A nametag, a nametag, my kingdom for a nametag!

Erin mentioned in her last post how this is a bittersweet time of year for the Lucid staff, and it is for the ThirdPlace staff as well. Two weeks ago, we welcomed the incoming freshman during our version of Red Carpet Night, while last week we celebrated the seniors who will be leaving us at the end of the summer. Both are important important rites of passage, and both are a bittersweet challenge to approach year after year.

In addition to the emotional impact, we have a logistical one as well. Suddenly we now have 2 dozen new names and faces to learn! If your teen is new to ThirdPlace (or Lucid), please be patient with us as we get to know everyone over the summer.

Along those lines, we are happy to announce that extended summer hours begin this week and continue through the end of August. For those that don't know, the concept (and name) of ThirdPlace was born around this time last year. The high school staff, knowing that a leadership gap was imminent, started exploring possibilites for the summer. We had fond memories of a tradition started years ago by Mike Forrest called 'Tuesday Night Sabbath'. Taking advantage of the longer hours available during the summer, Tuesday Night Sabbath would go from 4 to 9 and include dinner, extended hangout time, a message, and weekly communion. The focus was on recapturing what it really means to take a sabbath rest from our hectic lives, and students and staff have for years have enjoyed this wonderful way to fellowship together.

ThirdPlace has a similar mission. The term "third place" has been around for about 3 decades now:

The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace — where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true "third place": free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

We want high school youth to feel like family. We want it to be something to look forward to. We want it to feel like home. To feel like somewhere that people will love you for who you are. Somewhere that it is safe to be yourself.

During these next few months, we will have extended hours from 6 to 9. In addition to our usual message and worship time, we'll have lots of extra time to hang out in big groups and small groups, in structured and spontaneous activities, and in one-on-one time with each other.

We will also be having dinner 4 times this summer! Please mark these dates on your calendar so you know which nights to send your teens to church hungry: 6/23, 7/14, 8/4, and 8/25. If you are interested in helping to prepare/serve a meal, please let us know. If you and your family would like to join us for dinner, please feel free!

We look forward to getting to know all of the new teens and parents - and to building deeper relationships with the ones we already know and love. Hope to see you around this summer!

Salty and Sweet

I find Red Carpet Night a bittersweet time. We've gotten to know our 8th graders, in some cases for 3 years and we've spent the past year with the same core group of kids. We've settled into a routine of sorts (although you can never call youth ministry routine!). And now it's time to let them go. I know as middle school youth staff, it's not like I'll never see our departing 8th graders again, and I trust them with the high school staff. But it's still sad that things will be different. I can assume the high school staff feels the same way, but added to their situation is the fact that the seniors are going off to college. And for high school staff and parents of graduating seniors, that could be more than a little scary.

But mixed with the sadness is joy. Joy at having been able to see these kids grow over this year and the previous years. To see their faith grow, sometimes through blessings, sometimes through hard-but-good situations. Seeing them learn in an ever-more personal way what it means to be a part of the Church, by interacting with their smaller-scale Body of the youth group. We also get to welcome a new class into the group. And the cool thing is that it's an ever-growing family. It's not like we only care about our middle school or high school age group and once you're out of that range, we don't care. Your kids have been a very real part of our lives for some period of time, and no matter how old they are, we can't wait to hear what God does in their lives.

Last night, Megan and I brought our growth groups together for our final night. At the end, we had the 8th graders sit on the floor in the center while the younger girls gathered round and we prayed for them. It was really neat that one of the moms (Thanks, Jill!) and an older sister joined us. We were "saying goodbye" but with a lot of joy. Salty and sweet. So as we enter this transition time, please let any of us know if there are ways we can pray for you as parents as you go through this time of change in a more head-on way than us as staff!

Is Texting Taking a Toll on Our Kids?

I read an interesting article from Fuller Youth Institute today about texting, and the toll it is taking on our teens.

Click the logo to the left, read the article and then comment on how you feel texting affects our teens. What kind of positive affects has it had on your family? Likewise, how do you feel it hurts your teenager or your family in general. I am interested to hear opinions on this one!