Cardboard Testimonies

I found this video yesterday and was struck by the diverse ways in which God works in his people.  God works through our addictions, our divorces, our inability to have children, our diseases, our selfish pride and our mediocrity.  He is the God who makes beauty from ashes and turns our sorry into joy.

The Myth of the Perfect Youth Pastor #14

Myth #14

The Perfect Youth Pastor has must be willing to put up with all the jokes about his ministry that devalue what he does.

Scene 1, Act 1

Several members of a local church are gathered together for a fellowship dinner. The youth pastor enters stage left.

Church Member #1: Hey Pastor…it’s so nice to see you here!

Youth Pastor: Thanks, great to see you too.

Church Member #2: So, how was your vacation?

Youth Pastor: Vacation?

Church Member #2: Yeah, the trip you just took with the teens.

Youth Pastor: (Trying to remain calm) Oh, you mean the mission trip? It was great! We took 45 middle school students on a mission trip, slept on a gym floor and woke up at 6 a.m. every morning. Then we went to our work site and poured concrete all day.

Church Member #1: Sounds like you had a lot of fun…I guess it’s back to work now though.

This is just one example of the many comments that are made to youth pastors everywhere. There are many others.

When we hold a lock-in with 100 screaming boys and girls, stay up all night and spend every waking moment policing the building for hormonally crazed students, we hear things like “must be nice to have a job where you get to play all the time.”

I fully realize many of these comments are not serious and made in jest. However, the frequency with which they are said gets pretty tiresome. Not only that, but they unwittingly devalue a youth pastor’s role. Consequently, they devalue Student Ministry as a whole.

Missions trips and retreats can be lots of fun, but for the youth pastor they are not a vacation. When I go on a vacation, I usually don’t have to…

• Organize the trip for 30-40 people
• Rent the vans to carry 30-40 people
• Find some way to carry the luggage of 30-40 people
• Deal with the behavioral issues of 30-40 people
• Make sure 30-40 people are in the vans after each rest stop
• Make sure each student is taking their required medication
• Make sure each child has eaten at least ONE healthy thing during the day
• Stay up late listening to lots of flatulence and the accompanying giggles
• Be on his guard for budding romances
• Comfort broken hearts after said romances end suddenly and tragically
• Sleep on a hard floor in sweltering heat
• Shower with absolutely no privacy
• Use the same bathroom as boys who don’t know how to aim
• Use toilets that no one seems to know how to flush

I don’t know about anyone else, but that does not sound like a vacation.

Don’t be mistaken, I love doing what I do and I believe it to be extremely valuable. I would simply ask that others value it the way I do.   If that’s too much to ask then forgive me if I don’t fake a laugh at your jokes about my ministry anymore.

Black and White: Ministering to students of other races

I have a confession to make. I am the whitest guy you will ever meet. Jesus spoke about the town where I grew up when He said lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. I went to a predominantly white Bible College and I spent about six years as the youth pastor in a predominantly white church. Over five years ago God changed all that and in the process, changed my life forever. I am now the student ministry pastor in a church in one of the larger minority communities in Pennsylvania.

When I started here, “what did I get myself into” was a thought that came to mind more than once. I had been around African-Americans, Asians and Latinos before, but up to that point I never really had a meaningful conversation with anyone who didn’t look like me. So, here I was, trying to bring Jesus to students who came from a world that was completely foreign to me. I always thought I was a pretty good youth pastor – that God had given me the right personality and gifts to reach teens – but now I wasn’t so sure.

The first few months here I was unsure of myself. For the first time in nearly a decade, I wasn’t sure how to be a youth pastor any longer. The funny thing is, I was right where God wanted me – uncomfortable. I have learned a lot over the last three years. God has taught me many valuable lessons that I believe have made me a better pastor, to ALL of His people, not just the ones who looked like me.

First, I have learned to be myself. The world is full of fakes and insincere people and churches have their share of them as well. Students have an uncanny ability to spot them a mile away. I don’t have to be ghetto, wear a skull cap or pimp out my car in order to minister to urban teens. I don’t have to learn how to dance or rap. I can admit that I like Country Music.

One of my best memories is driving with a few students in the city. They were making fun of something I said or did, so I decided to put on some Alan Jackson. I cranked up the volume and rolled down the windows. There is nothing quite like watching five students trying to hide their faces in a little Honda Civic! I can admit that I don’t know what bangin’ means or that I didn’t know if something was sick, it was actually good. The funny thing is, the more I allow those things to come out, the more the teens respond to me.

I realized that God has given me a specific set of gifts and abilities to use for His glory. He has formed (and is forming) me into who I am today and attempting to be someone I am not is not only disingenuous, but sinful as well. If I try to be someone I’m not, then I’m not being who the Lord intended me to be and my ministry will suffer. My effectiveness will be diminished. So, I happily celebrate my confusion when it comes to urban culture. I make attempts to understand it and even embrace it to some extent, but I do not pretend to be anything I am not.

Second, love is a universal language. I asked an African-American brother from our church out to lunch a while back because I wanted his help. I asked him to help me figure out how to minister to the black students in my ministry here. He responded in a way that should not have been surprising, but caught me off guard nonetheless. “Love them,” he said.

The need for love and community in us all is the same regardless of the color of the packaging. The “God-shaped” whole in each of our hearts is just as large no matter where a person grew up or what kind of music they like.

Third and finally, I have learned that this is truly God’s design. I do not mean to demean or denigrate anyone who is ministering in a homogeneous ministry, but I have learned more about the Body of Christ in the last three years than I ever thought possible. In Revelation 7:9-10, John sees a “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” What were they doing? Worshipping. With one voice, they were giving honor and glory to the One who created them Jew and Gentile, Black and White.

I believe that our student ministry is loving, reaching and building students up in Christ. But, even greater still, I believe they are reflecting a heavenly reality. They are getting just a small taste of what is to come. So am I.

The Myth of the Perfect Youth Pastor #13.

Myth #13

The Perfect Youth Pastor will “grow up” one day and become a real pastor.

Between the ages of 16 and 22, I had about 16 different jobs. From Kmart stock boy and Junior High Wrestling Coach to Cable Television installer and Army National Guard Journalist, I could never quite find anything that kept my attention. I was always looking for something else, never really satisfied with where I was at the time. That all changed when I met Jesus.

All the restlessness I had grown accustomed to evaporated. The yearning for something different was replaced with a yearning to fulfill my calling and that calling was Student Ministry. I didn’t really know it at the time, but the many jobs I held, the experiences they gave me and the many lessons I learned all prepared me to be a youth pastor and that’s all I wanted to be. I believed it to be a worthwhile calling. I believed youth ministry was a valuable and essential ministry. It’s been 15 years and I still feel that way.

There’s just one problem though. Not everyone shares that belief. Christians everywhere have bought into the notion that Student Ministry is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the life of a pastor. These people believe Student Ministry is the bottom rung on the Ecclesiastical Ladder of Success and their youth pastor is just padding his resume, waiting for his big break. For many youth pastors this could not be farther from the truth.

I have no desire to become anything other than a youth pastor. I have no desire to have “my own church”. This is what I am called to do and that has been confirmed time and time again. There may come a time when I can no longer effectively serve as a youth pastor, but that doesn’t mean I’m planning for that day.

When and if that day comes, I will listen to the voice of God and go where he tells me. Until it comes though, I will pour my heart and soul into something I believe to be a valuable, worthwhile and vital ministry – a ministry to people who deserve my utmost attention, love and commitment. I will not betray their trust by climbing over their backs to get where I really want to go – or where others think I should go.

I’m not a junior pastor. I didn’t become a youth pastor just to get my foot in the door, hoping to move on in two or three years. I’m not a pastor-in-training either. While I will always be learning and growing, I am a pastor right now.  I’m not looking to get experience for my next gig.  This is my gig.

I’m a youth pastor and I wear that badge with honor and have immense gratitude to the God who called me to wear it.