I'm having one of those mind-racing days again, some days I get to cleaning the kitchen and when there's no music or television making noise, I just get to thinking.
Last night at the membership class (I finally became a member of the church I've called home for five years now, ha) we got to talking about the core values of the church and one of them (and there was discussion) was moderation in our lives and in worship. How we're not about one person yelling and screaming and wailing (which I really liked talking about, ha) but if we're gonna shout, we all do, and overall we don't want to create an environment belittling (I think the word my pastor used was ostricising or something like that..) anyone who doesn't scream or run or shout all the time.
And then my pastor's wife (who is also considered a/the pastor) talked about how it was kind of a culture shock when she went from being a youth pastor to being a pastor pastor because in youth ministry, everyone is expected to be radical and on fire and stuff, and then to approach this concept of moderation was kind of weird. (that was totally a run-on sentence.)
And that made me smile, because I've been thinking about youth ministry these past few days (I spose it's been about a week, I played at FCA last monday..) and you're telling these young people that they need to stand up for Jesus Christ, and then if they don't get the chance to, they feel bad, because they haven't made some huge impact for Jesus on their culture.
And I was one of those. All through high school, I was trying to do some big stand-up-for-Jesus thing. I have never led one person to Jesus, especially not in high school. And I hate to say it, but high school is nothing like real life so it's kind of hard to imagine doing so.
I mean, I am proof that what we're trying to do in youth ministry isn't exactly working. Well, it's working in the long run. But I mean, the best thing I learned was keep going to church and survive high school, and then the world gets real. But then, at the same time, it's a culture shock. The only thing I could teach young people is 'go to your church, pay attention, and get through high school.' but that's not enough. That's not life.
What I'm trying to say is--how can we REALLY reach youth? How do you REALLY teach them to be like Jesus? How can you preach and teach a very very real gospel to an atmosphere where everything is plastic? It's really something that only God can do. And since I have no idea where to start, I'll just pray.