Having a Strong Youth Ministry Team Matters Having a strong team matters in almost anything…
Sometimes God teaches or reminds us of things in the most unlikely places. I’m convinced we would miss them if they were in our “normal” day in and day out ministries. If you’re like me you can become so used to your routine that many aspects can be carried out with little thought. Yet God so patiently and persistently teaches us in unlikely places.
For me last week, God used my son’s 4 preschool class to remind me of a very important but difficult lesson.
After an awesome snack (seriously, it was awesome), the teacher passed out coloring sheets and crayons for the kids to color. Fun enough…
After meticulously coloring each item (which consisted of an egg, 3 fish, and a “Cat in the Hat” hat), he was given scissors from his teacher to cut out the items he had colored. I sat patiently and encouragingly as he began to once again meticulously cut out each item he had so carefully colored.
Watching him color was fun. Watching him cut out the items…not so much. Don’t get me wrong he did awesome. It is just that he took FOREVER. My repeated plea to help him was quickly denied each time, leaving me to sit by powerless to do anything to speed up this process.
He did a great job (you know…eventually). He was the last kid in his class to finish, but his coloring and cutouts were great.
Somewhere in the middle of the excruciating process of being basically held hostage by a 5-year-old with safety scissors, I felt the reminding conviction of a patient God. Here are three observations from the lesson I learned:
Growth requires patience
My son is 5 years old. I cannot expect him to be more than 5. I am excited to see what the Lord has for him. There will be many times over the coming years that will require patience as he grows both physically and spiritually.
Your students and leaders are no different. It is easy to see the potential in a student and get frustrated and discouraged at the speed of their growth. The truth is real growth requires patience. Are you being patient?
Struggle isn’t bad
I could have easily taken the scissors from my son and cut out the shapes. As he struggled to turn the paper at the easiest angle and worked to follow the lines I wanted so badly to do it for him. I am an expert cutter outer. After all I’ve been cutting things out for over 30 years. The temptation to take the scissors from him and do it for him was greater than imaginable. However, if I had, or if I always did, he would never learn to also be an expert cutter outer. If no one had let me struggle, I would not be the expert cutter outer I am today.
The temptation to do everything because you “know” you can do it better is everywhere in ministry. How often are you taking over what could and should be left to others?
Failure equals learning
As my son moved from one item to the next he had to work through several (seemingly insignificant) obstacles. Where would he put the ones he had already cut out? (Especially since the kid next to us kept taking other’s and cutting them to bits.) How would he deal with the scrap paper? There are always obstacles to overcome and problems to be solved.
When I look at my life and ministry, it doesn’t take long to recognize that the greatest learning and growth happened through moments of (sometime epic) failure. The fact is, we learn a lot by failing. What have you failed in that you neglected to learn from? Are you keeping your students and leaders from failing and therefore keeping them from learning? Are you creating safe places for them to fail and learn?
In the end my son did great…although not as good as I could have. He was super proud of what he had done, and I was super proud of what he had done (and relieved it was over). And while it wasn’t perfect, it was great. Many times we find ourselves striving for perfection at the expense of great. We want it to be perfect so we do not allow others to grow, struggle, or fail. We take on more than we should. We forget that our job is to “equip” the saints for the work, and not “do” for the saints the work.
