Brent’s Youth Ministry Blog
Let’s start this article this month rewinding about an hour from right now (when I’m currently writing this): It’s February 24, A Thursday morning at 9 A.M. and I’m sitting here at the church offices pondering what I want to write on this page. I’m struggling with what to put on the currently blank screen. Usually I don’t have a hard time putting some thoughts down and going from there, but not this week. I’ve been struggling since Tuesday trying to think of the perfect thing to write for this month’s Update. Then it hits me. Perfection, what is it? Do I know perfection? What about when it comes to our spiritual lives. I feel those are two words that are used together much more then they ever should be. Is there such a thing as perfect spirituality? Or how about Spiritual Perfection? Society as a whole seems to want to strive for spiritual perfection but then how do you obtain it? Many people view being spiritual as finding what their purpose is in life and that can be proven by the number of sales of Rick Warrens book “The Purpose Driven Life.” People seem to be looking for a purpose in life to direct them in how to be spiritual people of God and leading to how lead the perfect life. But the perfect life really is impossible in human life. You can try as hard as you want to be perfect and to have everything in a row but it is not something that can happen.
Youth Ministry is a prime example of this idea. When I first started being the “head youth dude” in ministry 6 years ago (seems like just yesterday) I had visions in my head about what the perfect youth ministry would be like. All of the kids I worked with would soon have their lives in perfect order, meetings would always go exactly as planned, the “right” questions would always get asked, every student would make Profession of Faith etc… But I discovered something very quickly. The very fact that I had an idea of a “perfect ministry” was in fact imperfect. Meetings don’t always go as planned. What seemed like a great idea in my head and on paper doesn’t always translate to a great idea in a group. We aren’t going to have 100 kids show up next week that weren’t here last week (though we are still trying J )
I think Mike Yaconelli sums it up best, he said “It's not about perfection; it's about our intimacy with God, or our connection, our relationship with God. Once we get through that, once we realize that we can be imperfect, flawed, broken; those kinds of things are the ingredients of spirituality.” The purpose of Youth Group over the last 3 years and hopefully for the next many years to come is not about being the “prefect Christian teen” whether just in church or in daily life. It isn’t about change; it is about growth, it is about growing closer with God. It is about realizing that you can be who you are when you come to God. You don’t have to make everything perfect before you come to him. He wants you to come to him as you are. So are you? Or are you waiting for Sundays when you get all dressed up? But being intimate with God also means being open with others. When someone asks you how you are doing, what do you say? Are you someone that just says fine to everyone and keeps walking or are you honest with them and tell them what is really going on. We are all made in God’s image and being open with one another I believe is also being intimate with God. He desires relationship between him and you but also with you and the rest of his creation. That is what we were created to be.
So how about it, are you trying to make your life look perfect? Are you looking for that purpose in your life to make your life perfect? Do you want to try and lead the perfect life? Then don’t be afraid to show your imperfection. Express your openness, your brokenness with God and others, be honest with each other. Being open and honest on how you are is what we all should be. We all want to help each other but it is up to you to allow yourself to be helped. Not only help from others, but to look up and seek help from God, our perfect creator. That, my friends, will lead us to perfection.
