Frustrations....

Quite honestly I try to avoid talking to a lot of other people involved in youth ministry because it usually leaves me being frustrated and this happens...a post about my frustrations! I was recently reviewing a popular website among Pastor's wives and one of the most popular posts was about the game show Wipeout. Now, for the record, this is a pretty hilarious game show. We actually DVR it so that we can watch it with friends and make fun of the ridiculous things people will compete in for money. Having a post about the game show is not the frustrating thing frustrations comes in when the wives go on and on about how their youth pastor husbands spend time, energy and money figuring out how to recreate this obstacle course for their youth services. I am all about having fun and enjoy creating fun environments for youth the problem I have is that when we as youth leaders only have about an hour and half with these young students why are we wasting it playing silly games? Project Four Twelve is very, very unique in that we do not play games during our youth group services and I am astonished at how many groups will spend 45+ minutes playing games each week. Wednesday night for Jr. High and Thursday night for High School are our most crucial nights of the week and I can't imagine wasting that time playing silly games rather than worshiping and teaching students about the most important thing they will ever hear about. They don't need to compete in a fun competition what they need is to hear about the saving grace of Jesus Christ...they already know how to have fun...they need a Savior...they need to know how to live for Him, how to teach others about Him...not who can drink a disgusting blended drink of sardines and whatever else was on sale at the store. We have been entrusted with an amazing responsibility of teaching young people about Christ and I don't want to waste the time that we have to do that.