(Reasons 201-300, In No Particular Order)
- When students help each other out
- When small group leaders come up with creative ways to build community in their group
- The anticipation of a weekend retreat with students
- New volunteers
- Small group leaders who put a lot of care into deciding what their group will study
- Being excited to go to work in the morning
- Being tired at the end of a long day of ministry, but still able to be thankful that I get to do what I do
- New students that are super-excited to get plugged into the youth ministry
- When leaders are willing to be flexible so we can respond to new opportunities
- Partnering with an amazing team of children's ministry leaders
- Parents who love to provide food for events
- Men's groups who love to provide breakfast at the end of an overnighter
- Unexpected but great conversations with students
- When a student is really touched by a birthday card
- Making a difference in the life of a youth by walking with him/her through a tough life situation
- Students who attend "adult" mission trips through our church
- When I hear that another church's youth ministry in town is going really well
- When another youth pastor lets me know he's been praying for me
- Great guest speakers/teachers
- Getting to watch sermons to see if there are clips we can use during a large group gathering
- Students who pop in to say hello
- Attending a student-led Bible study that meets before school
- Coffee and donuts at said student-led Bible study
- Meeting a new youth pastor in the area
- Putting down a deposit for next year's summer trip and being SUPER EXCITED
- Leaders who love what they do
- Learning a whole lot from other youth pastors
- Learning a whole lot from our volunteer leaders
- Notes from students left on my office whiteboard
- Being really excited for a large group gathering
- Great weather for outdoor games
- Homecoming football games
- Going to a theological library to study for a talk or a sermon
- Sending "Thanks for joining us!" cards to students
- In/on my office cabinet and bookshelf, there are: a bullhorn, small group curriculum kits, a case of Bibles, water balloons, washable markers, powdered lemonade mix, caution tape, free t-shirts that none of the other ministries in our church want anymore, hot chocolate mix, a "Jesus was homeless" pin, and a craft my daughter made me in Sunday school for Father's Day. Plus, of course, books
- Joint youth events with other churches
- Dreaming with other youth pastors
- When we have a lot of new students visiting on a Sunday morning
- Parents who are happy to volunteer on a retreat
- Having to get out more chairs because so many youth come to a large group gathering
- Those great "low-show" youth group nights where I have conversations with students that would never have happened if the usual number of students had showed up
- When a student brings me one of my favorite candy bars
- When students are early on a Sunday morning and are happy to help set up
- Showing part of the video of another pastor's sermon because that particular pastor spoke on a subject in a way that I knew our students would respond to, and having the students love it
- When a student signs up for a retreat just because I asked
- When a leader tells a joke and coffee ends up being spewed out of a student's nose
- Hearing about youth who had tough high school years but are now making great choices in life
- Working for a church that encourages pastors to take a real Sabbath day
- Seeing students at the mall while I'm having a "Daddy Date" with one of my daughters
- The insane amount of creativity students have
- Seeing students at church that I haven't seen for a while, and having them come to a retreat
- Enthusiastic new leaders
- An email to my boss about an idea for a youth event that begins, "Before you say 'no'..."
- Driving students around town to shoot a video for an upcoming retreat
- Being introduced to new music by students
- Having my daughters' artwork displayed in my office
- Losing miserably at Rock Band to a student
- Leaders in our church that visit our high school large group gathering to encourage students to get involved in a particular ministry in our church
- A thank-you email from a woman whom we helped during a service project
- Foreign exchange students
- Giving out free coffee coupons to our coffee shop
- Weekly all-staff devotional time
- Food after the staff devotional time
- Staff meetings (believe it or not, I actually enjoy our staff meetings--we have a great team!)
- Good news concerning the details for an event we're planning
- When the details for an event don't work out, but "Plan B" turns out far better
- The instant connection when I meet another youth worker, because youth workers the only ones who can really understand other youth workers
- Working the fact that I attended math camp as a kid into as many talks as humanly possible
- When my family joins me at the church for lunch during the week, and my oldest daughter knows which offices to visit for fun toys and candy
- When we change our small group setup and some guys are disappointed that I won't be their leader anymore...only to realize they'll miss my wife's baked goods, not me being their leader
- Being made fun of by students for wearing sweaters
- Great financial folks who keep our church running smoothly
- Great financial folks who recognize that I really don't need a MacBook--no matter how much I ask--because a cheaper PC really is quite fine for the computer stuff I need to do
- When students are excited to read the Bible on their own
- A great administrative staff that makes everything we do look amazing
- When a students invite their friends to be a part of her small group
- A well-stocked candy bowl in the office
- A gracious administrative assistant who doesn't kill me when I break the well-stocked candy bowl
- Keeping in touch with former students who live halfway around the world
- Our obnoxious green-colored youth ministry bus that we paid next-to-nothing for
- Great volunteers who put in hours of work to make a cheap, old school bus road worthy
- Great volunteers who put in hours of work to install green lights underneath the bus and add other touches to make it "ours"
- Great volunteers who get their CDL for the purpose of driving the youth ministry bus
- Teenagers' laughter
- Teenagers' tears, when they know they can rely on God
- When leaders continue to be genuinely thankful that I bring bagels and coffee to Sunday morning meetings
- Great organizations that really do exist to serve youth pastors and youth ministries, and not to simply make a buck
- Snowball fights
- Accompanying youth to interview people at the mall about Jesus
- Students who are so thankful when you buy them coffee
- When the students from military families call me "sir." It takes a little while to get used to, but it's a nice change once I admit that yes, I am definitely getting older
- Good coffee in the coffee brewer first thing in the morning
- When a guest speaker sees the stack of free coffee coupons we give away to guests, and hands them out to every student in the room
- Students who have moved away but come back every now and again for retreats
- The little hand-drawn maps that small camps/retreat centers have--that were drawn decades ago, but they still use
- When students learn to use their critical thinking skills
- Hanging out with students to make a video, but not having enough time to make all of the video because they wanted to talk theology
- Introducing students to C.S. Lewis
- When I go to a family's house for dinner, and a teenager has made a great dinner and is really proud of it
- Doing youth ministry as a volunteer and paid staff member for ten years, and praying like crazy that I get to do this for the rest of my life
2 comments:
As a youth worker myself I know that many of these things on your list are some of the reason why I love - and hate - youth work.
I hope your list continues to grow.
Danny
www.proyouthworker.com
Thanks, Danny! Thankfully, the list has actually grown a bit since last week.
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