Plan and Coordinate Youth Events on Tuesday (1 ½ Hours)
Lock-In (7:00pm – 7:00am = 12 hours)
Total Ministry Hours: 13 1/2 Hours
Personal Reflection on Ministry
I've never quite been able to understand the point or torture known as lock-ins. So let me get this straight. The idea is to take 50 high school students, put them in a large building with tons and tons of hallways and crevices to hide in, and then give them gallons of energy drinks, and hope that nothing gets broken? This seems backwards to me. And no matter how backwards it seems, we do it about twice a semester. FUMCY decides that the lock-ins are one of our greatest outreach tools, and so we do them quite often. The problem with this philosophy is the fact that we end up paying so much to fix all the things that we break during lock ins. I don't even want to think about what goes on that I cannot see or don't know about. But it is a funny thing that when we hold a lock-in, we double the size of our youth group. We usually run about 25/week. But lock-ins bring in about 50-70. Not all of them go to church or even know what Christianity includes. But we are just happy that they are in a church building. Whether they see a group of our regular students going through the prayer stations or maybe they run into one of us sponsors, they will feel Christ's love. That is our intention and hope for lock-ins, no matter how dangerous or expensive they are. So the lock-in was tiring, but fantastic in terms of relationship building.
Spiritual Reflection
On a spiritual note, things kind of dipped low on the graph yesterday. You would think that after seeing so many students at our youth group all being inside the church would be a spiritually charging experience. But for some reason, I found myself frustrated. I would see some of the students not really care or respect some of the spiritual stations that we had set up. There was no respect for the building as a whole, which was extremely disheartening. The church is such a beautiful church and one that has lasted for many years. In fact, the actual church itself just celebrated its 175th anniversary. While the building may not be that old, there is certainly a history and respect there that I can feel. It is a shame to see people not respect that same feeling. And spiritually, I wonder how much these kids are desiring a change or anything like that. Sure, they are in a church, but I wonder how many of those kids respect that fact. Based on my observations, not many actually respect the religion. Most of them are there for the fun and not the relationship. It makes me wonder how we can change that mindset. A mindset of “I don't care” to a mind set of “maybe I do care”.
Plan and Coordinate Youth Events on Tuesday (1 ½ Hours) – We have a lock-in coming up in a couple of weeks and we discussed some of the ideas that we had in order to make it a successful one. Some of the ideas we came up with were prayer stations and other opportunities for spiritual development, while still keeping it fun.
Supervise and Coordinate Youth at Youth Group (3 Hours)
Drive Van and Drop Off Students (1 ½ Hours)
Personal Reflection on Ministry
This week was more of a “typical” week at youth group. We didn't have a special event or speaker or anything. It was our normal youth pastor giving a normal message. It was good, because I got to see everyone back in their “safe” zone. When students get to a safe and comfortable state of mind, they are more open to share things that are happening in their lives. I really saw that happen tonight. I saw students sharing thoughts and ideas that otherwise would never share anything. From talking openly about relationships to their spiritual lives, I felt as if I got to know the students a little better. Many of them will just talk to you and accept you as their friend right away without question. I'm hoping to get to know a lot of them a little better this semester. In the past, I concentrated more on getting my “requirements” taken care of and not worry about relationships. This semester will be different.
Spiritual Reflection
Spiritually, things are going great. There seems to be such a fervor amongst the students to do something significant in their lives. Not all of them have a solid thing to hold on to and claim as their own. Let alone their spirituality. So to see some of them interested in actually pursuing some significance in their spiritual lives is really something awesome to observe. I just hope that personally I don't do anything to thwart this fervor. I'm doing my best to answer questions that they might have. But sometimes, I fear that I am not the best example for them of what a strong spiritual life appears to be. I'm going to have to improve this.
Plan and Coordinate Youth Events on Tuesday (1 ½ Hours)
Supervise and Coordinate Youth at Nursing Home (3 Hours) – This week, instead of just staying at the church and having a typical youth group night, we decided to switch it up and do something outside of the church. This week, we decided to go to the nursing home in order to lift the spirits of some of the residents there. We spent the entire time there this week instead of going back to the church.
Total Ministry Activities: 41/2 Hours
Personal Reflection on Ministry
This week was a little more difficult because it was actually the first time I’ve been in a different environment with the students than in the typical church setting. It was actually kind of nice to get a change of pace and a change of scenery in my ministry with these students. Too often we are sitting at the church on the couches talking about going somewhere and doing something other than talking. This week, that actually became a reality and I was very impressed with how the students responded to being put out of their comfort zones. On a personal level, I was a little nervous going to the nursing home, because it is just an uncomfortable place to be. Well, I was blown away by how comfortable the students were in going to the nursing home and just meeting people. I did have to be the encourager in a couple of areas (like actually going into rooms to talk). But I was so impressed at how easily the students talked to different people in the nursing home. It really gave me a hope for the maturity of the students. As far as my ministry leadership went, I was encouraged by how willing the students were to follow me. I encouraged them to go into different rooms and talk to the residents and they actually did. One of them came out after talking with one of the residents and said, “I just talked with one of James Dean’s basketball teammates!” He was so excited, and as a result, I was too. I’m starting to realize that student ministry is about celebrating the small things, but celebrating them big.
Spiritual Reflection
This week, spiritually, was better than last week. When I got to speak to some of the residents at Colonial Oaks, I was shocked with how happy some of them were. Lets be honest, a nursing home is literally a death bed that people are put into. To me, it is one of the most depressing places on earth. And yet, there were people there so full of life. I didn’t think that could be possible, but it was and is. It was just such an encouragement to see that God does not see age, but instead, life. These people don’t see their situation as a negative thing, they just see it as another stage of life. One of my favorite colonial oaks memories was when I just walked into a ladies room and just started reading scripture. She just sat there and smiled. After I was done, she said, you read scripture very well. You’d make a wonderful pastor. A confirmation of my call to ministry, just in reading scripture. God is good.
*Included in my ministry activities are events on Tuesday afternoons from 11:00-12:00. During this time, all the youth sponsors meet together in order to plan our activities for the weekend and the coming weekends.
- Planning and Coordinating Activities (1 Hour): On Tuesday, we sat down for the first time as youth sponsors since last year. It is a great time where we are sponsors are able to share how Christ is working in our lives and how we see him working in the student’s lives as well.
- Meet and Greet Students(1 ½ Hours): Since I hadn’t been to youth group for over 3 months, it was great to be able to see all of them again. Honestly, I find this to sometimes be the most important part of my time at youth group: time spent with the youth just chatting.
- Set-Up PowerPoint Slides (1 Hour)
- Supervise Students During Worship/Teaching(1 Hour)
- Drive Van and Drop Off 12 Students (1 ½ Hours)
Total Ministry Activities: 5 Hours
Personal Reflection on Your Ministry
Something that I noticed was difficult and interesting about coming back to youth for the first time since last year was how it has changed. The seniors that were there last year have now either left or are now sponsors with the youth group. It is a weird dynamic to now be working side-by-side with the students that I once was teaching. This is by interesting and difficult at the same time. I’m not really sure how I feel about working next to Devin and Lacie (2 students that at once were students, but are now sponsors). This is going to be a difficult thing to transition mentally from “youth” to “helper”. This will probably be a concern that I have often concerning youth that graduate or move on to other leadership things. Another thing I noticed was how tired I was. Without realizing it, my fatigue greatly affected my ministry ability. Partially in the fact that I was just too tired to be as crazy and interactive as I sometime can be in my youth group. I hope that this was just a one time occurrence this weekend, and that it won’t happen again any time soon. Fatigue can greatly affect your ministry I am realizing.
Spiritual Reflection
My spiritual life is kind of low right now, and I think it is because of my tiredness. It is hard to find energy to talk to my friends, let alone God. So, that is definitely something I am struggling with right now. I hope, and pray that as I get more used to my sleeping schedule (or lack thereof) I will become more aware and awake at the ways God is working in my life and the lives of those around me. However, I found myself impressed at the spiritual lives of the students at my youth group. They really seemed more alive than I have ever seen them. This was really encouraging for me to see. The spiritual lives of my students is a great booster for me whenever I am feeling low.
