My Experience as Youth Pastor

Um, so if you haven't been following along I'm a Youth pastor and we meet on Wednesday evenings for Youth. The group is growing and if you are here to figure out why … well please let me know when you do so I can keep doing whatever is working. Honestly God is good and He is honoring tons of prayers and my faithfulness to take every opportunity He gives to reach out to the lost Youth of our area. It seems that every time I am able to reach out to some student in the community another student shows up in Youth. I'm not directly affecting the ones that are showing up and I don't know if I'm having an impact on the ones I reach out to but God is good and He calls us to spread the Good News not to be accountable for what happens after. That, by the way, is what we talked about last night. What is out mission?

So often, Christians sit around doing nothing because they are waiting for God to tell them what to do. My suggestion is to read your Bible because God tells us lots of good things we need to be doing right there. The last thing Jesus said was to "go." He told us to go spread the Gospel and I think that is very important. We aren't asked to do anything we wouldn't do for others. If someone dropped a million dollars in our lap we would be telling people about it. All God asks is that we tell people about the things He has done and is doing in our life. He'll take care of the rest if we are faithful to tell.

So what does that have to do with Monsters, Mayhem, and Meritoriousness. That last one is a real word even though Word doesn't recognize it. I looked it up.

That's simple. The Monster is, of course, Monster Energy drink. We are selling more and more of the stuff. I haven't done a full count yet but I think we sold a full case worth last night. I think we are good for at least another week before we need more but the stuff is really doing well. We make about $15 per case and from that we need $32 a month for the little girl we are sponsoring. I'll post more about her later. We are already halfway there for next month. When we start doing the Saturday night movie nights I'm expecting to make enough to pay for this little girl a year in advance. I'm really excited about this program we are calling "Monster Compasion."

The Mayhem is also an easy one. We had more than 50 last night. Each Wednesday there are new visitors. We have exceeded the limit for our adult to student ratio and I need more helpers because the mayhem is rising. Now you'd think that selling the Monster is causing the problem but to be honest the students will leave to buy it. We were dealing with that problem before we started selling. There is actually less chaos now that we are selling. Compared to the past few weeks there was less insanity, but I really need more workers. Please pray with me for workers.

Meritoriousness, which is an adjective describing the state of being deserving, is about all of us. More specifically it is about one of my students who is struggling with her self-worth. She has never been told she is precious and priceless by her parents. She has been in some really destructive relationships and is told time and time again she is worthless. Last night I was able to share with her the value that God has assigned to us. I'm frustrated with her parents and the ex who told her she is worthless. That cuts deep into an already painful wound. Last night I told her that God made her and told her "you are very good" and then Christ died on the cross and told her "this is how much you are worth to me." satan wants to steal this from us. It is our gift from God. Our inherent worth and goodness. satan will fight us for it because if he can steal that then he has won.

Does anyone else feel worthless? Do you worry that you have no value and that you are not deserving? God says you are worth the infinite Son. That is literally saying you are priceless. Remember that you have worth and when satan tries to steal that from you don't let him. Remember what God has said about you. Latch on to that and don't let go.

Finally please pray for this young lady. I am going to try and send her a text or other message every day trying to share with her just how valuable she is. I'm getting my wife and other leaders in on it. I know this will go a long way to help her but I can't change the years of hurt. That is where God comes in. So please pray.