Sometimes being a youth minister is awesome, but sometimes it's really lonely. Sometimes, I really get tired of being the strong one. Sometimes, I really just want to depend on someone else to get things done. And it's at those "sometimes" that I try to remember that God is the one that I need to depend on.
Sometimes, it's so hard to depend on God when I cannot see him or touch him. I really wish that he would come down and talk to me like he did to people in the Old Testament. It would be so much easier. But when I have these "sometimes", I have to remember how He has touched my life and blessed me far beyond what I deserve.
When I get these "sometimes" I can feel God's comforting hand on me, whether it's through my personal study time with him or whether it's through somebody at His church. God, I thank you for you peace and love and hope that you give me. May I never lose it.
The other thing that's hard about ministry is the lack of real friends. You have all these people that put on their church faces around you because you are a "minister". I want so badly for people to know that I am just a regular person like them who messes up just as much and sometimes worse. I want them to know that I am made holy and righteous not by my own life but by Christ and his life and death, the same way they are made holy and righteous. And I want them to know that I do not judge them for their shortcomings. I love and care for them, not because it's my job but because they are God's creation and he sent His Son to die for them.
Father God, I ask for real friends in my ministry.
Josh
Monday, March 28, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Another Answer to Prayer
The youth group I have been working in is mostly made of junior high kids and freshmen in highschool. The reason being I am new in town and when I got here there were only about three people 10th grade or older in the youth group and highschoolers just don't seem to be interested in new things. They are pretty much set in their ways and do not want to try new things. Well, as you can probably imagine our singing has been quite off since I have been here for several reasons. One, they just don't know any of the songs. And two, the junior high girls' voices have just not matured enough to sing out and sing loud. So anyways, I prayed to God to improve our singing though I'll admit I did it with somewhat of a doubting spirit. Well, last night my prayer was answered. There is a girl, an 11th grader, who goes to the other church of Christ in town where they have even less in their youth group than us and they don't have a youth minister. Well, she decided to start coming with one of her friends last Sunday. And now she tells me that she has decided to come to our church permanently. Now to the best part of the story. Last night in youth group we sang a couple of songs and I almost started crying. This girl has got an awesome set of lungs on her! She was belting it out! And with her singing, the other girls were encouraged to sing out and the girls were almost outsinging the boys! It was so awesome! These type of things seem so small. But the main lesson I have learned is the fact that God works when you ask him and give him the chance. I can hardly wait to see what he does when I ask for something big.
Josh
Josh
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Bye to my friends who went to Japan
A couple of weeks ago I went to a goodbye party for a few of my friends who are going to Japan to teach English. They'll be over there for two years and boy am I going to miss them. Gavin and Lindsay (Not sure if that's how you spell it sorry if that's wrong) and Travis. We all had a great time at the goodbye party and Travis even showed us some Aboriginal Jujitsu which he created from the various defenses of Australian animals. Although I did get somewhat sick from Chris and Lindsay's cat (we had the party at their house). Anyways, I'll really miss you my friends. I hope that everything goes well in Japan and God bless you.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
God is Working
God is working so much in this youth group. I am constantly reminded of my shortcomings and weaknesses. I see what I have done wrong, and I know that no matter how hard I try, my feeble human attempts at doing ministry will not succeed on their own. But God works. And when he works, get ready because things start to happen. For example, one of the teen girls in my youth group who really had a huge problem with lying, stealing, being angry, being rude to others, and probably more stuff has just recently turned into one of the most stable and at times, most caring member of our youth group. One other girl came in crying one night and this previous girl went and sat with her and missed out on a fun class activity. Wow! God is working!
On Wednesday nights we have all of our young men lead our worship service. Last night they led it and wow! THey did awesome! There were two guys that did something they had never done before. God is working. I love HIM!
Josh
On Wednesday nights we have all of our young men lead our worship service. Last night they led it and wow! THey did awesome! There were two guys that did something they had never done before. God is working. I love HIM!
Josh
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Last weekend
Last weekend I went to my parents house. It was a lot of fun. We played some hand and foot (great card game), the guys dominated of course and I got to see my cousin and most of her family. My parents live in Sparta, Missouri which is just south of Springfield and just North of Branson. We went to a show in Branson which included dinner and music. The dinner was awesome, the music was OK. It was probably geared more towards an older crowd but it was still enjoyable. While I was there though, I got woke up on Friday morning at 6:40 with a call about one of my kids in the youth group. It was one of my girl's grandmother. The grandmother felt really bad because she had hit her granddaughter and now the granddaughter was threatening to run away. Well, I called the other minister at my church and told him about it and he went and picked the girl up from school and talked to her which helped to calm the situation down. But it was just an all around stinky situation.
God really amazes me sometimes. I was just thinking about these situations that are going on right now. One is the fact that one of our younger kids in the church was going to come on our ski trip and I was going to be responsible for him. His dad was going to go, but then made some bad decisions that made some other parents uncomfortable with him going. Well, we were going to take his little boy anyways and not make the boy suffer for what the dad did. I was really worried about it because this boy is not easy to handle. In fact he is very hard to handle. Well, God just answered my unprayed (is that a word) thought. The dad called me yesterday and told me that the boy didn't want to go. This may seem very insignificant, but it was causing me a small amount of stress. Because when you are planning a ski trip, there are many other things you need to be doing other than watching out for a small child. God takes care of us and watches out for us, even in the small things.
Josh
God really amazes me sometimes. I was just thinking about these situations that are going on right now. One is the fact that one of our younger kids in the church was going to come on our ski trip and I was going to be responsible for him. His dad was going to go, but then made some bad decisions that made some other parents uncomfortable with him going. Well, we were going to take his little boy anyways and not make the boy suffer for what the dad did. I was really worried about it because this boy is not easy to handle. In fact he is very hard to handle. Well, God just answered my unprayed (is that a word) thought. The dad called me yesterday and told me that the boy didn't want to go. This may seem very insignificant, but it was causing me a small amount of stress. Because when you are planning a ski trip, there are many other things you need to be doing other than watching out for a small child. God takes care of us and watches out for us, even in the small things.
Josh
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Well, Valentine's day was pretty awesome. My wife and I had a good time celebrating our first one as a married couple. One thing that I do for her is I write her a continuous story. There have been many past stories but they are all about a beautiful red-haired princess (Jen) and a handsome prince (me). I know most of you are like, that is so cheesy, but hey, cheesiness gets the girls! Here is the latest addition to the story. This particular story parallels our wedding.
Wedding Plans
The beautiful red-haired princess of Sholom was so happy and excited. The handsome prince of Alpine had finally asked her to marry him. She had been waiting for oh so long while he fought his battles to earn the money and the credentials to be worthy enough for her hand. He had slain many dragons and led many campaigns during the three years of their courtship which earned the respect and the blessing of the king of Sholom.
The prince and princess made many plans for the wedding. They had to choose a courier to go far and wide among all the kingdoms and announce their upcoming wedding ceremony. They chose a courier dressed in the color periwinkle and adorned with flowers in order to grab people’s attention. The princess also had to choose a dress. She went to many different seamstresses and finally decided on one with a strange name, David’s Bridal. The princess was never quite sure what to call her, David or Bridal but either seemed to work. The Seamstress was quite happy with the red-haired princess because she was perfectly formed and the dress needed no modification.
The prince then had to choose a special suit of armor for himself and his supporting knights. For himself, the prince chose shining silver. For his knights, the princess helped him decide to do periwinkle to match the princess’s ladies in waiting.
The last decision they made was about the music during the ceremony. There were many traveling minstrel’s available, but not just any would do. The prince and princess listened to many and found only one that would suffice. His name was CD Player. He was the perfect man for the job. He played every note perfectly, and he never changed a bit.
As the wedding drew closer, the beautiful princess and handsome prince grew anxious. The prince was fighting the last of his battles against “The Finals” before he and the princess could be wed. The princess on the other hand was counting down the days and putting the finishing touches on the wedding plans.
Finally, the day arrived. The prince and princess had a beautiful story-book wedding. The princess was so very beautiful in her gown and the prince looked very handsome in his shining armor. The two stood before the good friar, Kent Hartman, and made their vows before God and before men. Afterwards, there was a huge feast with all of the commoners and nobles alike. There was no discrimination. After the feast, the prince and princess embarked on their journey to the far-away land of Gatlinburg. They rode into the sunset on the princess’s faithful steed, Mazda Protégé. Now some may wonder why they did not take the prince’s steed and the answer is, they both had to take turns at the reigns and the princess could not handle the reigns of the prince’s great warhorse, Standard Transmission.
To be continued…
I hope you enjoyed it!
Wedding Plans
The beautiful red-haired princess of Sholom was so happy and excited. The handsome prince of Alpine had finally asked her to marry him. She had been waiting for oh so long while he fought his battles to earn the money and the credentials to be worthy enough for her hand. He had slain many dragons and led many campaigns during the three years of their courtship which earned the respect and the blessing of the king of Sholom.
The prince and princess made many plans for the wedding. They had to choose a courier to go far and wide among all the kingdoms and announce their upcoming wedding ceremony. They chose a courier dressed in the color periwinkle and adorned with flowers in order to grab people’s attention. The princess also had to choose a dress. She went to many different seamstresses and finally decided on one with a strange name, David’s Bridal. The princess was never quite sure what to call her, David or Bridal but either seemed to work. The Seamstress was quite happy with the red-haired princess because she was perfectly formed and the dress needed no modification.
The prince then had to choose a special suit of armor for himself and his supporting knights. For himself, the prince chose shining silver. For his knights, the princess helped him decide to do periwinkle to match the princess’s ladies in waiting.
The last decision they made was about the music during the ceremony. There were many traveling minstrel’s available, but not just any would do. The prince and princess listened to many and found only one that would suffice. His name was CD Player. He was the perfect man for the job. He played every note perfectly, and he never changed a bit.
As the wedding drew closer, the beautiful princess and handsome prince grew anxious. The prince was fighting the last of his battles against “The Finals” before he and the princess could be wed. The princess on the other hand was counting down the days and putting the finishing touches on the wedding plans.
Finally, the day arrived. The prince and princess had a beautiful story-book wedding. The princess was so very beautiful in her gown and the prince looked very handsome in his shining armor. The two stood before the good friar, Kent Hartman, and made their vows before God and before men. Afterwards, there was a huge feast with all of the commoners and nobles alike. There was no discrimination. After the feast, the prince and princess embarked on their journey to the far-away land of Gatlinburg. They rode into the sunset on the princess’s faithful steed, Mazda Protégé. Now some may wonder why they did not take the prince’s steed and the answer is, they both had to take turns at the reigns and the princess could not handle the reigns of the prince’s great warhorse, Standard Transmission.
To be continued…
I hope you enjoyed it!
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Lots of stuff
Lot's of stuff has gone on between my last post. I have really been trying to figure out a way to become known in the community. My theory was to go to sporting events and get to know people there. So I went to quite a few sporting events. The mistake I made was to do what I wanted to do and that is just sit there and watch the game with some people from my church. It's good to get to know people from church but if I am sitting and watching the game, I am not meeting new teens to try to bring them into the youth group.
This last Thursday, I did something a little different. I went to the basketball game, but not with anyone (not even my wife). I went and picked up a couple of kids from the youth group and we sat there and watched the game. Although, I didn't do much watching. I was talking to the kids, and whenever I saw a kid from my youth group I went and talked to them and tried to meet their friends. This is not as easy as it sounds. When I did this, I realized that I was not in control nor responsible for how these kids acted. Sometimes this is hard for us minister types to not be in control. So I really had to get out of my comfort zone and just hang out instead of control. By the end of the evening, I was wiped out yet satisfied. I got to know a few kids and hopefully that will have an effect on my ministry.
God also provided me with another opportunity to get to know kids from the community yesterday (Friday). The high school/Junior High called me yesterday and asked me to substitute. It was great. I got to see most of the kids that I had just met the night before and strengthen the relationship. If you are the praying type, I hope that you will be praying for this ministry and what God is doing here. God is working.
Josh
This last Thursday, I did something a little different. I went to the basketball game, but not with anyone (not even my wife). I went and picked up a couple of kids from the youth group and we sat there and watched the game. Although, I didn't do much watching. I was talking to the kids, and whenever I saw a kid from my youth group I went and talked to them and tried to meet their friends. This is not as easy as it sounds. When I did this, I realized that I was not in control nor responsible for how these kids acted. Sometimes this is hard for us minister types to not be in control. So I really had to get out of my comfort zone and just hang out instead of control. By the end of the evening, I was wiped out yet satisfied. I got to know a few kids and hopefully that will have an effect on my ministry.
God also provided me with another opportunity to get to know kids from the community yesterday (Friday). The high school/Junior High called me yesterday and asked me to substitute. It was great. I got to see most of the kids that I had just met the night before and strengthen the relationship. If you are the praying type, I hope that you will be praying for this ministry and what God is doing here. God is working.
Josh
Thursday, February 10, 2005
My first post
This is my first post in this thing. I've never done this before so you'll just have to bear with me. I am creating this because I am a youth minister and I experience many things every week that are worth writing about and reading about. This is called Josh's Juice because that is just the first wacky thing that popped into my head. I hope that you people out there who read this will enjoy it. If not, I guess I'll just enjoy reading it myself.
Josh
Josh
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