My Experience as Youth Pastor

Look at that I can update my blog. Now I could just launch into my normal routine or I could give a bunch of excuses for why I haven't been updating. I could also just write some funny stupid thing but then again that is pretty much my normal routine. I think I'm going to try and combine my possible actions and see what happens.

I really only have one excuse and that is being busy. The truth it I'll probably have weeks where I don't have time to blog because the summer is nearly upon us and things get crazy busy for Youth Pastor's during the summer. Let's face it, students are out of school and most parents can't just take the whole summer off and so someone needs to give them something to do. Trust me you don't want a couple thousands teens in a small town with nothing to do for 3 months. That only leads to a bunch of new babies the following spring.

Of course we won't have things every day but we do have about one major event a month plus minor things mixed throughout. On top of that I'm going to be trying to spend time with several of my Youth during the week. I'd like to meet with as many as I can as often as I can outside the normal church times.

Not that this has anything to do with my most recent hiatus. No, if you've been following me on twitter (and if you haven't you should) then you know I've been playing with power tools. You might also be worried that I could lose some fingers because I don't always have the best track record with power tools. I can assure you that I am pretty well injury free. I did get a small puncture from a screw and a few splinters but nothing worse than that.

Of course twitter is limited to 140 characters, and while it is a goal of mine to always use all 140 characters I cannot explain everything I'm doing and why so my tweeps don't know exactly what I was up to.

I have completed phase one of my Youth building remodel. Structurally this was a pretty major change but everything went smoothly and we completed the job for very little money. I am still waiting on a couple of things but it should be under $100 when all is said and done. That is pretty frigintastic. The building was laid out with the platform running the long wall and another raised platform for chairs on the opposite long wall. It was a decent setup but was terrible for sound. I won't go into the details of why but trust me when I say it was sound suctacular. Worse was the fact that the sound booth didn't line up with the speakers so you could never really hear how you had it mixed unless you walk out of the sound booth and the mains were behind the platform so you could never turn up your singers without getting wicked feedback.

I moved the platform to the short wall facing the sound booth which is on the opposite short wall. I pulled the mains out front and redid the way the audio cabling was done by putting a trench in the platform and building and altar that also doubles as a means of hiding the cables running out front. More about the altar later. In fact, I'll write more on this whole project later with pictures when I get the time.

I finished this project just before service on Wednesday so it was right down to the wire, but it looks much better and everyone liked it.

I also did something different last night. I did the normal youth service but ended things very differently. After talking about God and the Gospel I told everyone we would be using the altar for the first time. I then said anyone that wants more from God should stay but anyone that is just ready to leave could go outside, downstairs, or home but they could not stay in the room talking. I also asked that they not come back into the room. Then I made an altar call for salvation, rededication, or any other need from God.

This seemed to work great. ¼-1/3 left the room but most stayed. That surprised me and the ones that stayed seemed to really experience God. After the fact the positive response was unanimous from everyone that stayed behind. I will be doing this again for the next couple weeks then I'll take some time off but plan on revisiting this method at least once a month hereafter. I don't want this to become some repetitive formula but it is pretty amazing how well the students responded.

Anyways, I'll be offline till Monday at the earliest. Friday is Acquire the Fire so I'll be starting my lo-carb Monster IV drip that morning. We will get back late Saturday. Actually think it will be Sunday before we are back in town. Of course this Sunday is Mother's day and then I'm going to slip into a coma.

Don't tell my pastor's wife but I haven't had a day off in two weeks. Next week I'm taking some extra time off to make up for it.

So now you know where I've been for the last couple weeks.

PS, Today was the national day of prayer. I was involved with prayer meetings starting at 7:30 this morning and just now finished the last one. God is good and I'll share some amazing things about the lead up to ATF but right now I've hit the wall. I didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep last night because a bear came to visit and other fun things plus a 12+ hour. Please pray because I'm beyond exhausted. I need a good night's rest and the power and grace of God for the next few days. On Monday I am going to collapse in a heap for a couple of days.