"I read your memo"

"It's a mission statement."
(I preferred a picture of the kid, rather than Mr. Cruise. I'm sure you understand.)

It's taken me awhile to write this. Last Wednesday, the youth group went to a local corn maze. It was awesome for many reasons. First of all, because it was my second time to go to one, and this was better than the first for several reasons--it was bigger, it was cheaper and we went through it in utter darkness.

The Senior High guys ran around with scary masks, although one of them was an Obama mask?, to scare a bunch of people. I just wandered around and joined various groups at different times. Which is the second reason why it was so fun. While we didn't have a lot of our regular student attenders, we had LOTS of visitors. I had even gone through the attendance list beforehand thinking, 'Hmm.. I'm not seeing how we will have enough students to come.' And yet, as God does so often, we had probably 15 people who do not normally come, come. (Ha. I love sentences like those)

Thirdly, the original plan for getting to the maze was via cheesewagon, aka School Bus. Unfortunately, the cost for renting made us quickly realize that this was not wise. So we put an ad in the weekly church email for volunteers to drive. Again, the Lord provided parents, and even a church member who used to have students in the youth group! In fact, we had too many seats! And because of this, we got to pair the regular youth group volunteers with each of the drivers so as to encourage.

On my way back to the church (I had gone both ahead and behind the group to work out details with the corn maze point person--yay for dealing with money for an event for the first time!), I had one of those many epiphanies that we have and end up telling ourselves, 'I should write that down!'

It was then even more appropriate that Jerry Maguire came on tv last weekend, as he has that Mission Statement moment in the beginning of the film that drives the change in his life throughout.

Not that what I will write down means much to many others. I just felt the need to write this down now before I forget. These are my goals for youth ministry, wherever that leads me:

1. Relationships first, programs somewhere later. The time one spends with a student is more valuable than the hours spent creating the "cool" event. These students are in need of God-love, not entertainment.
2. Find as many volunteers who have an equal passion for students--the ones who actually want to be there--to serve in the many places you can't be. A youth minister can not do anything on their own.
3. Find as many ways for parents to be involved, even in "small ways" (making meals, driving students, prayer, etc.). Youth group is not just some chance for us to babysit. The church is a place for community, and the more parents involved in the growing of their child (not just physically and emotionally, but spiritually!), the better. I know this to be true simply from the fact that I myself am not a parent. I don't get youth as well as I sometimes think that I do. Even if I used to be one!
4. Serve and suffer for your students. I was reading 2 Corinthians today, and I came across the passage of all that Paul went through for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the churches. I want to be prepared for sleepless nights of wrestling in prayer for these folks with very real dilemmas, I want to work hard, I want to be weak, boasting in His sufficient grace...

And there it is. Time for me to get ready for another soccer game.