My Experience as Youth Pastor

There is so much to talk about for this trip. Mostly things have been frigintastic. One thing that is not frigintastic is the traffic and parking situation in downtown Baltimore. That is just wrong. In fact I'd go so far as to say it is down right sucktacular.

The trip up was really nice. I love that particular route and I think most of the students did as well. We made it the whole way without any pukers. That's always a big plus in my book especially considering last time we went this direction things didn't work out so well.

I do have one other complaint. One of the girls that I have been praying for and who my wife has really been reaching out to did exactly what I cautioned her against. Her BF broke up with her via a text message early Monday morning. My wife took her out to breakfast and talked with her for quite a long time. I met with her for a bit that afternoon when my wife dropped off some lunch for me while I was working on the Youth Building. BTW, Katdish, yes I really did mean less than $100. I was able to repurpose almost everything I took apart. We only had to buy a few things for the electric work.

Anyways, I talked with the girl for a while and then cautioned her about jumping straight into another relationship. I specifically told her she shouldn't get together with one of the guys that was going with one of the other groups. I knew this guy was pretty well her type and I knew that she would rebound right into that but I also knew that she had a lot of crap to work through and so did he. Neither of them are ready for a relationship.

Of course you all know what happened. Now I need to talk to them both. The crazy part is that the speaker tonight said "girls Jesus is your need. You don't need a boyfriend. You may feel like you do because your dad or some other father figure type person didn't give you the kind of love you deserve, but if you make Jesus the center of your life He will fill that emptiness and so you won't feel like you need a boyfriend when you break up with someone." I swear I didn't set that up but it's like he was talking right to her through those words.

God really did move though. I went down during the altar call and prayed with about 4 of my students. I saw at least 10 go down during the altar call but I couldn't get over to them all because so many responded. It was pretty amazing. I had the worst headache at this point though so I could barely think straight much less pray the kind of prayer I wanted. I was there for them though and I think that was probably bigger than any prayer I could have said for them. God knows my heart of them and knows that I want only the best for them all.

If you aren't following me on Twitter I need to give a few other updates here. Before things got started there was a meeting for the Youth Pastors. They gave us all the info on what's going on. I tweeted that I was going to try and work in Monkey Butt. Unfortunately they didn't have a Q&A segment for me to toss that out but I did get to talk to a couple people after so I guess it worked out. I also asked them to use the phrase "fluffy bunnies" in reference to sex during the sex talks tomorrow. I briefly explained the origin of that phrase which my Youth would love to hear. I didn't tell the Youth so they should really be shocked if things work out. Since I haven't blogged about this in the past let me fill you in. Back in November I talk with my students about sex. I tried to be pretty open and honest with them but my 5 year old daughter walked in as we were finishing up so I tossed out the first thought that came into my mind instead of the word "sex." From that moment on I have often used the words "fluffy bunnies" to refer to sex.

Anyways, they have the band Unhindered doing worship and they are pretty good. Several of the Youth went down front during this and I wanted to go. Tomorrow I probably will. I stayed because I wanted to see how the other would respond. They sat there till halfway through the first song. They only got up when I went down in front of the section and start making a fool of myself trying to get everyone on their feet. I was mostly working on getting my Youth up but about 3/4 of the section was sitting but then I start pointing and waving and raising my hands and jumped ... basically caring on like a monkey ... then almost everyone in the section got up. Later I had to go down and lead them in jumping and clapping and all the other fun stuff. Lazy teens. I haven't even had a Monster since Thursday. Once they got the picture I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of worship.

Then they had a pretty cool drama/sermon about Jesus had he "been born in the 80s" I put that in quote because that is what they said, but they also say he had just died and risen and referenced him being 33 when that happened. I can assure you that someone born in 1980 would not be 33 right now. Trust me on this.

Finally, David Crowder Band was pretty frigintastic. Someone once said that they thought I would look like David. I wouldn't mind it but a guy in the church has that honor. I swear if he grew his hair and goatee out a bit more it would be freaky. I'm sure he is a monster big geek. He looks it and during a song he had out this lime green keytar. That's pretty geeky but when he started playing the Super Mario Theme song I about lost it. They led with Undignified which is possibly my favorite song that they sing. I kind of wish they had closed with it but hey, whatever. My 10 month old son fell asleep in my arms during that song so I couldn't really get crazy during the concert. My Youth probably appreciate that.

I do have two complaints. They are from Texas, which isn't all that bad but really ... The big complaint is they did a "hoe down." but I have to admit watching a bit of rock dueling banjo-esque jamming there in that was pretty, dare I say, awesome.

It is after 2 in the morning and I'm suppose to be awake at 5:30. I'll try to get some more details on things tomorrow or Monday, if I haven't collapsed into a puddle of exhaustion by then. Follow me on twitter. I am trying to update every so often with my cell phone. Also keep praying. Tomorrow should be pretty interesting and I'm hoping two of the sessions (the sex one and one about dealing with parents) really reach some of the teens. I also have one girl that doesn't really know anyone so I'm hoping that she started fitting into one of the groups. She isn't very outgoing but I'm trying to talk to her and get my wife to reach out. It can be hard coming on something like this when you don't really know anyone.