Weekend Reflections on Youth

It’s Tuesday morning and I’m just getting around to posting about the weekend.

  • We took the youth to the PlanetWisdom Student Conference in Charlotte. It’s the 8th or 9th time I’ve been to the conference. Actually when I first started attending it was the Dawson MacAllister conference with Shepherd Mininistries. I’ve been to both Acquire the Fire and Dare2Share, but I like PlanetWisdom the best. I like it because they focus on teaching from the Bible and making it fun and applicable, and they don’t try to hype things up to get an emotional response. They also really respect and involve the youth pastors.
  • I absolutely love the Skit Guys. They have a great way of taking something hilarious and then turning the conversation to God. It makes me think how much more effective we could be by using humor and drama in church.
  • Addison Road was a great band to lead worship. Our teens really liked them. As a guy, it’s tough to sing with a female worship leader. I either sounded like a bullfrog or a guy from the 50’s singing falsetto. I still liked the music, and everyone around me probably enjoyed it more since they didn’t have to listen to me. I do miss MercyMe a little. They led worship at these conferences for 5 or 6 years until they hit it big.
  • We only took students 7th grade and up. I think there were too many students 5th grade and under there. It was a little distracting because they don’t have the ability to calm down during the serious times of the weekend. They are still learning how to control their emotions and how to act appropriately in large group settings.
  • We have 9 adults go on the trip, so it was nice that I could slip away and work on my sermon for the weekend.
  • I love the illustration from the book of Jeremiah of how God shapes us like a potter. Mark Matlock taught on this same passage about 7 or 8 years ago. I blogged about it last year. It’s a powerful illustration that the youth really understood.
  • I’m learning that a lack of sleep really bothers me now. I’m getting too old to function on a few hours of sleep. I really need to line someone else up to preach when I’ve been with the youth all weekend. I was mentally and physically drained Sunday. I hope I was halfway coherent because I really was exhausted from the weekend. I came home from church and just slept.
  • We rented a 15 passenger van for the weekend. They are great for transporting kids, but they are dangerous. And that makes me nervous. I wish you could rent a larger mini-bus because they are so much safer to drive. It would be even better if churches shared their buses with other churches. Now that’s a unique thought, churches actually sharing and working together.
  • Now the real work begins. Following up with the youth to continue to challenge them and encourage them to stick with commitments they have made.

Overall a great weekend. We have an incredible group of teenagers and I can’t wait to see how God uses each and every one of them.

Mike

I am a former design engineer who now pastors Cornerstone Community Church in Galax, Virginia. I'm passionate about following Jesus and I love technology. I've been married to Jennifer for 28 years, and we have three adult children.

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