Groundbreakers
As youth leaders in my church, the youth team is usually the first point of contact with the rest of the community. This is something often emphasized in outreach, but I don't think it's emphasized right. Sure, we need to be models and be loving... but there's something more than that.
We're just ordinary people, how are we going to qualify that we serve an extraordinary God? We serve, but we serve inside the human realm of experience. We need to take the courage to walk outside our human limitations and start expecting miracles. Miracles qualify us as messengers from a living God. The miraculous leaves no doubt of our genuineness.
I'm not advocating a reliance on miracles, but we should be expecting them, believing for them, and praying for them. If we're not ready to do our part, God won't do His. This is a real challenge on a faith level and a humility level. Especially for me. I have to get to the end of the week, and instead of being exhausted I have to be able to believe for these things, and keep them on my mind. I have to pray for it through the week, and I have to have the presence of mind to seize opportunities at youth.
We are the point of contact for Christ with these kids. We are groundbreakers for the Kingdom of God, and we can't afford to aim for anything less. Our youth group isn't about "getting kids off the street", or even "giving kids love" - if we really loved them we'd be burning ourselves up trying to find ways to reach their hearts and show them Christ.
This is warfare, and I'm beginning to wonder if we should let our kids know this. How would they respond if we told them the truth? We are holy warriors fighting the powers of darkness, and the reason we're fighting is to stop these kids from being carried off to eternal torment. Jesus is our General, and the only way to escape the darkness is to sign up under Him and fight alongside us.
Kids are awesome like that - they would quite happily accept the fantastical at face value, where adults would reject such a story outright. I think it might actually be good for them to know the real reason we're there every friday.
We're just ordinary people, how are we going to qualify that we serve an extraordinary God? We serve, but we serve inside the human realm of experience. We need to take the courage to walk outside our human limitations and start expecting miracles. Miracles qualify us as messengers from a living God. The miraculous leaves no doubt of our genuineness.
I'm not advocating a reliance on miracles, but we should be expecting them, believing for them, and praying for them. If we're not ready to do our part, God won't do His. This is a real challenge on a faith level and a humility level. Especially for me. I have to get to the end of the week, and instead of being exhausted I have to be able to believe for these things, and keep them on my mind. I have to pray for it through the week, and I have to have the presence of mind to seize opportunities at youth.
We are the point of contact for Christ with these kids. We are groundbreakers for the Kingdom of God, and we can't afford to aim for anything less. Our youth group isn't about "getting kids off the street", or even "giving kids love" - if we really loved them we'd be burning ourselves up trying to find ways to reach their hearts and show them Christ.
This is warfare, and I'm beginning to wonder if we should let our kids know this. How would they respond if we told them the truth? We are holy warriors fighting the powers of darkness, and the reason we're fighting is to stop these kids from being carried off to eternal torment. Jesus is our General, and the only way to escape the darkness is to sign up under Him and fight alongside us.
Kids are awesome like that - they would quite happily accept the fantastical at face value, where adults would reject such a story outright. I think it might actually be good for them to know the real reason we're there every friday.
posted by Merlz at 5:02 AM
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