National Youth Worker’s Convention – Part 3

I think I’ve discovered something, I’m not sure that I like conventions.

It’s not that I didn’t love a lot of the speakers, it’s not that I wasn’t encouraged greatly by many of them, it’s not that I didn’t learn a lot, and learn even more questions that will take a good amount of thinking and processing to get through. It’s none of those things; it was the raw exposure of the state of youth ministry in the American church today that was so painful.

I was overwhelmed in the ‘Exhibit Hall’. “Buy this book, and that one, and another. Come to this camp, we have the best activities of anyone around (one camp cost almost $300 per student for a weekend……for a weekend!!). Get an autograph from this artist, musician, speaker, he/she is a spiritual celebrity! Buy this music, sign up for this free drawing, look here… buy this… sign up for that…” At one point in time I looked at my brother-in-law who was there also and said, “I know this is a convention hall and not a temple, but I wonder if Jesus would turn over any of these tables?”

We found one speaker particularly helpful and Jess talked to him about our own youth ministry. He said he was familiar with our area and would love to visit us and be a resource! We later researched his fee for being a ‘resource’ and learned that he charges $3,000 per 2 hour seminar……………………..

I know, these are resources to make our ministries better, to help us connect with students more, to help our students connect with God. It was just hard to see that with all of the money flying around. (And just so you know that my hypocrisy knows no limits, I bought several books myself. You can ask me which ones if you like, maybe I can redeem myself to you…)

Particularly disheartening were all of the conversations of attending youth workers that you would over hear waiting in line for something or passing in a hall. “I want to get home to try this out…. I can’t wait to implement this strategy… I just bought this program for our students to help them witness better…”

The wonderful thing about all of this is God met Jess and I there anyway. Wonderfully so. He ministered to me, He told me He loved me and desired that I pursue Him more than anything else in the world, and He told me in a way that was as clear as I have ever heard Him. It was amazing.

I learned some very helpful things about relating to and helping hurting students, and was reminded in a powerful way that the best way I can help students move towards God is to follow the apostle Paul’s example, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.”

There were a few prophets in the crowd sharing the wisdom of the way of Christ, “Your greatest pursuit should be your own relationship with Christ, and then with your wife and your children. If you fail at those, then there has been no ministry at all, only work.” “The Kingdom of God will grow just fine without you; it is not resting on your shoulders. Pursue God to join His great movement!” “The pursuit of large attendance in your youth ministry is the enemy of deep youth ministry. Jesus often drew a large crowd, which He promptly drove away with a few choice phrases.” “Pursue God-sized dreams. In other words only pursue what God desires, not what you or anyone else think things should look like.”

And so it was good, and God was there, and He did speak. And He said, “Maybe if you slow down a bit, you will be able to hear Me more, and next time we won’t have to meet up at a conference.”

Sounds good.

National Youth Worker's Convention - Part 2

So how do you condense a whole weekend of seminars, classes, conversations, and other experiences into a couple of blogs.... you don't. So instead I'll just ramble for a bit on what I believe God to be impressing upon me, trusting all the while that most likely, no one will read this anyway.

One thing that is for sure, God is much bigger than I ever imagined. Now, this isn't to say that I've been keeping Him in a box, just that my ability to imagine is growing more and more every day. I'm excited about that! He is big, BIG, HUGE!! He is amazing, wonderful, awe-inspiring, awesome, and I have to stop because I'm now starting to feel as if I'm doing Him a great injustice with the littleness of my words. My descriptive imagination still has a way to go after all.

Some words I can use, He is good. He is so good. He is love, not just in a theoretical sense, but in a very real sense.

I know this to be true.

Again, not merely intellectually, but I've experienced His love. This is where I believe that heaven and earth kiss, in the soul. When God breathes life into our spirit and we step out of the graves of self, when our minds begin to understand the realities of who God is and who I am now in Him, then I become not a spiritual creature, but no longer physical either, instead there is a third reality, I step into the eternal.

I have a beginning, but I have no end. I cannot see God with my eyes, but I see the reality of Him everywhere. I am not like Christ today, but I am more like Him in this moment than I was in the last. I am not sinless, but my sin account looks much like a bucket with no bottom. I am not perfect, but I am being perfected. I know in part, but I am fully known. I have to say that again, I am fully known. And desired. And cherished. I am loved.

This is my role as husband and father and friend and youth minister and mentor and worship leader and...and....and....and.....and..... This is my role to fully embrace who I am in Christ. To fully embrace the person that God intends for me to be. To fully embrace the passionate pursuit of knowing Him.

It is only in this that I will be able to personify who He is to the world. It is only in this that I will begin to decrease so that He might increase. It is only in this that I will see a new reality in my life, a reality that Paul spoke of in II Corinthians 5, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us..."

National Youth Worker's Convention - Part 1

I'm going to try a discipline this weekend, actually writing in my blog! I know, it should seem like a no brainer, but for some reason I just struggle with sitting down to do it. I always love it, feel a bit rejuvenated, fired up even, when I do, so it just needs to be a discipline. Especially this weekend.

Jess and I just arrived late last night at the National Youth Worker's Convention in San Diego. We've been here once before about three or four years ago, and it was wonderful. So much encouragement, so many resources, fellow youth workers bouncing ideas off of each other. It's good to be back.

I'm really looking forward to this year's conference, wondering what God may want to open our eyes to this year. That's not to say that He can't or won't throughout the rest of the year, but I do believe their is something special about taking time away to focus in and listen, and especially during this time of being surrounded with a large community of like minded family. I know it will be good.

So, my discipline will be to take a few breaks and jot down some of those things that I believe God will speak. Feel free to comment on, ask questions about, or even challenge me in anything I might say. I think that's part of the process too.

Alright, here we go!