Update: Here are reasons 201-300.
(Reasons 101-200, In No Particular Order)
- Going to youth worker conventions and coming away excited
- Saying "I love my job" at least once a day and meaning it
- When students are competitive--in a good way--during a really fun game
- When students I worked with in another state graduate and move to or near my new town
- Teaching students apologetics...and having them love it
- When students ask to go deeper in Bible study
- Lots and lots of coffee
- When new leaders "try out" serving as a youth leader because they aren't sure they'll really be a good fit, and they end up loving it and become one of the most committed leaders
- Squirt guns
- When I have fun playing a goofy game, I'm not being "childish," I'm doing my job
- Student-led dramas and skits
- The Skit Guys
- When I receive bacon-strip band-aids as a gift. It's happened twice so far
- Leader dinners with no agenda
- An enthusiastic "yes" from someone I've asked to serve as a leader
- Having to go to two different Wal-Marts and one Target because you're cleaning everyone out of water balloons, water guns, or some similar item
- Youth Sunday with a student preaching during the worship service
- High school musicals...no matter how many times I have to see "Guys and Dolls"
- Hearing a year later how a summer trip impacted a student's life in ways I didn't realize
- Playing "Rock Band" with leaders
- Singing Jon Bon Jovi on Rock Band while being unknowingly video taped by a leader
- Getting to be a part of something way bigger than me
- Oatmeal Cream Pies
- Starbucks after youth group
- Driving home after youth group thinking, "I love my job"
- When an event comes together really well when I wasn't sure how it would go.
- When leaders recruit other great leaders
- Coming in under budget
- Spending more than we had planned, but having our church leadership be okay with it because it was an unexpected opportunity
- Wrestling with tough questions about a passage I'm studying for Sunday because I know students will ask me those same questions when I teach
- Having a fellow pastor I work with be so excited about what God is doing that he tries to tackle me after a church business meeting
- Cleaning my office and having people ask (in jest, I hope) if I'm leaving my job. Or the inevitable "Did a tornado come through and take everything off your desk?"
- When some students go out of their way to make sure a special-needs student feels welcome in our group
- When our technology crashes on a Sunday morning right before our high school large group gathering and a student comes to the rescue because all the adult leaders are stumped
- When small groups--led by other leaders--go really well
- Youth group quote boards
- New books
- When I hear that a youth ministry I was a part of in the past is going really well
- When you get a great email out of the blue from a former youth
- Loaning books to students...and having them actually read them
- Those five minutes of deep, Spirit-led small group discussion that occur in the midst of forty-five minutes of small group chaos
- Finding the perfect small group curriculum for your small group
- Punting when that perfect small group curriculum bombs during the first week
- Realizing that the conversation that ensued once you punted was exactly what God wanted to happen
- Testing out games in a part of my job
- Game descriptions that include bringing a gift of baked goods to the church janitor to make up for the inevitable mess the game will make
- Foot washing services
- Writing thank-you notes
- Staff devotionals
- "Break time" in our office each day around 10:00am
- Leader meetings where leaders come up with a ton of great ideas
- Letting students design the decorations in the youth room
- When I feel in way over my head but still knowing that God's power is made perfect in weakness
- The challenge of defining "hypostatic union" for high school students in a way that shows the doctrine's importance to their lives
- Hearing a student--a little more than a week after the lesson on the hypostatic union--describe Jesus as "100% God, and 100% man. Which means he was 200% awesome"
- When students are glad to hear that you've been praying for them
- Adult leaders who type out answers for their application because I didn't leave enough room for them on the form
- When a student makes a very clear theological assertion regarding the morality of a math problem during a tutoring session
- When someone in our church has a great idea for an event that goes right along with our mission and values, and offers to spearhead the idea
- Destroying my office by throwing unopened cans of Mountain Dew through the wall because the demolition crew is coming the next day to wipe it out anyways and make room for a new addition to the building
- Village Inn with leaders after a youth event
- The conversations that happen on the curb outside the church with the last student to be picked up while waiting for the student's ride
- Knowing I've made a ton of mistakes in youth ministry and feeling better about myself reading all the dumb mistakes others have made
- My loving wife who doesn't mind me having 7am breakfast meetings
- Thinking I've pretty much got everything figured out, then having a wrench or a new opportunity (or both in the same thing) thrown into things, and realizing I have sooooooo much to learn.
- Being nervous about the first week of small groups, and hearing from leaders that it went amazing
- Food items thrown all over the place becomes a pretty good illustration for a Bible passage
- Analyzing music lyrics with teenagers
- Parents who are happy to do whatever they can to help the youth ministry make an impact in students' lives
- Texts from students in the afternoon making sure we still have youth group that night because they're excited to come
- When a student is willing to rid themselves of an addiction and rely on God
- The excitement of a new fall semester
- When students are excited to serve
- When students serve outside our student ministry
- When students serve outside our church walls
- When students choose to attend a seminar on apologetics instead of our regular Wednesday night gathering
- Serving alongside students
- When you try something new and it goes really well
- When a family tells me they've been praying for me on a regular basis during their dinner-time prayers
- Prayer warriors
- God's forgiveness
- Being able to lead, not because of who I am, but who God is
- The time I get to spend with my daughters before church on Sundays
- Going to high school athletic events with my daughters
- When students come out of their shell and really connect with other youth
- When students understand that you love them no matter what--because they screwed up big-time and you love them just the same
- Students who show up for youth group because they just need a place where they feel loved
- When middle school students are thankful that we let them hang out/bike/skateboard on church grounds because the skate parks they'd rather go to have drug deals going on
- Driving in the church van on the way back from bowling and a student asks a deep question about Calvinism
- Great impromptu conversations with a group of youth
- Encouragement from a leader after I speak at a large group gathering
- When students are so excited about a Bible study that's happening before school at a church near their school that they want to make sure everyone knows about it so they can go
- When I'm speaking to a large group of teenagers, and prompted by the Holy Spirit I share a personal experience I hadn't planned on talking about that day, only to find out later that a student really connected with what I shared
- When a parent tells her daughter to try to get me to stop wearing Crocks
- Hanging out with a couple of students after large group having a great discussion about what we talked about that night--after being convinced they weren't paying attention during my "talk" at all
- Being extremely re-energized after having coffee with another youth pastor in our area
- Leading a game that I think is amazing and having it flop, then throwing it out and trying a simple game that I think is old and tired, only to have ALL the students not want to stop playing
- When students are really pumped about thinking through tough issues
- Small group leaders who love what they do
- Our weekly student-produced announcement videos
