Youth Pastor's Life

I may be their youth pastor but these students challenge me to become the best version of myself. This past week, we finished with a challenge of stepping out in faith and building a boat by using God's recipe. Sounds strange or complicated?!?! Let me explain! The week before school kicked off (I have said it each year) I told the students "this is your mission field for the next 36 weeks". So I challenged them to pray for 1 classmate each week. Not to hard to do, right? For most of the students, this is very much outside of their comfort zones and a step of faith to pray for those who may have hurt them in the past. Just like Noah who had to step out in faith to build a boat that seemed to be the most absurd thing to do and the one thing Noah had to rely on was the instructions that God had given him. God asks us to step out of our comfort zones to do what seems crazy to those around us but He will always help us navigate those times. God gave us a recipe book - th...

WOW!! This summer has been an amazing/wild ride. It feels as if graduations just happened last week and I was looking towards summer camps and fair time was still months away. Now - its all done and over with and school is starting up. Yup - you read that correctly - school is starting again. I go back to "WOW - where did the summer go"! While the summer has been an amazing ride - I have learned many valuable lessons through the summer on 2018. Now that I am on the other side of most of the lessons from the summer - I would not trade them for anything. As painful and uncomfortable as those lessons have been and are I have learned many valuable things. I'll let you in on a few. Summer Camps. This year I was blessed to be able to attend both High School and Middle School summer camps. Each one brought something different to the table and at the same time both had the same core. Giving students the pause in life to connect with God and with those around them. Not having...