but, further, what important tools for accompanying young people in faith yet need creating? And how can we create them?

An answer may well be a piece of software that one of us writes. If that sounds too intimidating, though, then at least it should begin with hearing Rushkoff’s 10 commandments for this digital age, commandments that will help us to program the coming reality, and not simply be programmed by it.

Up first: Do Not Be Always On.

Avoiding the Lousy

RETHINKING YOUTH MINISTRY put together this slide show, “6 ways to guarantee a lousy fall.” I find most of what RTYM very useful, and this is no exception.

I particularly like the last slide about starting the year with a big kickoff event. I’m waffling a bit on our group’s fall kickoff party tradition anyway. Do you all have big kickoff events in the fall? Why or why not?

6 ways to guarantee a lousy fall

View more presentations from Brian Kirk.

Youth Group: Huh! What Is It Good For?

Youth ministries are made up of lots of activities. Sunday school, small groups, mission trips, the weekly youth group, youth choir: these are but a few of the church activities that fall under the “youth ministry” category. Some of them fall under other categories, too.

They involve different students. A very small percentage of youth participate in two or more of them; most participants probably stick to one.

They do different things. Sunday school teaches. The mission trip serves. Yet they all do more than one thing. They all teach. They can all serve.

What about the weekly youth group? What does it do? What is it’s main aim? How does it complement the small group or the service project? How is it different from the multitude of “groups” that seek to enhance our students’ development, from student government to soccer?

What is the weekly youth group’s primary job?

Youth Ministry, Media, and Go Karts

Here’s a sample, representative event that your standard issue Associate Pastor for Youth needs to plan and promote: Youth Night at Boomers. It’s a fundraiser, held at a local mini-golf/go Kart/ arcade joint, to benefit a local nonprofit.

Our AP begins, about six weeks out from the event date, to publicize and recruit.

She writes about it in the monthly church newsletter for two consecutive months
She sends a postcard in the mail to every middle and high school student on the church’s rolls (about 30)
She sends an email to all of those students, as well as to their parents, about it
She puts it on the monthly calendar that gets mailed to every student, as well as emailed and posted on the church’s website
She talks about it at youth group gatherings for two weeks before the event date, asking for a show of hands: who’s coming?
The week of the event, she posts the event on Facebook and sends it to the youth group’s facebook group
The day of the event she sends text messages to students reminding them of the time, location, and cost of the event.

Five students come.

Five.

This is not a lament about a lack of student commitment. Maybe the event was garbage. I mean, you can publicize the death out of a belly-button-lint-collecting party, and nobody’s going to come. No, this is an open inquiry about the sheer number of media our Associate Pastor is employing to promote the youth ministry to her students.

New communication technologies don’t replace old ones. Our AP is not texting students instead of sending a monthly calendar in the mail. The Facebook group has not supplanted the weekly email. Instead, basic competence now requires that our AP employ the newest media to connect with teens on top of the face-to-face, telephone, and mail media she’s been using for years.

And with no apparent change in participation.

What to do?