As you read please understand that everyone who is a Christ follower is called to be in ministry. You do not need permission to serve God. What you might be wrestling with though is whether or not it's something that you hope to do as a job. You hope that other believers will trust you and want to support what you do as a shepherd or leader and take care of you as you take care of others.
I love that as a daughter or son of Christ you are listening to God and seeking advice. Knowing that you're open it's gonna be easy for me to believe that you will really dig deep and consider what you're reading. Cool? Okay.
If you are wondering if you should do youth ministry or become a youth leader you need to consider whether or not the following things are true of you. They are not in any kind of order.
1. You are already serving. Maybe you've been a God follower for a year or maybe even just a few months but no matter how long it's been one thing that you have already decided is that you are going to serve God. Therefore, you've been doing something. Serving your friends, the unfriendly, your parents, or your church. The opposite of this would be to go into ministry so that people can serve you or you can be in charge. If you're reason to be a youth worker is so that people can know who you are and be impressed by what you do then you need to stop and have a serious talk with your current youth leader. Being a youth leader means that you will rarely be thanked, recoginized, invited, included, understood, sought after, or earthly rewarded. There is no red cape for anyone no matter how good they look, talk, or come across in youth ministry. Christ will be your hero and not yourself.
2. You are pursuing Christ. In today's crazy world you've been taught to trust your feelings. Your feelings and instincts will serve you well but not if they are being filtered through anything other than Christ's Word and a life surrendered to dying to self and to knowing Christ. You do not have to be perfect but if you're trying to make this decision and you have not been pursuing Christ then put the question off and spend some time getting that started. It could be that what you're feeling is Christ drawing you toward him and not toward a position.
3. You know enough to obey God even if you don't want to. Sometimes we think that our leaders are having so much fun that they have some kind of crazy favor with God and never struggle in following God. As much as I said what I did in #1 and #2 I hope you also heard me say that you're not supposed to be perfect. In fact sometimes you will not want to do the hard things that God asks you to do or for that matter you may not want to do the easy things. Knowing when you are less than your best and having the character to put your impulses aside in order to do what God asks you to do is called discipline. Placing yourself under the authority of Christ and trusting him will carry you through some of the hardest times in your life.
4. You are trustworthy and can follow leaders. Search your heart and remember that we tend to think of ourselves more highly than we should. One of the hardest things for anyone to absorb is that often perception is reality. If you consistently have a hard time listening to the leaders in your life and following through with what they ask of you you're going to need to think through a myth about ministry. You do not get to do whatever you want or spend your time doing things you would choose first above anything else. In fact you will often be asked to do things and be trusted with responsibilities that are outside of youth ministry. You will also more than likely be in charge of yourself, your work ethic, and your time. This cannot be a problem for you to not want to absorb those times and think of others as more important than yourself or your agenda.
5. You do things without being asked or don't mind doing things for your leaders that nobody else wants to do. Youth ministry means that you will need to ask yourself what is the best way to accomplish the goal and to create the oppotunities. You've got to be someone who will take initiative and care about the small things. It is your job to lead by example and grow not just spiritually but professionally. Scripture puts it like this, "If you're faithful in the little things you're gonna be faithful in the big things." No job is below you. The Bible also says, "whatever you find yourself doing for God, do it with everything you have."
6. You see people who are broken and hurt and it bothers you enough to pursue them in your school, job, team, class, or club. We've talked about your relationship to God now we're gonna talk about the world. Shepherding people will be done because Christ is working through you but also because you're obey the great commandment, "Love others as much as you would want to be loved." This means you will want to see the world the way God sees them. This will always put you in a place where you want to push them toward not just him but also hope and restoration.
7. You are in Biblical community. You have got to either decide right now that you will ask your youth leader to help you with this or you already know that you have it. The only way you will be able to be in youth ministry for the long haul is if you have people in your life who love you enough to hold you accountable to your junk and take action beyond praying for you. They will be the ones who you confess your faults to adn who will ask you the tough questions. Going without this even as a God follower who is not pursuing ministry as a job is ill advised.
If you want to know more I would encourage you to talk about these things with your youth leader or pastor and go through this together. I am sure they have many more things to add to this.
If you have any questions leave a comment. I will get back to you.... promise.
2 comments:
Good post Chad, I would add one more. A love for the church and an understanding that no pastor or staff is perfect and there will be difficulties.
Agreed!
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