as things really are...

In this post, I thought I would also share some of my insights, challenges, and mistakes on my journey as a youth pastor for nearly 20 years now. I remember long ago sitting before a committee of Pastors seeking ordination, and them looking at me with confusion and disappointment in their eyes after I shared that my "call" to ministry was to teenagers and I didn't see any other "calling" out on the horizon. Their follow-up question to me in the interview was, "what I thought I would be doing when I turned 40 and needed to grow up out of youth ministry?" My answer, "I hope to never grow up!" I struck out that day in my ordination interview, but I have never looked back on my "calling" to teens and their families. I pray that for you as well; that you will never look back and regret the decision to be involved with teenagers in a pastoral leadership role, whether paid or volunteer. You are making an impact... I know it! You may not see it for years to come, but you are; hang in there!

In Rick Lawrence's book, Jesus Centered Youth Ministry, he makes an observation about his own leadership when he reads a story about a group of Laotian refugees who experience the power of Jesus through words. "In Mark galli’s excellent book Jesus Mean and Wild, he describes a similar startling encounter with an unmasked Jesus. galli was pastor of a California church when a group of Laotian refugees asked if they could become members. galli offered to lead them through a study of Mark’s gospel as a foundational exercise before they made their commitment. the Laotians had little knowledge of scripture or of Jesus. when galli got to the passage where Jesus calms the storm, he asked the refugees to talk about the “storms” in their lives—their problems, worries, and struggles. the people looked confused and puzzled. galli filled the awkward silence by asking, “so what are your storms?” Finally, one of the Laotian men asked, “do you mean that Jesus actually calmed the wind and sea in the middle of a storm?” galli thought the man was merely expressing his skepticism, and since he wasn’t intending to spend the group’s remaining time wrestling with the plausibility of Jesus’ miracles, he said: “Yes, but we should not get hung up on the details of the miracle. we should remember that Jesus can calm the storms in our lives.” after another uncomfortable stretch of silence, another man spoke up: “well, if Jesus calmed the wind and the waves, he must be a very powerful man!” the Laotians buzzed with excitement about this while galli looked on as a virtual outsider. while these newbie Christian refugees entered into something like worship, galli realized he’d so taken Jesus for granted that he’d missed him altogether." (pg. 13)

Have we stopped relating to Jesus as he really was and is? And have we taken that out of the equation as we lead students? Maybe it is time to let our students wrestle with and realize the true Jesus by throwing away the "curriculum" for a time or two and sit with a gospel story involving Jesus. Start with the story of Jesus walking on the water in Mark; don't rush the discussion or observations... it may take a week or two. The curriculum will be there when you are done. See what happens to your students... to you... to their spirits? Can we learn to see things of our faith and of our Savior as they really are? Peace