Embrace the Mess
Youth Ministry is messy, anyone who has been to a summer camp knows this more than anyone else. There is just something in our nature that longs to see just how big of a mess we can make. But usually they are confined to summer camps or retreats. Rarely do we want to think of our service as messy… Last night is a night I will remember for a very long time… I love having guest speakers in our youth ministry, but I’ve never had a student preach (let alone a freshman). There is this idea of church of ministry dubbed “the family table concept” I first heard of from Brent Parsley (Youth Pastor of One Chapel in Austin Texas). The idea is this: that we learn and grow the best when like Thanksgiving or Christmas we are all together. The young learning from the wisdom of the Old… The Old having a passion ignited in their hearts from being around the Young. It is a wonderful concept and has truly shaped the way I do ministry… But one of the core tenants of this idea is that there will be messes: no matter how well things are planned and scheduled there is always going to be that dog jumping on the table and trying to eat the turkey. I have a business background, my degree is in Operations Management I by nature am a planner, but sometimes we have to embrace the mess.
Back to last night- We had a guest speaker, named Colin Young he’s one of our freshman and he tore it up! Was it perfect? No absolutely not… Was it messy? A little, but if we are truly committed to training up the next generation of Christians isn’t it okay if there is a bit of a mess. Now to be honest, I work at a church that wholly embraces student ministry. My senior pastor was a youth minister for 18 years and one of his favorite quotes is “if your not making a mess, it means your not really doing anything”. So I know I have significant room to move and do whatever I feel is right, but whenever their is growth there is always going to be a mess. Let’s embrace it…
Here’s Colin- Right before he melted our faces off with his epic preaching…
