March Spotlight: Fifty6
Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI
Leader:
Jim Kast-Keat
How long has Fifty6 been around?
Seven years and counting. Fifty6 began the fall of 2003. Which means the first generation of Fifty6 students graduate this May!
What programs do you offer 5th/6th graders?
Fifty6 on Sunday mornings (9a and 11a)
Super Relationship Night (fall and spring large group events)
SIXTY (summer camp for “next year’s” sixth graders)
FIFTY (day camp for “next year’s” fifth graders)
Throughout all of Mars Hill Students, LifeGroups (small groups) are the heartbeat. Every student is a part of a grade/gender/location specific LifeGroup led by two adult LifeGroup Leaders. These LifeGroup Leaders are the pastors to our students. LifeGroup Leaders show up to weekly programs, spend time with students during the week, plan and host Rela nights (Rela = Relationship) and other activities for their group every month or so, and journey with their students as pastors in their lives.
One of the primary purposes of all our programs is to create environments and resources for our students. These environments and resources are experienced by students in their LifeGroups. This is where they share stories, ask questions, and live the best kind of life – the life God made us to live – by discovering identity, belonging, and mission.
You chose to have a preteen ministry of 5th/6th graders. What are the benefits of grouping preteens by those grades?
Before Fifty6 began fifth graders were a part of the Sunday morning elementary program alongside first graders. At the same time sixth graders were a part of the Tuesday night middle school program, alongside eighth graders. There was a disconnect for everyone (first graders and fifth graders are worlds apart and similarly sixth graders and eighth graders are worlds apart; consequently high school freshman and seniors also exist worlds apart, but that’s a different rant for a different time).
While many schools in our area group students in this way – 1st through 5th and 6th through 8th – we realized that they never group them in the same classrooms or programs. In the typical 6th through 8th grade middle school, the sixth graders and eighth graders don’t even share the same hallway, let alone the same classroom. And so we decided to change our “classrooms” by separating the sixth graders from the rest of the junior higher and by promoting the fifth graders into Mars Hill Students. And so Fifty6 was born.
While fifth graders and sixth graders still have their differences, we find that they are generally on the same wavelength (except fifth grade boys and sixth grade girls will always be worlds apart). Fifty6 serves as an intentional transition in three ways: (1) from Mars Hill Kids into Mars Hill Students, (2) from an age specific Sunday morning program (Kid’s Kove, Fifty6, etc.) to an all inclusive “adult” gathering (The Shed where seventh graders through 107-year-olds meet on Sunday mornings), and (3) from pre-adolescent years into the larger and ever-unfolding picture of their life and faith.
While combining the feel of “Sunday school” and “youth group”, Fifty6 helps students leave their years in Mars Hill Kids and take their first steps into what they will experience in Mars Hill Students until they graduate high school. We are intentional about crafting Fifty6 to look more like the years ahead of them rather than the years behind them, helping them to transition forward into structure, language, and content they will continue experiencing for the next eight years.
From borrowing elements of The Shed (songs, readings, etc) to teaching students how to listen to someone teach, take notes, and ask questions, we help prepare them for the years they have ahead of them learning and worhiping alongside the larger Mars Hill community in The Shed. We take intentional breaks from Fifty6 (ranging from one week to four weeks) to have our fifth and sixth graders “practice” going to The Shed with their family. We often give them some sort of “guide book” to help them take notes and participate in the morning. They are encouraged to write down their questions (just like we do each week at Fifty6) and ask them to whoever was teaching that morning. (There’s no better site than our teaching pastors bombarded by dozens of fifth and sixth graders, all introducing themselves and asking their questions. I once asked Rob Bell what kind of questions they asked him and he responded, “Well, I’m going to do a better job explaining communion at the next service.”)
We recognize that a students’ life is larger than two years. And there are other voices who will journey with them beyond their preteen years. In this way, we intentionally partner with their parents, doing our best to empower their family to be the disciple making unit in their children’s ongoing life. We focus less on “age specific” issues such as fighting with siblings, preteen peer pressure, etc., knowing they will quickly outgrow these issues in a matter of years. Instead we focus on creating first steps into deeper content that will continue to grow with them throughout their entire life, teaching them to live the best kind of life – the life God made us to live – as they discover identity, belonging, and mission. I often say that Fifty6 will know whether or not it is successful when our students are thirty five and we are able to see what kind of parents they are, what kind of husbands and wives they are, what kind of teachers and bankers and business owners, etc. they are. While these two years are important, they are only two years of a much larger picture.
How long have you been leading Fifty6? How did you get involved? Tell us about your journey.
I have been leading Fifty6 for two years, on staff for four years, and volunteering in the band and as a “fill in LifeGroup Leader” for a semester before that.
What I love most about leading a preteen ministry is the lack of “this is how it’s always been done” mentality. There is no prerequisite. I am empowered to think of creative ideas and methods, and then do them without parents or leaders comparing it to how it was when they were that age (because there was no preteen ministry when they were that age). And preteens aren’t yet “too cool” for things that might be a bit on the crazy/creative side while still “grown up” enough to grasp things on the deep/creative side.
Ultimately, I love the challenge of taking “adult theology” like Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright, Phyllis Tickle, Walter Brueggemann, etc. and synthesizing and translating it for a fifth and sixth grader. The message never changes, just how we communicate and experience it.
What one or two things does Fifty6 do really well? Explain.
The method is the message.
We are very intentional about and aware of how the things we do are what we are truly teaching. While the “structure” of our program creates space to support the “content”, the “structure” is itself an even deeper content. What we do is what we learn. (I first stumbled upon much of this in Neal Postman and Charles Weingartner’s Teaching as a Subversive Activity; Shane Hipps has also unpacked this in regards to the way we organize ourselves as a church in his book Flickering Pixels).
While LifeGroups serve as space for activities and conversations, they allow students to discover the importance of and need for belonging. While the questions students write during Fifty6 Seconds serve as helpful discussion starters, students are learning to ask deeper questions and refine a skill that will help them “learn how to learn” and find themselves in whatever lecture or sermon they are hearing. While “Stop and Breathe” is a convenient way to end Whatever You Do each week, it also gives students one island of peace in the midst of their busy week, empowering them to use a simple phrase to calm themselves and find God with them and within them. When we teach for fifteen minutes during Roots, we are not just teaching them lessons but we are teaching them to listen to someone talk, a skill they will need as they hear our Mars Hill Teaching Pastors in the Shed every week starting in seventh grade. When we sing we are finding God in the songs and sounds, but we are also teaching them how to sing together, an experience they will participate in for years to come throughout their ecumenical journey.
Because what we do is what we teach, the method is the message.
LifeGroup Leaders are the youth pastors.
While I am on staff as the fifth and sixth grade pastor at Mars Hill, much of my role is to develop and empower of team of LifeGroup Leaders to be the youth pastors to our fifth and sixth graders. The goal is never that I know all their names and become a part of all their lives, but rather that every student is known and loved by their LifeGroup Leaders.
Realistically, there are too many students for me to know them all. And they deserve more than a moment of my fleeting time. They deserve a pastor to know them, pray for them, and love them. And while I join in this, our LifeGroup Leaders are the true youth pastors throughout all of Mars Hill Students.
I am most proud every Christmas and at the end of every school year when students bring gifts for their “pastors.” Only they don’t give them to me; they give them to their LifeGroup Leaders, the people who have journeyed with them throughout the year (and some even longer), creating space to share stories, ask questions, and discover who God made them to be.
Where it ends and where it doesn’t end.
One thing that is somewhat unique about Fifty6 and all of Mars Hill Students is that we recognize where it ends and where it doesn’t end. It does not end with our students. Our primary goal is not simply the life and faith of our students, but rather Mars Hill Students exists – just as the larger church exists – to empower students to join God in hearing the cries of the oppressed and to bring God’s New Creation to life in the world around them. (Obviously this is only possible as an individual and community’s life and faith are cultivated and developed.) Rather than ending at our students, our students are a part of something larger that ends in the restoration of all things. Pastors are God’s gift to the church, empowering her for works of ministry in the world. At Fifty6, our staff and volunteers are pastors who empower fifth and sixth graders for works of ministry in the world.
How is Fifty6 unique from a typical preteen ministry?
In brief, I would say Fifty6 is unique in that it exists as an intentional transition to three areas: future years in Mars Hill Students, future years in the Mars Hill community (The Shed), and the larger picture of their life. Fifty6 is also unique in the intentional role LifeGroup Leaders play in students’ lives. The way we incorporate and develop students ability to ask questions (see below) is somewhat unique. We focus primarily on narrative, both narrative theology and narrative teaching (it’s not just a matter of using narrative, but using it correctly).
What one or two things do you struggle with the most? Explain.
We need more LifeGroup Leaders. Ideally each LifeGroup has 6-12 students and two LifeGroup Leaders. While some are hitting the mark, many are much larger with three co-leaders while others have only one LifeGroup Leader.
Parent involvement. This year has been the best for communication and partnership with parents, but it’s always a struggle.
Mars Hill is known for innovation and creativity. How do you incorporate those elements into Fifty6?
Wow, this feels like a tough question. Personally, I don’t know to remove innovation and creativity from anything that I do. (Need proof? Check out my eight billion websites, especially ideacus!)
One way it manifests itself is in our development of ideas and curriculum. We have a Formation Team that meets every week (six people, mix of staff, interns, and volunteers). Together we review the previous Sunday, walk through the upcoming Sunday, finalize Sunday #2, develop Sunday #3, and brainstorm Sunday #4. However, this all happens after the Fifty6 Creative Think Tank has had a swing at developing hundreds of specific and/or general ideas for each week within a teaching arc. And prior to the Fifty6 Creative Think Tank a subset of the Formation Team as developed the big picture story, synopsis, and one idea for each Sunday within a teaching arc. We try and loop everything together as one larger, ongoing, and unfolding narrative. Because as Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The Tipping Point, “If they don’t catch something in a narrative structure, it doesn’t get remembered very well, and it doesn’t seem to be accessible for further kinds of mulling over.”
This creativity and innovation makes its way into each Sunday morning in methods of teaching (some of my favorites included a jenga tower glued together, climbing on ladders to tell the story of Solomon, and assembling a trash percussion ensemble to show how God’s New Creation comes out of a world fallen apart). In Whatever You Do we write and hack many of our songs, layering them with words that resonate within our context and sounds from Sigur Ros, Coldplay, U2, and more. Every year we have also had “Kazoo Sunday” where Whatever You Do becomes Whatever You Kazoo (with songs like Kazoo to the North, Amazing Kazoo how Sweet the Sound, Kazoo Me ‘Round, Oh For a Thousand Kazoos to Sing, My Glorious Kazoo, Our Love is Loud Like Kazoos, Let it Kazoo, and more). And instead of Stop and Breathe, these days end with Stop and Kazoo.
Honestly this questions is difficult to answer. In my opinion, creativity and innovation is infused into all things Fifty6. Because in so many ways it is infused in all things me. If I was leading Fifty6 anywhere I would hope that is just as creative and innovate. Mars Hill, however, is very encouraging of our creative and innovative ideas.
For more on this I’ll echo words of the late Mother Theresa, “Come and see.”
Give us a quick overview of a typical weekend service.
Fifty6 happens twice every Sunday, at 9a and 11a. Each gathering is identical (with slight tweaks from one to the next) and lasts 75 minutes, however we manage to run an 80 minute program.
Students arrive up to fifteen to thirty minutes before things “officially” begin. They hang out with other students, their LifeGroup Leaders, play ping pong, pool, foosball, foursquare, or just run around and make games up. There is always a lot of energy. Most of the attention is on the foursquare court, with a line circling around (this has become quite the hit throughout all of Mars Hill Students; I’m not sure who enjoys it more, the leaders or the students or me!).
LifeGroup Time
At five minutes before the hour (855/1055) a video plays announcing for everyone to spread out around the room and find their LifeGroups. We start this time early so that anyone who trickles in will be able to easily find their LifeGroup and be ready for the day. It’s amazing seeing a room full of chaos immediately turn into ordered LifeGroups at the sound of a familiar video.
Welcome
After eight minutes in LifeGroups where students and leaders have spent time catching up from the week, a countdown video plays (903/1103) calling everyone to the stage. At the end of the countdown someone is on stage for a quick welcome and “wake up” activity. (We often make this activity up on the spot – anything from run in place to dodge imaginary snowflakes to jumping jacks – something to capture attention and focus energy.)
Fifty6 Super Show
This short welcome leads into the Fifty6 Super Show, fifteen minutes of “Fifty6 Shorts” (short films) created by students, an intentional LifeGroup Activity led by Super and Duper Super Show, and Fifty6 Breaking News (our version of announcements that involves two students on stage as the “live reporters”). From here there is “welcome back” where the day make any final preparations for the upcoming portions of the day (pass out Bibles, handouts, pens, etc.). And then it’s time for the next part of Fifty6.
Roots
At (roughly) 920/1120 we play the video bumper for Roots, our teaching segment. These sixteen minutes are filled with experiential and narrative teaching where we do our best to simply tell whatever story the day is about, allowing us to find ourselves as a part of God’s larger and ongoing story of New Creation in the world. Roots always ends with “Fifty6 Seconds” where everyone writes down two questions from what they just heard.
LifeGroup Time
After Roots they are dismissed to their LifeGroups where they sit together and share the questions they just wrote down. The role of LifeGroup Leaders is not to answer every question, but to simply create space for students to ask them. And the best response they can ever give is “What do you think?”, allowing students to further explore their own thoughts and “learn how to learn.” We always provide a few supplementary questions and activities for LifeGroups to do in case the questions from their group don’t lead to a natural conversation. These activities are always intentional for various learning styles. One always involves opening the Bible to whatever story was told that day, a second requires everyone to stand up to complete (more kinesthetic), and the third requires you to sit down (more inter/intrapersonal). In the curriculum we provide for LifeGroup Leaders, we also include a blank space, encouraging them to make up their own activity for their LifeGroup. Just as students are more interested in discussing their own questions rather than the “perfect” question our Fifty6 team tries to come up with, LifeGroup Leaders often know what activities will best connect with their students.
Whatever You Do
After 15-20 minutes in LifeGroups we head back to the stage or to another room with a smaller stage for Whatever You Do, our worship segment (approximately 956/1156). Sometimes we sing and sometimes we don’t as we teach that worship is finding God and you can find God in whatever you do (for more check out www.whateveryoudo.net.) Songs, readings, and prayers are led by our Fifty6 Band or a smaller acoustic ensemble and activities range from things like Finding God in Your Shoes, Finding God at Recess, Finding God in a Letter, Finding God in your Hands, etc.
Whatever You Do always ends with “Stop and Breathe” where we all say the words “stop and breathe” together and then take a few moments to become aware of each breath in and out, knowing that we can always find God as close as our very breath.
One More Thing
This leads to “One More Thing”, the final segment of the day where students are given space to reflect on everything they have experienced throughout the morning and spend a few minutes journaling as they answer whatever question the day had been about. Their reflections, along with their questions from Fifty6 Seconds, are turned in to our Fifty6 team at the end of each day so that we can measure what captured our students attention, what they connected most with, and what they learned.
After that the music picks up, the foursquare court fills with people, students head out to find their parents or parents wander in to find their son or daughter.
And then I go home and take a nap.
Share an example of how a preteen or leader has recently been impacted.
Each week I see students deepen and develop their faith in the questions they ask (Fifty6 Seconds) and the journals they write (One More Thing). Also, parents repeatedly tell me how excited their son or daughter is to come to church each Sunday and the different conversations they have on the way home each week. One student leads her family in their own Whatever You Do before dinner, finding God in things around their house – they even “stop and breathe” together.
I’ve had leaders tell me countless stories of the ways students questions and statements have struck a chord with their adult life. And further, they tell me that watching the faith and life develop in a fifth or sixth grade inspires them in unique and countless ways.
My favorite story is about a student named Spencer. Spencer is one of the taller kids at Fifty6 and plays on his school’s football team. One day at school he heard about a kid who was getting picked on in sixth hour gym. Spencer wasn’t in sixth hour gym but he knew that he could still help. He went to the school office and asked to see a list of the kids in the class. He recognized two of them from the football team. The next time this kid was getting picked on in sixth hour gym two football players appeared behind the bully telling him that this was not going to happen any longer. And it never did. Spencer knew this was wrong and knew that he could do something to stop it, because in God’s New Creation, no one is picked on.
Tell us anything else you would like to share about Fifty6.
For more, check out www.marshill.org/students/fifty6, www.facebook.com/fifty6atmars, or www.twitter.com/MHStudents |
