You say “yes” to a lot.
As summer has been moving along I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a number of volunteers, youth pastors, and leaders to discuss and brainstorm how to do ministry effectively. I always walk away from these conversations grateful for the time and energy that people put into loving students well. Because honestly, students can be tough to love. Not because they’re bad people or sinners, but because they’re regularly more honest with where they’re at and what they need. They’re more open and honest because they haven’t learned the art of hiding their feelings or closing themselves off like many adults have. For most students they learn what it means to be betrayed, left behind, or hurt in middle school or high school and they cope with that by raising up walls. Maybe you can relate to this experience. By the time I reached high school graduation and the world of college I knew to hold back a lot of what was most vulnerable so I was less likely to be hurt.
As student ministry leaders and volunteers swim in this world of raw emotion and urgent crisis, it has the potential to become part of their everyday lives. I can remember numerous times where I lay awake restlessly trying to find a solution to a problem a student was having or worrying about what school would look like for them tomorrow, and I’m certainly not alone in these experiences. Too often I hear jokes about how youth ministry is just “dodgeball and fun”(which it is) without appreciating what it looks like to be a part of someones life in their best, and worst, possible moments. I’ve had youth ministry friends take pictures for prom, chaperone dances, coach baseball teams, take spontaneous road trips across the country, and meet up at coney island at 3AM for a chili dog and conversation. But I’ve also had youth ministry friends bail a student out of jail because no one else would, or sit in a bedroom with a girl who was trying to remember what happened the night before. Broken relationships, drug problems, school suspensions, parents divorcing, abuse, sports injuries, the list goes on and on.
The crazy thing about all of this is that these people choose to step into the mess that is student’s lives voluntarily. The volunteers we have at our church are not paid to be a shoulder to cry on. They’re not compensated for the hours of sleep they lack because someone needed to talk till 1AM. They’re not banging on my door asking to be reimbursed for the coffee they purchased and brought to a student during finals(although they could). They simply felt the call to say “yes” to students – and did.
There is so much that comes with saying “yes” to a student. And honestly, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
What do you say “yes” to?
-Matt
Hope Student Ministry 