Double team meetings: Fonderie and Alpha Lounge

Today could be definitely classified as a day of 2006 kickoff planning meetings for 2 ministries that I get to work with: La Fonderie and Alpha Lounge. At the end of some days, I feel like I got a lot done and after other days, it doesn't seem like much got accomplished. Thankfully, this was one of those very productive days.

I had a lunch meeting with Jim Beise and 3 others who are involved in leadership of la Fonderie. We discussed things like a name for the new space that we'll be renting, vision for use of this space, upcoming events, etc. We'll have on open house in the new space (before the work starts) on Monday January 9. We also have a series of Thursday evening meetings in March and a scheduled arts conference at the end of June. The theme of the March series is "creativity."

Tonight I met with Pierre DeKatow and 17 others involved in leadership of Alpha Lounge. It was interesting to get a feel for everyone's vision and dreams for this youth ministry. I haven't been to youth group staff meetings with that many people since the 1980s. I appreciate the sacrifice of time and energy that everyone is making to try to positively influence the young people.

I've started working with junior and high school students right after graduating from high school 27 years ago. As I looked at the different leaders there yesterday, I remembered different stages of my life when I was doing youth work. IN my early years of youth work, I was like a big brother to the kids. Later, I became like an uncle to some of them. Now, it's a combination of uncle and father, especially since I have my own kids now.

When I looked at some of the 20-somethings on the leadership team, I remembered my days of high energy and lots of free time to hang out with kids. I also realize that being with the youth group also met a good number of my social needs, since the kids and fellow youth leaders often became my best friends in my 20s, and even early 30s.

Now that I'm married and the father of nearly 3 kids, my time and energy for the youth group is much more limited. Socially, I don't need the group to meet my needs. However, what motivates me to invest in Alpha Lounge (as well as Mission Radicale, until now) is the desire to positively coach and influence this generation of young people to become all that God wants them to become. I think that these kids need to see some role models of fathers and mothers who love their spouses and their children. For these kids, for the most part, should eventually get married and become parents. It's my desire that they find spouses also strongly committed to following Jesus, then have children to whom they model their convictions. For the long-term, it is the Christian family who will be the primary instrument in raising up the next generation. Of course, our gracious God will also graft in people who don't come from believing families and this is a good thing.

As a side note, I type and mailed off my formal letter of resignation from my post as treasurer of Mission Radicale. I've been heavily involved in Mission Radicale for 5 years and am thankful for the lives that it has been able to positively impact. But this is a new season of ministry for me. With new activities, ministries, and family members comes the need to cut back somewhere.