I Know You Are Out There
I know you are out there.
Maybe You are a Youth Worker that has been told you are too young/old/boring/playful/whatever to effectively serve in youth ministry. Maybe you have been sucked into church politics without even knowing it and you are now paying the price. Maybe you’ve been bullied by a youth parent/deacon/elder/Sr Pastor/whoever. Maybe you fantasize about what youth group would be like if “that kid or those kids” suddenly stopped coming. Maybe you want to hang it up, go work 9 to 5 in a cubicle somewhere. Maybe you have the feeling that nothing you are doing in your church matters, or you made a mistake coming to the church where you are serving.
Maybe you feel horribly inadequate and ill-equipped to deal with all the junk that is thrown into the laps of your teenagers and families. Maybe you have felt the constant pull between church expectations and building deep relationships between spouse and your children.Maybe you’ve had that deep feeling tearing away at you that something is not matching somewhere between your beliefs and what your church is teaching. Maybe you have that desperate wish to tell someone you are not “fine” ; that you are really dying and wasting away inside, your soul is screaming for something, somewhere to give.
I’m not going to tell you to just suck it up, or that it will get better. It really may get worse first, in a way you can’t even imagine. I’m not going to tell you to count it joy, that you are doing something right. While Biblical, it is the wrong time to hear it.
I will tell you I have been there. I will tell you that you cannot walk through this alone. I will tell you that the longer you hold it in, the worse it will be when it finally comes out (because IT WILL, one way or another). I will tell you that you are not the only one who has ever experienced this. I will tell you that I will gladly talk, pray, cry, or whatever else to help you walk through this.
Youth Workers, we are in this together. It is not God who wants to see us like this, but the enemy that seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.
About Me
Rural Youth Pastor. Web Designer. Homeschool Dad. Former Child Abuse Investigator. IT Technician. Writer. Lock-in Survivor. Brent grew up on 160 acres of corn, soybeans and cattle in Southern Illinois. He is currently the Student Ministry Pastor at First Baptist Rockville, Indiana where he lives with his beautiful wife and three awesome kids in the Covered Bridge Capital of the World! He write at MinistryPlace.Net about all things Rural Youth Ministry, Technology and Culture.
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Comments
Good insight. I have seen
Good insight. I have seen numerous youth pastors walk through this since I walked through it myself. There is some underlying message in the church today that it's okay to dispose of people when you're 'done' with them and to move on to the next guy. And where in the world did we come up the notion that the 'best' person to work with youth is a 20-something barely married person with no children of their own. I hope I am one of a growing number of older youth workers who are in it for life. At age 46, I have yet to hear a student proclaim that I was too old to care for them or serve them or teach them or pray for them...maybe they're just being kind to me =)
Thanks for sharing!
I am called to youth and am
I am called to youth and am 41. I am an exconvict that has finally given up on running from God and this calling on my life. I have met a woman with the same vision and we are engaged. Looking for the right steps to seeing Gods plan for my life to be fulfilled.
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