Serving, Service, Servant

As promised (many, many times throughout the month), here's the post on our September/October unit: Service!

First and foremost, I'm glad you had so much fun with Servant Jeopardy! I was so proud of you guys during the game- you did great finding the bible verses, you're aware of how others in the church serve, and you were really getting creative with ways to serve "the least of these." Seriously, you came up with some GREAT ways to serve others! If you'd like to review what we went over, I have all of the cards in my office. Otherwise, I'm just going to post the bible verses here and hope that you remember all of the great discussions we had during the game. Our Speed Servant Scriptures were:

Romans 12:1-8
Galatians 5:13-14
Isaiah 49:1-6
Mark 10:41-45
Phillipians 2:3-11
1 Corinthians 9:19
Matthew 6:24
Mark 9:33-35

We also talked about reasons why people serve- what are their motivations? The brainstormed list we came up with included:

serving from a sense of joy, it's their "calling," it's fun, kindness, friendship, obligation, slavery, it's a tradition, because they're part of a group, for a sense of belonging, love, occupation/job, gratitude, boredom, generosity, because they "should," guilt, to build the resume/for college admission, to make social contacts, because it's a legal requirement (community service), it's their responsibility (like caring for a sibling), they have the ability, appreciation (for example, river cleanup because of appreciating nature), a physical demonstration of faith, out of a sense of fear, insurance for the future (I do this for you, you'll take care of me later), to promote religious ideals, to promote political ideals, to gain knowledge, because it interests them, for personal benefit (if I do this, I'll get to do this), or to have the experience.

Some of these were positive reasons, some were negative, and some depended entirely on your outlook (joy's always good, slavery's always bad, but tradition could go either way, depending on what other motivations were coupled with it).

And finally, we're still working on our paired up service project planning. You guys all know your partners, and you're already working your way through the planning process. You're entirely in charge of your project! I'm excited about all of the ideas I've heard from you so far, and I'm so proud of how well you guys are doing in planning this. As requested, here's the list of things we discussed last week that you should include in your plans:

• Who: Who are you serving? Who's your contact person (agency/organization)? How many volunteers will you need? Which one of you will take charge of keeping me and the other youth up to date on plans?
• What: (Obviously) What's the project? What extra supplies (if any) will you need?
• When: Are there any timing considerations to scheduling your activity (Seasonal need? Holiday-based?)? If it's over a meal time, will you need to plan for a snack/meal?
• Where: At the church? In West Bend? Washington County? Will you need to plan for drivers/transportation?
• Why: Why did you choose this particular project?
• Extras: If there's a cost involved in your project, where will the money come from (will you sell tickets, ask for donations, etc.)? Are there any age restrictions for your chosen task? If it's with an organization, is there any paperwork to fill out?

There may be other things to think through based on your individual choice, and I'll talk with each pair individually to make sure we're not missing anything.

Aaaaand finally, here's your list of 5 Minutes of God Time songs from this month:

Third Day: You Are So Good To Me (From Jeopardy, not 5 Minutes of God Time)
Josh Wilson: Amazing Grace
Brian Crain: Rain (instrumental)
Matthew West: My Own Little World
Brandon Heath: Give Me Your Eyes
Chopin: Nocturne #8 in D Flat Major