Today has been pretty cool. I met up with some students in our ministry who are on spring break this week to eat lunch over at Chick-fil-a in Easley. I got a grilled chicken club, but i ain't gonna lie, their chocolate milkshakes are AMAZING!!! I was strong and didn't have one, but man...those suckas are good!! I really love hanging out with our students when the opportunity presents itself. It may not be much, but i think if you are a youth pastor you should take every opportunity to hang out with students AWAY from the church building. I think it says a lot when we as youth pastors take the time to go on campus, ballgames, recitals (just not middle school orchestra!) or whatever our students have going on, just to show them we support them. It was a blast to just sit and listen to what they have been doing over spring break. Eat more chicken!!
Now on to the spiritual stuff. Last week i met with a student for about 2 hours who had made a bad decision and got caught. The students mom thought maybe they would open up more if they talked to me, which did happen, but it wasn't the result i was looking for necessarily. The student really didn't respond with a remorseful attitude or even a attitude of "man i really screwed up this time". It was tough because everything i said seemed to just slide right on by. I was literally praying as we met that God would give me the words to say, and i believe He did. After about an hour and a half, i finally just straight up asked the student what role God played in their life, and the response was "i don't really think about it that much." Wow, not what I wanted to hear. I left the meeting feeling beat up, frustrated, discouraged, confused, and a little angry, not at a certain person, or God, but just at the situation. I called my friend Robert (www.robert4tnr.blogspot.com)and explained what had went down and asked him for some advice. He was in student ministry awhile back, and i think he is very wise and i respect and listen to what he has to say. He reminded me of something REAL important. You see, we tend to be real quick to give the credit to God when good things happen in the lives of our students. We say things like "that was a God thing", or "that was all God, not me" and so on. Now, don't get me wrong, those statements are all true and we should obviously give Him the glory. But what about when things don't go the way we think they should? When students don't respond to the Gospel, or drop a bad habit, what do we do? We end up saying things like "i'm not being effective", or "i can't relate anymore", or "i must not be doing something right". Here is what Robert reminded me of last week. It is ONLY God that does the work in the lives of people, including teenagers. We can have no effect on students unless God has gone before us and prepared their hearts for the message we have. We are still accountable and responsible to deliver the message accurately and in love, but that is really where our part ends. God is the one the calls people to Himself. If we think or act any other way, then essentially we are kicking God off His throne and telling Him we know better and we have a better plan. Thanks Robert for the reminder, you ROCK!!!
Well, sorry for the long post, but i just had a lot to say today. It's off to wrap a few loose ends up before AMP'd tonight!!
Running my Race,
Bholda
1 comment:
Man, you throw that "wise" word around pretty loosely. You'd better slow down with hanging that title on me, people who know me are gonna look at you funny.
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