It's Worth It!!!

Recently I was doing some research on the relationships between youth and their youth leaders/pastors. After exploring the relationship I had with my previous youth pastors I decided to send out a little questionnaire to some current and former students. The responses I got back gave me a wider perspective on the impact I have and am having. Here are a few interesting observations

·         My oldest students were the first ones to respond. (from 15 years ago) This could be associated with their maturity or the fact that they are removed from the ministry and feel more comfortable sharing than those currently attending

·         Students were deeply impact by the examples of the adults. Both negatively and positively, students identified specific examples and experiences adults (non-youth workers) had on their Christian faith and their decision to continue it.

·         They didn’t mind I wasn’t perfect. They were very forgiving and it appears my being consistent proved more important than perfection.

·         Their biggest desire was relationship.

o   From leaders: This is an area I wish I could say was my positive, but it’s not. Even though I understand it’s impossible to spend significant time with every student, it was something they desired more of. Many of these were from students who were attending before I figured out I needed to develop leaders.

o   From peers: There was a consistent mention of how spending time with other students encouraged them to continue their walk with Christ.

 This small survey of current and former students gave me a glimpse into the impact I was having. After 15 years in ministry you can begin to wonder if it’s all worth it. I can tell you that it very much is. We are having an impact in areas we don’t even notice. As one example a student mentioned in an interaction I had with him that I didn’t remember. He said during one service he was being obnoxious and goofing around. He said I looked at him a few times but continued teaching. After the service he said he felt so bad because he was expecting that at any moment I was going to ask him to leave but I never did. He said he went home and prayed and asked God to forgive him and that night left an impression of the grace I had towards him.

In response to some of these questions I have begun to focus more on how I interact with students and I’ve also taken the opportunity to catch up with some former students. Win-win!!!