What is important in your life? I’ll never forget being eleven. It was the year that changed my life. Our church had just got a new building and I had entered sixth grade. After church, one of the “cool” young adult girls came up to me and asked me to come to the new youth group they were starting, so I went. That youth group changed my life. Through those relationships I met other people who I am still friends with today.
A couple months later, Brandon Verderber invited me to his youth group. It is that friendship that would later lead me to become a true follower of Jesus and a youth pastor today. At the time, I was going to a youth group on Wednesday and on Thursday. Sure, there was a lot of drama. Sure, I stuck around because of the girls in the youth group. But there were also times when I skipped playing some sports games because I felt going to youth group was more important; and it was.
As I went through High School, my youth group days were numbered. My church had just split up and there were only a few of us in the new youth group. At the time, the other youth group wasn’t the place for me. I played a lot of sports and I worked. And since my parents didn’t make me go to youth group, my spiritual life was a mess. I was angry with the people who split my church (you should see some of my poems), my “friends” were leading me down a disastrous path, I started doing poorly in school, and I developed ungodly habits that still haunt me. It wasn’t until I had a party at my house and got wasted that I realized God had never abandoned me, even though I hated Him.
The events following the party were nothing short of God’s provision on my life. God used a man to prophesy over me to get me back on track. Because of that, I started going back to youth group and became hungry for the Holy Spirit and all that He had for me. We had prayer meetings at least twice a week before school. We had prayer meetings on Saturday nights. God was doing something special and it was through youth ministry that God brought certain people in my life that would never leave and would eventually save me.
Why am I a youth pastor right now? Because even though my youth groups were great, I never had a youth pastor who took time to take me to lunch or talk with me outside of youth group. I never had a solid person in my life who I could go to about my spiritual life. And when I was bullied, or when I was going through problems with girls, the only people I talked to were other friends who were only feeding into the hurt and drama and didn’t help me overcome my problems. I’m a youth pastor because I want to help students, not just be Christ-followers, but live an empowered life through the Holy Spirit to overcome those tough issues they are facing and live a life of freedom.
To me, youth ministry is the crucial ministry that will determine whether a student goes to college and follows Jesus or loses their faith. To me, youth ministry is the key to overcoming life problems while their young so they can go to college and post-college and help others overcome their issues. To me, youth ministry is the difference between living a life of freedom in school, and living in bondage and fear. So I guess in reality youth ministry isn’t important…if you don’t care about your spiritual walk with Jesus, building quality relationships with godly friends, or having healthy spiritual accountability.
What’s important to you?
