First Year Ministry Reflections

Well here I am coming up on my first complete year in the Student Ministry. I have learned so much this year and I am finding out that I have so much yet to learn. As most of you know I spent 14 years in the infantry learning how to adapt and overcome just about anything. Let me tell you what that time did not prepare me for, teenagers.

Youth Ministry Perception versus Reality

Luckily enough for me this last year has been pretty easy. I mean I would love to say that this is so because I am just that good at what God has called me to. The truth is that God has been with me and in control every step of the way. Look at the situation I found myself in, I was introduced to our youth in such a way to where no one really knew who was in charge. We were a group of people who love God and have a passion for the youth. We were asked to step in on a temporary basis until a better solution could present itself. Through this process we fell under the protection of our senior pastor. I mean I understand that subordinates always have someone above them that protect them and correct them. But for this instance, we literally had the opportunities to make the mistakes that some might not be afforded had we been thrown into the mix without a safety net.

Here we are almost a year later and I find myself wanting to step out from behind that same net that has kept me so safe. See there is a time of learning, a time of practical application, and a time to start experiencing truth so to speak. I love my senior pastor to death, I mean he has stepped in and taken the blow for so many things that have happened that he could have easily just deflected to me or someone else who it deserved to be directed at.

Now here I find myself asking to take on this responsibility and own it. I mean that is the key thing when it comes to accepting a responsibility. You have to be willing to own that responsibility. I know that I will never be able to completely absolve my pastor from accountability for my actions, because as a leader that is what he has to do. What I can do is step up and accept responsibility for what I have been called to do to where publicly people understand that I too can be approached if there is an issue.

What I find to be extremely funny and ironic is that my pastor keeps telling me to run away from this. I understand why he does this, believe me I do. But he also says this because he knows the truth, if you are truly called to do His will, no matter how fast you run or how far you go, you will not be able to run away from your calling.

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Its Not Easy

I have decided to once again take up blogging about my walk with the Lord and share with you all anything that I might be able to in order to better equip you and prepare you for your journey with our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have had the wonderful privilege of being blessed with a supportive and loving Church family. I have been entrusted with the honor of guiding the student youth spiritually in their walks with Christ, and let me tell you how much of an easy job this is.

I mean to start off with, I find it kind of ironic and humorous that my God who I have vowed to faithfully serve, would call me to minister to high school students. I mean, I did spend 14 years in the military, served 2 combat tours, and have dealt with some really stressful situations in my life, but nothing could have prepared me for the in’s and outs of youth ministry.

Like I had mentioned before, it’s a pretty easy gig. I mean all I really have to do is sit there and laugh at their jokes, let them do what they want to do all the time, buy them some food and drinks, play music, let them play games, and that is it right. I know that there are some people out there that might actually believe that last sentence. I mean at one point and time even I thought that this was truth, but almost a year later working with my youth, I can definitely tell you how not true that perception is.

I have realized that I have a group of wonderful young Christians who are just trying to figure out where they belong in this world. On top of that they have made a decision to follow Christ and live for Him. I just shudder to think what that must be like. Look at it, as adults we struggle daily with fleshly desires and trying to walk in Christ, do we ever stop to take a look at what our youth might be going through.

If you talk to youth nowadays anywhere from the 5^th grade up you will realize that they are dealing with things we never as adults thought they would be dealing with. Sex, drugs, profanity, pornography, violence, peer-pressure, homosexuality, and so much more. Are we as adults stepping into their lives and addressing these issues with our students before they decide to address them on their own.

Don’t get me wrong, it will not be something easy to address and fix. Your student will most likely be upset with you for talking about something that makes them uncomfortable, or they might even become a little rebellious. The fact is that we cannot afford to not address these things with our students and children. If we avoid the tough subjects because we don’t want to hurt their feelings or alienate them from us, we will lose them and never be able to reel them back in.

So what I am saying as a youth pastor/director is that even though there are subjects on a daily basis that I might not necessarily want to address, I have to address for the safety of the students that God has entrusted to me. I will continue to tackle the hard issues with love and kindness and show them that everything that is done for them come from God and His love for them.

            “Let the little children come to Me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”(Mark 10:14)

Our children are our future and as such should be thought of no less important than anyone else. Pay attention and show them that you love them, as I have learned recently it is not enough to sometimes think that they know how you feel, but sometimes you have to actually tell them how much you love and appreciate them.

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Leadership

Leadership

Webster’s dictionary defines a leader as a person who has commanding authority or influence. The biblical form of this leader is the under shepherd or pastor. Webster’s defines pastor as a spiritual overseer; specifically a clergyman serving a local church or parish. What exactly do we know about pastors and leaders?

I served two tours in Iraq serving with the US Army in the infantry. Throughout most of my life I have not had the privilege of having a spiritual leader, but for fourteen years of my life I did have some form of a leader. See in my adult life I have never been in the situation where I did not have access to someone who was in a direct leadership position in my life. I guess that is why I have such strong feelings on obedience and loyalty. See even though I thought most of the things that people who were in my chain of command implemented was ridiculous or maybe didn’t make much sense, for the most part I did was I was told to do. The first reason for this was because of the possible consequences for my actions. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that if I stepped out of line I was going to go through something extremely unpleasant. Whether that was being physically exercised until I passed out, lost rank, got confined, or had to clean toilets, the fact was that if I didn’t do what I was told to do when I was told to do it, I was going to pay. It never fails though in the military, that someone will do something that they absolutely know is wrong, get caught and punished, then blame everyone but themselves. I was never able to understand this, and as a civilian today I find myself still trying to understand it.

What I did come to realize throughout my time in the military as I started moving into positions of leadership was this; no one, and I mean no one likes the person who is in charge at any level. All the people being led know is that they are being told to do something that they sometimes do not agree with, and when people do not agree on something but have to do it anyway that builds contention.  I can tell you that every time that I was in a situation that involved heavy contact with the enemy, and I would hear my leadership tell me that I was going to have to go into harm’s way with my soldiers I would always not like that decision. But the amazing thing about it was I was never scared to follow the direction of those appointed over me by higher powers because I knew that they always had my well being at the forefront of their decisions. This is no different for people in their everyday of life. If you have a job, you have someone who leads you. You either do what you are told to do, or you get reprimanded or fired.

What has happened then within the scope of the Church? As a true believer/follower of Christ we have all been called by God to do something that will edify and glorify Him. God calls some to serve others, evangelize, teach, learn, feed, be fed, encourage, love, and shepherd. So what exactly is a Church body to do with all these gifts?

            For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body – so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now GOD has place each one of the parts in one body just as HE wanted. And if they were all the same part where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body. (1 COR 12:12-20)

Now some might ask what has brought this on. I have been taking college classes working towards my degree in theology in order to further my knowledge in the Lord. See something that I have not shared too many people, but something I now know without a shadow of a doubt, is that God has called me into ministry. HE has a plan for me and that is to teach HIS word and honor Him in His ministry. What scares me is that in all these classes I am taking I keep reading these ridiculous statistics about pastoral attrition rates. Here are some of the statistics that I am reading over and over again.

·         Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.

·         Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.

·         Eighty percent of pastors feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastor.

·         Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

·         Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

·         Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

As some of you are reading those statistics you are thinking, no way absolutely not, I would not go into ministry or become a pastor if I knew this beforehand. See that’s the kicker here, if God is calling you to His ministry and placing you into the body as He wants, if you are a true child of God you do not have a choice. What I am having to comes to terms with is that I am going into battle once again, but this time in a different realm.

One thing I think we all take for granted is the amount of strain that is put on a pastor/leader. They have everyone, and I mean everyone coming to them with their issues on a daily or sometimes hourly basis. It is one of their responsibilities to listen and comfort those who are in need, but I ask you this; when was the last time you were to look at your pastor/leader and comfort them. See that is the problem, we have turned into a world where we have no issue dumping our issues on someone and walking away not expecting that to take a toll on the person we are dumping them on, in fact when that same person that we have trusted in everything then makes a decision for the body as the leader of that body, we have a tendency to lash out.

Is this fair to your pastor, the body, or even yourself. I ask you to think about this, God has called your pastor to lead your body, so essentially God is making that decision that you are getting mad over. Will you come out and say that you are mad at God or drag Him through the mud? I don’t think so. But the kicker is this, the judgment will be the same either way, whether you are attacking God or His appointed shepherd. Either way you will have to account for your actions on the day of judgment and personally I wouldn’t want to be trying to answer why I questioned God’s will. So keep this in mind the next time you question your leadership who was appointed over you. Because remember, Gods word says that we are to obey those appointed over us because He was the one to put them into authority in order to carry out His will.

Thank you and God bless

GEDD

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