My Experience as Youth Pastor

Well January is drawing to a close and so is my month of Football. I love the sport so I reserve the right to mention it in the future. Next month I will be talking about love, lust, and sex. This is pretty obvious but it must be discussed. I wrote a column for our local paper on the subject and that is kind of exciting. To finish out the subject of football, however, I must discuss the Super Bowl.

I have watched every Super Bowl since I was about 12. I am not a huge fan of NFL football though so I rarely have a vested interest in the outcome of the game. Often I chose the team I'll be rooting for based on who my friends are pulling for. This does not mean that I cheer on their team but rather go for their opponent. There is something to be said about trash talking. It adds to the game when you get to jump up in your friend's face and yell, "in your face." I can enjoy any game but if I get to stick it to a friend I find it more enjoyable. In fact, I can deal with my team losing if there is enough smack to make me crack a smile.

The real point, though, is the Super Bowl Ads. I can't think of anything that describes America better than the Super Bowl Ads. Companies spend millions on a few seconds to try and get us to spend millions on their products. What else could summarize what is driving America better than that? We, as a culture, expect people to spend obscene amounts of resources for the return and we are driven to have our decisions made in seconds. I am careful to use the word resources because this is more than just money. Time and energy pay off quite a bit as well. I don't have millions to spend on a Super Bowl ad but I do have the time and energy to pour into my Youth. I think that is the key to everything though. We have to work towards things like a company works towards the Super Bowl Ads.

They know those few seconds will make or break their company. The energy they put into getting the perfect commercial has to pay off. Some of those spots are aired to this day because they were so great. We need to remember that we are given a few seconds of the lives around us and that we must be prepared to make the most of them. I'm not talking about church marketing, which does need more consideration. I'm talking about witnessing. We can't just name drop Jesus or throw down the Roman's Road out of the blue. We have to be prepared. I love how Paul appeals to the people gathered at the Acropolis. He walked around and saw all the great altars then lays out the plan of salvation in a way they would relate to.

The way we do this is to know our Bible, know our audience, and most importantly know our God. If we know our Bible we won't just throw out the Roman's Road or john 3:16 for every opportunity we have. Sure those are great but there are lots of other passages we need to be ready with. We also need to know out audience. The people we talk to will react to different things. Some won't care how many scriptures you can quote. I'd wager most won't care to be honest. Paul didn't quote tons of scriptures when he spoke to Gentiles because they weren't familiar with the scriptures. Some people will want you to know all the answers and some will be happy that you can say "I don't know" to the hard questions because it means you are honest. The only way you have any chance to be those things when the time is right is to invest in relationships before the time is right. Finally we have to know God. If we really only have a few seconds with most people then we have to have every advantage there is to be had. If we don't know God by talking to Him daily then we will miss when He is ready to set us up with exactly the perfect opportunity, timing, and even words to change a person's eternal destiny.