over the next week or so, i’ll post slightly edited versions of the notes from our junior high pastors summit. they’re pretty fragmented for someone who wasn’t there, i’ll admit (they weren’t ‘taken’ for this purpose). but for those who would like to read, i’m excited to share them with you.

parts 1, 2 and 3 are the summaries of the morning scot mcknight spent with us. then, parts 4 - 8 are the pieces of our discussion. one bonus post will have the book recommendations from the group to one another (this is one of our traditions each year, to share two or three books we’d recommend to each other).

here’s part 5…

Defining the Gospel in a young teen context –
“The work of a triune God to create a community to restore cracked eikons for union with God and communion with others with a missional direction”
John: Joining the Church-once saved what’s next (bridge), social justice, personal commitment/personal faith
Marko – God, self, world, others
John – it has as much to do with purpose as it does with being restored, when God is glorified in us we see God in others, Jesus should be seen in who we are, it becomes more active not just passive
Andy – God Creates, relates, rests
Jason - it’s more than just restoration with others and the world, God and self needs to be added in
Nate R – having 4 talks on God, self, others, world – people don’t see it as gospel
Kurt – how do we find JH friendly words to define the gospel?
Marko – God is making a community of messy people made in his image…
Heather/Jeff – instead of making a community of messy people – how about gathering a community of messy people?
Alan – the “old” gospel is a narrow view, it’s telling the whole story of God that is the gospel
Kurt – to be able to say “this is what I am a part of”
Johnny – isn’t this why we are supposed to tell the stories
Alan – we teach the entire story and expanding on that…
Kurt – how do we equip our kids to articulate the big picture of their faith
Marko – we as adults need it, therefore kids need it
Andy/Steve - it doesn’t need to be simple, having our ministry focused on “God, self, others, world” (those are the anchor points)– it’s not just about series and themes, helping them articulate God’s story, their own story, their world’s story, their community’s story
Eric – it’s like kids and video games – they need to see it, not just hear the words – it would be better to have kids say it in a messy way than repeat some definition we came up with – not that giving them definitions is bad
Kurt – it’s ok to equip kids with a part of the whole gospel so they can start to learn all the parts
Andy – help students have stories to tell…small group, homeless shelter, etc.
Jim – it’s taking the topics and interweaving the definition within them, kids over the years will get it
Eric – Sex, kids talk about it with great enthusiasm – how do we help them find that enthusiasm with their faith
Alan R - If we want something to measure it by – are we discussing/living the church, social justice, commitment/faith
Steve – how do we define the word restoration so kids get it?
…fuse, rebuild, repair…
Sean – we can’t change the word restore, we need to help define it
Ken – who is the community the church or the youth group?
Marko – Community is 3 spheres – youth group, local church and whole church
Johnny- get them involved in the church so they can see the definition
Nate S- asking every family in student ministry that has a kid in YM to adopt a kid from that village, (picking a village with World Vision) goal would be to have monthly contact and every 2 years go visit that adopted child, JH mission trips are all family mission trips – hope is to give people tools, prayer, restoration happening in both places
Eric – by constantly giving kids the kingdom
Scott – what word can JH kids use in their language with their friends in replace of restore? Bring Back…