Rather than our typical routine of covering one topic in-depth, we briefly discussed a list of topics last night. But, before that, we started with three pans of breadsticks followed by ice cream!
Topics covered last night included:
Remembering 9/11 – Jen and I shared our memories from that day and the following days and weeks.
Mistakes – I gave two recent examples of mistakes I encountered at work and how they actually strengthened the relationships involved rather than hurting them. In both cases, the mistakes were readily admitted, the person in the wrong gave a detailed explanation of how the mistake happened, apologized, explained steps they took to help ensure the mistake doesn’t happen again, provided their ideas on how to make the situation right, asked if the person wronged by the mistake had any other suggestions to rectify the situation, then apologized again and empathized with the person wronged. In both cases, the wronged person accepted the apology and expressed gratitude about how the mistake was handled. Bottom-line – don’t try to hide or provide excuses for your mistakes, that erodes trust. We all make mistakes, if we handle them well, they can build trust.
Youth Rep – for the past couple of years, we’ve had a Youth serve as a non-voting member of the church board. It’s a great opportunity for you to learn how a church operates and a great opportunity for the board to gain from your input. It’s a 6 month commitment and the board meets the first Monday of each month. If you are interested, please let me know.
Cello – I’ve wanted to learn how to play the cello for quite some time. I even started saving up to purchase a decent one, but decided instead to spend that money on my recent bicycle trip. I asked you last night to hold me accountable for achieving my goal of learning the cello. I’d like to start taking lessons this winter. So that gives me a season to find a teacher and an instrument (I’ll likely rent a cello to begin with – to ensure its an instrument I can play and enjoy playing). Keep checking in with me to ensure I’m on track. Thank you.
Topics – You created a list of topics that were of interest to you as future lessons: Creation timeline (literal 6 day or lengthier?), God-ordered brutality as described in Joshua, summary of Revelation, Biblical genres, minor prophets, Biblical blessings v casual blessing, different between teaching and preaching – and women’s roles within each, meaning of Biblical names, review of sermon styles / techniques, church visits, comparative religions study. Thanks for all the ideas, I was impressed (but not surprised) by the depth of the topics you selected. I’ll start working these into our Sunday evenings together.
Parents Meeting – I plan to invite your parents to Youth one Sunday this fall to discuss parenting Youth. I’ll share insights I’ve gained from you over the years, along with providing insights to you that I’ve gained from your parents (and from being a parent of Youth myself). Then we’ll have ample time for Q&A – taking advantage of the two panels of experts on parenting teenagers we’ll have access to (you and your parents). I’ll set some ground rules, like: If you ask a question – your parents can’t answer. Conversely, if your parents ask a question, you can’t answer. You can have those types of conversations at home – the purpose of this approach will be to gain new insight / perspective from other youth, and other parents, facing the same challenges within their homes.
We ended our time together with a song of reflection selected by Claire, sharing prayer requests, then huddling up for prayer.
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