Direction

This post is in response to the discussion taking place on the post called "Don't Ask." Check it out if you haven't already.

I'm just going to try to share a small part of my own personal vision (a vision that is more or less shared by all the leaders) for our youth group, with as much specific details as I can. This is a very difficult post because there's so much detail I could include. Saying it all would be too much to read, but saying only parts would be ignoring important issues. In the end, I have to trust that you guys can figure out a lot of this stuff for yourselves. But please feel free to bring up anything not mentioned in the comments for discussion.

So, my vision...

God first! God first! God first! It's not about us! It's all about God! Once we understand that, then we work for...

A youth group wherein every member, that's everyone from you guys who are active on this blog to that Roxanne girl that comes on Wednesday nights but rarely talks to anyone, has a passion for God and are clearly growing in their spiritual lives. Everyone should be bonded in that goal. That means you guys are all so interested in God that He occasionally makes his way into your everyday conversations (conversations that could easily include any member of our youth group). Take a moment to picture what that might look like.

Okay, if you're really picturing that, let's move on...

Let's say we get to go to Mission Arlington. What if every member (even the ones that currently never join us in anything we do) was there and excited about working? What if everyone could see how they were being used and were excited about it? Everyone! Picture that. What do you see? What's happening? What are you doing? What is the person you most hang out with doing? What are the two of you talking about?

Or lets say we were at PlanetWisdom. Someone in our youth group is saved. What if every member was unanimously rejoicing? Or what if no one in our youth group was saved and we were all just rejoicing about the strangers that were saved? Can you picture us doing this? How are we doing it? Are we gathering together in prayer for them? Do some of us have tears in our eyes? Are some of us joining them at the front? In any case, I'd say we are doing it together, and with a single purpose, which is to give God the glory.

By the way, where do you see us sitting? Could you see us sitting closer to the front...close enough to make eye contact with the ones who have come forward? I'm not talking about sitting close to the front for show as some youth groups do; I'm talking about consciously putting ourselves in a position wherein we might have an opportunity to reach out and lend some support, even through something as simple as eye contact. Think about that. Maybe I'm wrong, but at the very least, it's something to consider.

Okay, now to name some names...

Shaun could be a leader, but he needs more confidence in himself. JD could be a leader, but he needs to recognize that he's worth more than just a laugh. Stephen could be a leader, but he needs to feel accepted (same goes for David). Ryan could be a leader, but he needs how to lead all the above to be leaders themselves. Make sense? This list could go on and on...Ben could be a leader of the skater kids (and skater wannabes), Melody could be a leader among all the girls (as could Lauren and Laykin), Roxanne and Clay could be leaders among the neighborhood kids, Amelia and Daniel could be leaders among those who currently aren't very active (after becoming more active themselves)...Blake could too.

You guys could recognize needs like these and help each other by trying to encourage each other individually in them. That's part of the youth group we'd like to see - members helping and encouraging each other not just in general areas but in the specific needs and working toward finding each other's specific place. One of the biggest parts of this is recognizing these needs. You might say, "Well, I don't know what their needs are." Well, members that seek to discern such needs are in fact themselves part of what makes a strong youth group. It's not just in recognizing needs...its also in caring enough to make the effort to seek them out when you don't recognize them. I know that's a mouthful, but try to understand what I'm saying here.

Notice that the key to all of this is every member, even those ones that don't seem to think they really have a place and are just observers. When our youth group understands that THERE ARE NO OBSERVERS IN OUR YOUTH GROUP, then we will be getting somewhere. Everyone has a part to play...somehow.

Okay, so hopefully through all this, you have some idea of who we are. Now, what are we doing? Well, I've already suggested a couple things - Mission Arlington, PlanetWisdom. More importantly than the specifics (which is Aaron's call) is the ideas behind the things we do. If we go to Mission Arlington, the idea is "missions." If we go to PlanetWisdom, that's "discipleship." Get it? Missions, discipleship, fellowship. These should be the three main ideas behind any thing we do. So what should we do? Well, let's think about things that fall under these categories. What do you think? Any ideas?

Consider this also: it's not just in trips. It's also in projects. We've already got Compassion. What is there to do with that? Is it enough to remember to give a couple bucks to that every now and then? If not, what else can we be doing with it? And let's not forget about OneVerse. If you're interested in this, please tell Aaron. Encourage him to get us involved with it.

That leads me to another point about leadership. It's okay to challenge the youth leaders. We want you to. If there's something you feel our youth group should be doing, lead out in it...starting with telling the leaders about it. Stephen does this, and it's really encouraging.

So that's about all I can think to write for now. Before I conclude (my part, that is), I think I should try to suggest some specific goals...

1. We have an average of 25 kids on Wednesday nights. By the end of this month, let's try for 30.
   
2. By the end of March, let's pray to see a significant difference in the behavior on Wednesday nights.
3. I want to see somebody (hopefully a lot somebodies) in our youth group saved in the next few months. I know that things like these are in God's hands, but we should be praying for it anyway. And if there's somebody specific you know, by all means, pray for them.
4. Speaking of specific people, we need to be praying for Blake.
5. Of course, there's M-Fuge. Don't assume that's just going to "happen."
6. We also need to be praying for Dalton.
7. I would say that success with this "True Love Waits" program should be a goal. How exactly do we measure this success? Maybe this isn't for us to know, but I believe that if God really moves, we should all recognize it.

I'm going to wrap this up now, but the discussion doesn't end here. Now it's your turn.