Why I'm Anti being Anti Make Kony Famous

For the people that are anti “Make Kony Famous”…

I understand that Invisible Children isn’t the perfect organization and that they put a lot of money towards salaries, travel, and productions. And I also understand that they support the Uganda Military which is also corrupt. If it is your desire to boycott them and to get passionate
about putting these things out in the public eye, then that’s fine.

However, be consistent in your passions.

Have you ever supported a friend to go on a short term mission trip? You know the kind where they send you a support letter, they ask for prayer first, and then for financial support second?

Let’s say the trip costs $1,300, and you contribute your $20 and in return they give you a magnet to put on your fridge that lets you know you’re a prayer partner. That’s awesome! I hope you are supporting your friends. But how much of that money do you think goes towards helping the area that person is going to? Most of that money is probably spent on travel, food, and lodging.

Then on top of that, let’s say they help out with a work project. The day’s work could have been done by a local for the same $20 you gave your friend. Then that $20 the local made could have gone towards feeding their family for a few weeks.

So if you’re going to get in a tiff about Invisible Children, then please stop supporting your friends on short term mission trips. Then make sure to post on Facebook and expose the reality of where the money is being spent so others can stop supporting their friends too.

Invisible Children supports the military of Uganda?! Maybe we should ask Joseph Kony real nicely to give himself up and to stop converting kids into killers and sex slaves.

If you’re against supporting something that is corrupt, then I sure hope you didn’t buy girl scout cookies this year. Those vicious little girls, probably unknowingly, are actually contributing to an organization that supports Planned Parenthood…. You know that group that a lot of conservatives are very against because of their support of abortion?

So if Invisible Children’s support of the Ugandan Army gets you riled up, please also boycott Girl Scout Cookies.

Look, I’m not saying Invisible Children is a perfect organization. But please be consistent in brining to light all the other things that are messed up. Here’s a little secret… ever looked into the church budget to see how much of that money goes towards actual ministry? Churches spend most of their budget on… get this… salaries, utilities, and paying down debt. Maybe you should stop tithing too?

Maybe all of these things are in need of reform… and maybe you're just the person to get the ball rolling. But before you go off on people telling them to check the facts, please do the same for all the other areas of your life and the things you support. You might be suprised at all the dirt you dig up.

Invisible Children isn't the perfect organization, they could be better with their budget... but I still think Kony needs to be captured, and I think he has created all kinds of evil in the world. Here's to hoping he is caught, and that he is caught soon!

From what I hear, we've got some ridiculously awesome dudes on the ground after this guy, and it won't be long until this can be done with.

There Goes My Hero

I love the imagination of kids.

To them, anything is possible, especially with super heroes.

In their minds they can imagine a world where someone really does possess the ability to leap over a building in a single bound, out run a speeding train, or dodge a bullet.

However, as kids get older they begin to realize that what once seemed completely possible was actually just a movie driven fantasy.

With age, super heroes begin to fade, but true heroes are brought to light. Instead of aspiring to be like a comic book character, we begin to observe real heroes in their everyday lives, and our focus shifts to being like our parents, being teachers, a firemen, a policemen, a soldiers, and many other things that are tangible and realistic.

In all stages of life there are people that are ahead of us who are in the shoes that we hope to fill. These people become a type of hero to us. They are people we can observe and talk to. They are people we can realistically see ourselves one day being.

A crazy thing to think about is that you are currently in the shoes that someone wants to fill. Whether you realize it or not, you are someone’s hero.

When you realize that people are looking up to you, and even aspiring to be like you, it causes you to be more intentional in the way you live your life.

Sure, you can be like Charles Barkley and say, “I am not a role model.” But you’re just running from the truth. The question isn’t whether you’re a role model or not; it’s whether you’re a good one or a bad one.

King David touches on this towards the end of his life in 2 Samuel 23.

He ends the chapter by listing off thirty-seven mighty men (or heroes). One man killed 800 enemy warriors with his spear in a single battle.

Another man stood up to the Philistine army after all his fellow warriors fled the battle field. He fought until his hand was literally too tired to even lift his own sword, and when his fellow warriors showed back up all they found was a bunch of ruble and dead Philistines.

One time during battle, three of his most elite warriors heard David longing for some water from the well he grew up drinking from. The only problem was that his hometown well was currently behind enemy lines. These three guys loved David so much that they snuck through the hostile lines, risked getting killed, and drew water from the well for David to drink.

Then my favorite of the mighty men was Benaiah. “He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it. Once, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it.” (2 Samuel 23:20-23 NLT)

It is easy to tell that even though these men followed David, they were just as inspirational and influential to him. It’s not just those who are younger than you that look up to you, sometimes your life has an impact on the very people you are striving to be like.

Right before David lists out his mighty men, he gives his last words.

In his last words he’s talking about the influence a man can have on those around him. He can either “Dawn on them like morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth,” or he can be worthless “like thorns that are thrown away…” (2 Samuel 23:1-7)

He uses two metaphors to describe the influence a man can have on those who look up to him. One is life giving, and the other is useless and even harmful.

David understood that the way he lived his life and the way he led the nation of Israel had a direct effect on the spiritual lives of those who followed him.

We all have to ask ourselves, “If someone is looking up to me and aspiring to be like me, how will their spiritual life look?”

Are your actions spiritually life giving, or are they useless and harmful?

As you live your life remember that you are someone's hero!

Project 2-4-2

I wanted to give a quick recap of “insideOUT” last night, and what we’ll be doing on Sunday nights leading up to summer camp at Snowbird… which will be the best summer camp ever!

We started off last night’s “talk” with me acting like a pumped up motivational speaker who was telling you how to grow a youth group. I started off with “Space!” If you want to grow a youth group you need to give the youth their own specific space. Then you need to fill it with fun and exciting things like televisions and game systems. Then I went on to “Communicate!” We’re about Jesus, and we need to effectively communicate that message. The problem is that too many youth ministers talk above their audience’s head… so if you want to grow a youth group, you need to “d.i.d”, or Dumb It Down!

The whole time I talked about this growth model I was trying to stay in character as the motivational speaker guy, but in reality I was being sarcastic. We have those things, and I can give those “d.i.d” type messages… but that will only grow the youth group without us having to depend on God.

From there we looked at Acts 2:42. This is what the first church looked like. They were devoted to 4 things: Knowing the Bible, Fellowship, Remembering the Cross, and Prayer.

After looking at those four things we continued reading that section of Acts and saw that through the early church’s dedication God added to their number day by day those who were being saved (v.37).

Then we finished with a challenge… what if we stripped away all the stuff that didn’t line up with Acts 2:42? What if we spent the time between now and camp being devoted to Knowing the Bible, Fellowship, Reflecting on the Cross, and Prayer? Do you think God might do something crazy? Do you think our numbers would increase, or decrease?

I know this is completely against most “growth models” for youth groups, but I think we should do it!

So here’s your homework – Think through those four things this week, and start brainstorming on what they look like for our youth group. Then next time we meet we’ll talk through this stuff.
Grab a blank piece of paper, write “Project 2-4-2 Brainstorm” at the top, divide the paper into 4 squares, and let each square represent one of the four things we’ll be devoted to. The key word here is “devoted.” We’re not trying to do this stuff as an afterthought… we want to be DEVOTED TO IT.

Only read the rest of this if you need help brainstorming.

Maybe “Knowing the Bible” means that we all study a book of the Bible together, but instead of just coming and listening to Jeff we all read it on our own throughout the week and then come together to discuss it. What did it mean to the original readers 2000 years ago? What does it mean to us? What areas of our lives need to change if really take it seriously? How can we be encouraged by what it says? Etc.

What are some other ideas on what “Knowing the Bible” could look like for our youth group?

Maybe “Fellowship” means that you grab a breakfast taco with a few people before school one day a week and have a “coffee-like” conversation where you share how you’re REALLY doing… the good things in your life AND the tough things in your life. Saying “I’m fine” is not an acceptable answer.

What else could we do for “Fellowship” as a youth group?

Maybe “Reflecting (remembering) the Cross” means that we put red rubber band on our wrist, and whenever we look at it, or mess with it, we take a second to thank God for sending his son to pay the penalty we deserved for our sins. Then when we “fellowship” we can talk about how thinking about the cross makes us feel… happy, sad, encouraged, or something else?

How else can we “Remember the Cross” as a youth group?

Maybe “Prayer” means we paint a section of a wall in the youth room with chalkboard paint and draw a big line down the middle of it. On one side we write “Prayers Asked” and on the other side we write “Prayers Answered.” Then we all pray for the things people need prayer about, and when one of those prayers is answered (and sometimes the answer might be “no”) we write it down and put a date next to it on the other side.

What else could we do to be devoted to “Prayer”?

There’s no wrong answer in a brainstorm, so use as much paper as you need.

Can’t wait to talk about this stuff.

You guys are awesome!

Church Rental or Church Ownership?

I can remember my getting my first car like it was yesterday.

I started searching newspaper ads and autotrader (when it was only in magazine format) months before turning 16. I knew what kind of budget I had to work with, so I wanted to figure out what kind of truck or jeep I could get. I picked up off road magazines every month to get ideas of how I would fix up my 4x4 with bigger tires and accessories. I knew exactly how much each fix-up would cost. Of course I didn’t factor in labor costs because I was going to do all of that myself. I was even researching potential jobs, hourly wages, and how much I would have to work to have enough money to do each improvement.

As my 16^th birthday neared my dad began to take me around town to look at different cars. One Saturday we stumbled upon a 1996, single cab, 4x4, Ford F150. I knew it was the right car from the first look. It was almost like it spoke to me.

With every other car lot I hated seeing the car salesman approaching with his card in hand, but this time I was eager. We asked to see inside of the truck and then decided to take it for a test drive. I was falling more and more in love with every mile.

When we got back to the dealership we went inside and my dad started negotiating prices with the salesman. They went back and forth a few times, and I started getting that weird gut feeling that we were about to leave empty handed, and just about that time my dad said, “Alright, we’ll take it.” I kept a straight face, but inside I was jumping with glee!

I was about a week away from turning 16, but my dad pulled the trigger anyways. We got to drive it home and park it in the driveway until I officially got my license.

I think I washed the thing every day that week. Neighbors made jokes about how I was going to wash the paint off if I wasn’t careful.

Now that I actually had the truck, instead of just dreaming what could be, I went to Autozone and bought a book on 1996 F150s. It had all the ins and outs on basic maintenance, and got as complicated as completely rebuilding the engine.

I did my best to keep that truck in perfect condition. I changed the oil right at 3,000 miles. The gas gage rarely dipped below a quarter of a tank. I washed it once a week and kept it vacuumed. I waxed it every 6 months. I did everything by the book.

Why? Because it was my truck. My grandpa once told me that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he kept his truck, and I wanted to make sure that whatever you could tell about me was something good.

Maybe I’m weird, but I still take just as good care of my vehicles as I did when I was 16. The only difference is that I run the gas gauge a little closer to empty before filling it up.

The difference that ownership makes in taking care of something is huge.

If you’re in a rental car you don’t care about getting the oil changed. You don’t care about having proper tire pressure to make sure you’re not getting uneven tread ware. You don’t care about waxing it to make sure you don’t get clear coat damage. You really don’t have any interest in investing any of your own time or own money into the thing because it’s not yours.

A rental car is just something you use when you need it. It’s not something you take ownership in.

I think the rental car mentality is a danger we face with our churches.

The growing trend is to hire more staff to do the work so members and attenders and go and be fed, served, and even entertained. Church becomes something that you use when you need it, but not something you take ownership in.

People have begun to accept that ministry is for the people who get paid, but this is not Biblical at all! Everyone is called to ministry, and everyone should have a ministry they’re plugged into. Stop viewing your pastor as the minister. Start viewing him as the equipper and yourself as the minister. If this happens then you’ll find yourself taking ownership in the church, and the church’s influence will grow far greater than you probably ever imagined.

Camp Fire Smells and the Zestfullness of Christ

When the weather gets cool and leaves start to change (unless you live in Texas) there is nothing better than getting out in the woods and doing some camping. It’s a good way to use all the gear you bought from REI incase Y2K ever rears its ugly head again.

When you settle in for the night with your perfect spot and you get a nice little fire crackling, it’s time to bust out the perfect camp fire ingredients… marshmallows, Hershey’s chocolate bar, and some graham crackers.

The chocolate bar and graham crackers are pretty standard, so what makes the perfect s’more lies in the toasting of the marshmallow. There are different methods to this… some people just dive right in, set the thing ablaze, and then blow it out before it becomes nothing more than charred remains. Other people keep the marshmallow pretty far away, but just close enough to where it is getting heat. This is the safest way to go about it, but it takes a really long time… and you have to fight the urge to just shove the dang thing into the fire. Then you have the people that are very prideful about their toasting abilities… they find the sweet spot… the spot where the marshmallow gets the maximum amount of heat without catching fire… but it’s always on the verge… one wrong move… one wrong twist of the stick or close hanger where the marshmallow takes a sudden drop in elevation… then the whole thing could literally go up in flames.

S’mores… the perfect campfire food.

But you can’t recreate the s’more experience in your kitchen… you can try… but a key tool to making a legitimate perfect s’more is a campfire.

Campfires are great when you’re in the woods. You love the smell, you find yourself just staring at hot coals as they change to different shades of reds and oranges, you contemplate walking on hot coals like the contestants on Fear Factor… but no matter where you sit the smoke always seems to find you. Sure, you fight it for a little bit in hopes of the wind changing directions, but you eventually move your seat only to have the smoke find you again.

Smelling like campfire is unavoidable when you’re anywhere close to it.

The smell doesn’t bother you when you’re in the woods, or when you’re around other people that smell the same.

But when you get home to a nice clean house you are immediately aware of how much you stink! You want nothing more than to get out of your nasty campfire smell infested clothes and to jump into a piping hot shower… which of course, you’re not fully clean unless your zest fully clean.

When we encounter Jesus through God’s Word it’s like we just came from a camping trip and stepped into a clean house. We realize that we are dirty and in need of a deep cleaning, and we have three options: we can try to ignore the conviction and go surround ourselves with more people that smell just like us. We can try to clean ourselves through our own good works; or we can respond to Jesus’ call to come to him.

The crappy part about encountering Jesus is that we realize we smell really bad and we don’t possess the ability to make ourselves clean.

The beautiful thing about encountering Jesus is that he wants to make us clean through his works (which is the only way to be made clean) and he doesn’t want anything in return. He is the ultimate bar of zest soap.

You can ignore your smelliness, you can use your own soap and still smell funky... which is like putting deodorant on after you realize you smell... it doesn't work, or you can be fully clean through the work of Christ... and you're not fully clean unless your zest fully clean.

Bad Days Turn to Laughter... and Important Realizations

Sometimes we have bad days, bad weeks, bad months, and even bad years.

I recently had two bad days… but what made them bad?

I just moved back to San Antonio. There was much excitement and anticipation for the job I was going to start the next Monday… but before I started the job I had a week to rest and relax.

The summer was busy with youth ministry stuff, but on top of that I had to deal with the heartache and the emotional rollercoaster of leaving a ministry to go to a new one.

I wanted a week just to refuel…

So I said my goodbyes, packed up my house, drove cross country and arrived in San Antonio ready to take it easy for a few days before hitting the ground running.

Well, my second day back my truck got broken into. They stole my messenger bag with my laptop, bible, and journal, they stole my GPS, and they stole my ipod. With the stolen goods and the damage done to my truck I was out over two thousand bucks.

Not a good day.

Then the next day I needed to get a new drivers license and new license plates… simple enough, right?

I started off the morning by googling “dmv,” I couldn’t find a number that didn’t bring me to an automated system… I just wanted to talk to someone who was real. I pushed a series of “1s,” “2s,” and “3s” to get to the information that I thought I needed, but never really had confidence that I got what I needed from the computer lady’s voice.

My gut feeling was right.

I showed up to the DMV, waited in a long line, only to find out that I needed to have my truck registered before I could get my license.

Then I spent some more time driving around trying to find the Tax Collector’s Office to get my truck registered. I waited in another long line (but not as bad as the DMV) only to find out that I needed to have my truck inspected before I could have it registered.

Once I got my truck inspected I went back to the Tax Collector’s Office and got my truck registered. Then I made it back to the DMV… waited in line again only to find out that my old driver’s license, social security card, proof of insurance, and registration wasn’t enough… I needed a birth certificate or passport as well.

So I went to get my passport, drove back to the DMV, went to the front of the first line, got a number, only to wait in a seat for another hour before being called to the nice lady that would eventually take my picture… so I thought.

I got to the lady that would take my new picture and issue my Texas Driver’s License… I gave her all the documents, ready to step back to the black line and have my picture snapped… but then she asked me to stick my head up to this vision tester thing and read line 5. I couldn’t do it! I could read line 4, but not line 5, and therefore she couldn’t legally give me my license. Turns out I needed to go get glasses.

Another long and frustrating day.

Why were these two days bad… well I had a lot of valuable stuff stolen and I had to deal with the DMV and Tax Collector’s Office in the same day.

What do we do with bad days?

We can beat our steering wheels and yell at the top of our lungs with our windows up (cough cough)… we can sing hakuna matata… we can calmly say “serenity now,” or we can scream “SERENITY NOW!!!”

I’m not going to hide behind a blog on this one… I’m pretty sure I almost lost my voice yelling in my truck like an idiot. Maybe I have anger issues? Or maybe I just needed to go through a process.

Some time has passed and I can tell the story of the two bad days with laughter. Does it still stink that I lost a lot of money? Yes. Does it still stink that I lost a lot of important files on my old computer? Yes. Does it still stink that I lost A LOT of music on my ipod that I LEGALLY bought?! Yes. Does it stink that I have to be inconvienced to go get my truck fixed where the guys broke into my truck? Yes.

All of that stuff still stinks, and it still kicks up some ill emotions inside me if I let it, but I ultimately know that all of my stuff is temporary… one day moth and rust will destroy all of my things… whether they’ve been stolen or not.

What do we do with bad days? We have to move on.

I think it was Pat Green who said, "Wouldn't life be awfully boring if the good times were all that we had?"

I’m moving on.

Here's the most important thing to take from this blog post... maybe I should have put it first?

Through this I came to realize something... maybe this was the reality check I needed to make me realize that I need to consentrate more on the eternal things in life.

I hope and pray that my heart hurts more for the potential loss of eternal things, like souls, than it hurts for the loss of temporary things like computers and ipods.

Things can only go up from here!

What Do Youth Ministers Do During the Week?

What do Youth Ministers do?

I know this is a common question people have… “What do youth ministers do?”

I think the perceived answer is that we just hang out with students on Wednesday night, show up to a few sport events, and then we spend the rest of our time searching youtube and stalking people on facebook.

The crazy thing is that as a youth minister I often feel completely swamped, and then when someone asks me what I do during the week I start to trip over my words because I really don’t know what to tell them… which makes me feel like maybe I do just waste time.

The problem is that with ministry there really isn’t a consistent schedule, so what you do can’t be defined in 9 to 5 terms.

The following is a look at what youth ministers do:

Sunday mornings I get to church at about 7:00am. This gives me an hour and 15 minutes to spend time in prayer for the day, clean up the Sunday school and organize it (students never pick up after themselves), print off the Youth News, and go over the Sunday school lesson one last time.

At 8:15am I go to the early service which starts at 8:25am. This gives me 10 minutes to shake hands and say hello to people. None of these people are my youth (because they don’t come to the early service), but I love knowing the whole church, not just those related to my ministry, so this is a cherished time.

From 8:25am until about 12:15pm I am in a service, helping out with logistics, or helping out with youth Sunday school.

After church its lunch time! When we only had one Sunday school, and the majority of the youth went to the 11am service we used to go out to lunch as a big group, but that doesn’t happen so much anymore. But Sunday lunch is a great time for fellowship. It is never quick because of the crowds and long waits… so you can either take it as it is and enjoy it, or get frustrated. I like to enjoy the conversation with others.

After lunch I normally get back to the church around 3:30pm. From 4pm – 6pm we are either preparing for meetings, in meetings, or preparing for family fusion. Then from 6pm – 7pm we have discipleship classes, family fusion, or some form of small groups.

Throughout the week I spend time in the office doing random things that include, but are not limited to: responding to emails, making phone calls, writing notes to youth, planning trips and taking care of the front end work to make those happen, evaluating different aspects of the ministry and thinking through how we can improve on them, studying current youth ministry trends, assisting other staff members, doing random projects assigned by Jason (my pastor), finding and turning in receipts, creating a “Youth News”, working on Sunday school material, and other random odd jobs. These take up about 9 hours of my week.

So we’re at about 18 hours of work… what else do Youth Ministers do?

If I was only in the office 9 hours a week I would probably get fired… so I am in the office more than that, but I intentionally schedule time to do things that aren’t really “office work.”

The main time I get to teach/preach/talk (whatever you want to call it) is on Wednesday nights. Contrary to popular belief, I do not have an incredibly sticky memory where I can pull everything I learned from seminary off the top of my head and teach it to students in a way that makes since to them. It takes time to prepare a message. I would love to have a full day to work on my Wednesday night message, but I normally get about 6 hours (3 hours on Tuesday and 3 hours on Wednesday mornings at the coffee shop).

“6 hours?! Does it even take that long?! And you wish you had more time?!”

Think back to speech class in high school or a communications class you took in college. Remember how much time it took for you to prepare a 5 – 7 minute speech? You had to research the topic you were talking about, think about a good introduction to hook people’s attention, have good transition points, appeal to logic, appeal to emotions, and then have a strong conclusion. You had to think through how to get people to visualize what you were talking about, illustrate points, and then practice it to get more comfortable. I promise you that 6 hours flies by!

On top of preparing the message for Wednesday nights I have to get things in order for the actual youth service. This includes preparing worship in song, setting up the music equipment, practicing with the band, straightening up the room, setting up for an ice-breaker, getting informational handouts ready, and etc. I am able to give about 3 hours to this stuff. Then the actual Wednesday night program goes from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

So now we are at 29 hours. We’ve covered Sundays, Wednesdays, and office time… what else do youth ministers do?

Meetings… these take up some time too. We meet as a whole staff on Tuesdays from 11am – 1:30pm. This includes a staff devotional, leadership equipping, and getting all of our ducks in a row for the week, month, and beyond. Then I have a separate meeting with my other boss (Ralph, the minister of education) and Kristin (the children’s director) once a week to make sure that we’re on the same page and that our ministries continue to complement each other. Then on Wednesdays from 1:30pm – 2:30pm we have a “creative meeting” where we go through all three worship services on Sunday and make sure they all flow smoothly and that they do not take up more than an hour and 15 minutes.

Meetings take up about 4 to 5 hours of the week.

On top of office meetings there are other key times to meet with people. I do hospital visits once a week, I meet with other youth ministers (either in person or on the phone) to encourage each other, bounce ideas off of, and build and maintain relationships. I visit prospective members who have visited the church. And then I try to meet with parents of my youth or youth leaders throughout the week too. These types of meetings take up about 4 hours of a normal week.

So we are at 37 to 38 hours of a work week now… “What about hanging out with youth? I thought that was all you do? Do you do that at all?”

On Wednesdays I get breakfast with high schoolers from 7am – 8am, and on Thursdays I get breakfast with middle schoolers from 7:30am – 8am and then I the middle schoolers to school in the awesome church van which takes up about another 30 minutes. Those times are regular, but there are other random times that I hang out with youth as well… like at football games, basketball games, baseball games, throwing the Frisbee or football, grabbing coffee, playing basketball, working out, eating food, and whatever else I can do to meet them where they are at. Unfortunatley I only get to hang out with youth for about 5 hours of the week, but I’ll take what I can get.

So the normal work week of a youth minister is probably around 42 to 43 hours of work if you try to put it to paper.

So why in the world do we get burned out, why do we feel like we work non-stop?

On top of the normal work week there are always things going on at the church. We have weekend retreats, summer camps, mission trips, service projects, community events, and other random things throughout the whole year. While Fridays and Saturdays would ideally be days off there always seems to be something to attend on a Friday night and/or on Saturdays. Take a camp for example: Youth ministers work a full Sunday, then they are on the job for 24 hours a day until the next Saturday, and then they are back to it on Sunday. Once Monday rolls around they don’t get that Friday and Saturday (which we supposed to be days off) back… unless they use vacation time (which is 10 days a year). I guess what I’m trying to say is that we tend to fall into doing stuff on Fridays and Saturdays and we never really get to rest up and re-fuel.

I can attest to being burnt out from ministry… I wish it was as beautiful and perfect as people might think from the outside looking in… I’m sure everyone wishes they could work at the church because it’s a breeze… but it is more time consuming than you might think.

After a year and a half I got completely burnt out and fell into depression… this led me to seeking out counseling to keep my sanity. So I now meet with a counselor once a week. I didn’t factor this into my work week, but I think I could because it is extremely beneficial and helps me to do my job better, and to do my job with more joy. So if you factor in the drive into Atlanta in morning traffic, the meeting, and the drive back, you could add another 3 hours to my work week.

I guess I can’t speak for all youth ministers, but hopefully this gives you a general idea of what we do during the week… It’s not all raindrops turning into lemon drops.