Youth Ministry... Why Bother?

Last weekend, I had the amazing privilege of serving as a leader at Discovery Weekend, our church's big youth ministry weekend retreat. This weekend is the culmination of months of planning--by our senior high leadership team, our dedicated youth ministry staff, Sunday school classes who prepare and serve meals, and countless others who helped out with the weekend in big and small ways. This weekend is among my favorite youth ministry experiences, and every year the hard work pays off. The students (and the adult leaders) leave the weekend feeling refreshed (is it possible to feel refreshed and exhausted at the same time? Because I think that's how the adults actually feel) and spiritually renewed. Every year, the senior high planning team strives to make Discovery Weekend even bigger and better than the previous year--and every year, they succeed!

I am thankful that my job fits in so well with my desire to volunteer with our youth ministry program. As a teacher, I have plenty of time in the summer to go on mission trips and hang out with youth. Even during the school year, I give up a weekend or two for various youth retreats and activities. It's something that I feel called to do, and lucky me, it's something that I love doing.

At work, and even at church occasionally, when someone asks about my weekend plans and I respond by mentioning some upcoming youth event, I am met with interesting responses:
"Good luck with that."
"That ought to be fun."
"Hopefully the canoe trip will get rained out, right?"
"You won't get any sleep."
And of course, I get a lot of raised eyebrows and eye rolls, as if to say, "I feel your pain."

But the funny thing is... none of this is painful. Okay, that's not true. The canoe trip was actually quite painful, and I still have a scar to prove it. But I would gladly canoe every weekend, and tip over multiple times, and scrape my legs on sharp rocks, if it means I would get to spend more time with the amazing students at our church.

Call me crazy, but I love being involved in youth ministry. Yes, I'm just a lowly volunteer, but I give my time willingly and eagerly. I have had some incredible experiences with these students. We roofed a house together, we built a wheelchair ramp, we gutted a kitchen... we have eaten more Jerry's snow cones together than I can count... we jumped curbs in the church van (not on purpose) and pulled clever pranks (I will not admit to any of them). I have supported these youth as they applied for camp counselor jobs, struggled with heartache, and mended broken relationships. In turn, they supported me as I overcame my fear of driving the fifteen-passenger church van, pulled myself out of a spiritual rut, and dealt with heartache and brokenness in my own life. I don't know if they even know how much support they provide, but they have truly blessed me in so many ways.

So, to the people who give me sympathetic looks as I talk about my adventures in youth ministry: y'all don't know what you're missing. Without these youth, I wouldn't know the latest dance moves. I wouldn't know that the coolest people on earth usually come from Mississippi and Alabama. I wouldn't have a love for pocket t-shirts and TOMS shoes. Without these youth, I wouldn't have experienced the presence of God as often as I have. I see God in every one of the students at our church. I love them all, and I wish you knew them so that you could love them too.

To the parents and church members who have thanked us volunteers for spending weekends with these kids: it is truly our pleasure. Truly. I'm not just saying that. No one has to twist our arms when it comes time to volunteer for weekend retreats and mission trips. We LOVE these experiences! We're right in there with the kids, worshiping and learning and sticking clothespins on people's backs. We mean it when we say that we get as much out of Discovery Weekend as the youth do. And we invite you to join us!

So why bother with youth ministry? Because knowing and loving and serving these youth is absolutely one of my greatest joys. Because these students are the future of the church, and it fills me with such hope to see how passionate they are about sharing and living out their faith. Because teenagers are marginalized and disrespected so often, and it is through strong youth ministry programs that students are empowered to find their voices and their callings. What a blessing it is to be part of that!

And that's why.

Pinterest: The neverending wish list of things we absolutely don't need.

I am teaching a new series in my Sunday school class starting tomorrow--Economy of Love, which is a book/DVD series produced by Shane Claiborne and friends. I don't know much about it, but when I saw it for sale at a conference in November I just felt called to include it in our Sunday school curriculum. I think this is one of those cases where I picked a series because I felt like I needed to hear it... but maybe that's not such a bad thing. Hopefully it will spark some good discussion tomorrow.
From the little that I know about this series, I've managed to glean that the overall theme is the idea of living with "enough." We live in a part of the world, a part of the country, and a part of Memphis where we feel like we never have enough. I struggle with this. There is pressure to "keep up" with everyone else, and it is stressful to be so young and to already feel this economic and status-driven pressure.

On a somewhat related note, after much pressure from friends, I joined Pinterest right before the holidays, and it has become a great tool for finding creative handmade gift ideas. I also love searching Pinterest for healthy recipes and classroom ideas. I (grudgingly) admit that Pinterest is a clever and useful social media tool. However... I think that Pinterest just adds to our overall feelings of not having enough, of wanting more. My feed of "pinners I follow" (mostly friends from Facebook that Pinterest automatically added) is full of photos of homes that we will never be able to afford, outfits that would cost an entire month's salary, and elaborate wedding reception plans that would bankrupt any bride-to-be's family. You don't need a master bedroom overlooking a waterfall with a king-size bed suspended from the ceiling. You don't need a jewel-incrusted designer wedding dress (especially if you are still in high school!) You don't need a wedding reception in a rustic abandoned barn draped with thousands of twinkling lights. Do we even have rustic abandoned barns in Memphis? We are getting into a pattern of pinning everything we wish we had--creating endless wish lists of things we'll never be able to afford and that we just really don't need.
Fellow pinners, let's stop pinning for the lives we wish we had and focus on the lives we're living now! Embrace your singleness and quit pinning wedding photos! Embrace your thriftiness and quit pinning designer dresses! Embrace your love for humanity and quit pinning photos of diamonds that were mined unethically! (Sorry, I had to slip that last one in.) Let's quit treating Pinterest like it's a neverending wish list of things we absolutely can't live without and start trying to be satisfied with where are lives are and what we have now.