Pastor Kellan's Stories

My standards for events are not always high. I told one of my friends that my sole metric for success at this year's Super Bowl party was that Rocky does not get beat up. The reason being was that last year's Super Bowl party he did. It was innocent enough. Boys were goofing off and one thing led to another and one student felt like the rough housing had gotten too rough and so fists flew. No one was truly hurt, but it was still unpleasant nevertheless. This year, zero fights. Great success. Success is hard to measure in a job that deals with incorporeal things like morality, ethics, and spirituality. There is no hard data and even things like attendance doesn't demonstrate if the church is doing what it's supposed to be doing. Because of that it's hard sometimes to know if I'm doing a good job. I can't always speak to the efficacy of my work, but I can speak to its complexity. I sat in a lengthy meeting about an event that transpired over 8 months ago. It w...

Recently a team comprising of Carolyn, Sherrie, and myself took a handful of students to Seaside. I have a friend and a former college who works as a worship pastor at a church called North Cost Family Fellowship. His wife is the Children’s director, and they are combining their power to run a VBS for the students there. Last year we took four students to help and this year we brought ten. We took some of my favorite students. I know that in theory as a Youth Pastor we’re not supposed to have favorites, but look, it is what it is. So, we crammed all of our things into a few cars including a van that was made when Nixon was president and drove for half a day. Once there the smell of the sea wafted over the church campus and we unloaded and made ourselves at home in a tiny kids classroom on the second story of the church building. That first night we barely slept on air-mattresses and cots and awoke early the next day to be a part of the happenings of the church’s Sunday service.   I...

It occurs to me that not everyone has been to a summer camp as a Jr High leader. This can be a tough role and should you find yourself in this situation I thought I’d prepare a few helpful survival tips to get you through. #1) Forget about sleep. You won’t get enough, your students won’t get enough, and that’s just the way it is. Chances are that someone in your room will snore loud enough to make you regret your life choices when it’s 3 am and you can feel the vibrations from their nasal cavity through the floorboards, but it won’t matter. #2) Camp is not about you. It’s not about whatever baggage you bring, the mood you’re in, or how dumb you think the games are. It’s for the students and the quicker you are to realize that you need to be doing everything possible to make sure your students are having a good time, the faster you’ll actually be enjoying yourself. Make a fool out of yourself, lose your voice, and go down the slip-and-slide even when it’s too cold outside. Your students...

This past week I had a friend, Nathan, from Seattle come down for a visit. He was one of my previous students and later an intern in ministry with me. Nathan’s going to join us later this summer in Seaside for the high school trip. He came and on Sunday he sat at a table with complete strangers, and somehow found himself at home having memorized the names of every student he sat with that morning. Later that day I hosted a birthday party for my friend Ashley’s son. Her son wanted a large location for a Nerf gun battle and I proffered the church. No one in Ashley’s family goes to church. After a day of foam bullets being liberally sprayed all over the campus we cleaned up and Ashley asked if there was somewhere she could serve in the church. She admitted that she doesn’t believe in Jesus so being a Bible study leader wouldn’t be a good fit, but after some discussion, she said that she wants to come and help do stage decoration for VBS this summer. She’s willing to step int...