Week 7: Awakening

It was a busy week in Student Ministry at Mountain. It takes a crazy amount of energy, and lot less sleep, to plan a retreat and pull it off well, but we did and it was an awesome weekend.

Some highlights from the weekend:

Cabin Challenge: Steal the Bacon. The last round, I and some other leaders were the bacon. It was both fun and a little frightening as 70+ middle schoolers ran after me and began pulling me in 4 directions.

Getting to know some awesome 7th grade girls. Love them!

Scaring students in the middle of the night dressed as a bunny

Hanging out and working alongside some fantastic leaders - learning a lot from you all

Praying for two of my girls who came to me with decisions

Listening to students worship at the top of their lungs

Though a lot of awesome things happened this weekend, there was one moment that particularly stuck out to me...

It was the Saturday night session, and we knew it was going to be a high impact night for many of the students. During the high school session, I was standing in the back and paused to listen to them sing. As those students sang at the top of their lungs and raised their hands singing "awake my soul," tears came to my eyes. Throughout the weekend, I had prayed that God would awaken these students, and in that moment I could see it happening right in front of me. Then, it felt like God re-ignited my passion for ministering to students and I could hear him say, "This is what I've called you to. Don't let anyone say you can't do this." 

Another "Yay God" moment

To be continued...

This post is going to be short and sweet.

Aside from all the awesome ministry skills I'm learning this semester, 

I'm learning a lot about God and a lot about myself and God.

That's all I'll say on that for now.

Sundays at Mountain

Life in ministry leads to LONG Sundays. No, really, Sundays are crazy long days.

I knew this before I came to Mountain. I grew up with a Children's minister for a mom and my dad was involved in worship ministry basically my entire childhood. I knew Sundays were busy, but yesterday was exceptionally long.

I was at Church a total of 14 hours yesterday. 14

Needless to say, when it was time for Echo and Collide I was tired. Somehow, I found enough energy to toss some frisbees and hang out with students before the services and just like always, I had a great time.

Even though I was crazy tired and my feet hurt from standing most of the day, one moment made it all worth it.

I was sitting with the students during worship at Echo and they were learning a new song that the high school had learned at CIY. During the last chorus I stopped singing and listened.

There's nothing like hearing a bunch of middle schoolers singing, "I will live to love you, I will live to bring you praise."

Reasons why I'm becoming a youth pastor.

Convictions

I've felt called to youth ministry for a long time - since I was a junior in high school - and I've been following that path ever since. While sitting in my preaching class tonight, I realized that my "doing youth ministry," whether as a volunteer, or here at Mountain, has become almost instinctual. That's certainly not to say I always know exactly what to do - that's not true at all and this semester teaches me that daily.

I haven't thought about why I'm doing youth ministry in a long time.

And not just youth ministry - ministry in general. Why in the world am I dedicating my entire life to work for and in the Church?

That passion I felt when I knew this is what God had called me to - that fire that I felt in my bones - that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I said, "yeah this is what God wants me to do"

It's been a while since I felt that....


And I realized, it's because it's been a while since I felt that same fire about the Bible, about how incredibly awesome Jesus Christ is (Luke 4:17-21) , and how crazy it is that God has entrusted me with preaching these words. (Romans 10:14-15)

Needless to say, my passion for ministry once again feels like a flame in my bones. (Jeremiah 20:9) (And you're thinking, "Really? All this from a preaching class?" Yeah it was great, you should've been there!)

It's nice to have a reminder about why what you're doing really matters.

Week 3: And the schedule gets busy

As of last Monday, classes officially began for us interns. I now realize how wrong I was when I thought this semester would be less hectic than my time at Milligan.

College life is busy, but it's also a somewhat regulated business, because most people seem to be really busy around the same time - mid-terms, finals, humanities exams, etc. So when things get crazy academically, our social life pulls back a bit and we have time to focus.

Not so in ministry.

Church work doesn't slow down for my Greek exams or Preaching assignments - I just have to find time to get everything done academically and still find time to send those 10 emails, lead a small group, or preach at Echo and Collide.

Granted, this week wasn't bad - but I can see it all coming.

Good thing I can manage my time well!

But if I miss a week on my blog, you'll know why :)