Comments on: The plot and sub-plot of every youth group meeting

By: adam mclane

adam mclane — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:48:12 +0000

@tim and others- I’ve been doing this thing a while… and in my arrogance I have missed this 99% of the time. In my prayer time I’ve just been begging God to make me smart enough to know when to punt. We work hard and are faithful at preparing, but I tend to use that as an excuse to ignore the Holy Spirit and what He is doing with our YM time. Hoping the second half of my ministry life is less agenda driven and more listening-driven.

Totally digging this conversation. So encouraging.

By: Tim Schmoyer

Tim Schmoyer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:34:06 +0000

Good stuff, Adam. Last Sunday I had a pretty deep series queued up to start with the sr high on the book of Haggai. But instead we ended up doing Q&A the entire time. We didn’t even touch my agenda. In fact, next week our agenda is to continue with the anonymous Q&A. A lot of good stuff popping up that I otherwise would’ve missed… and probably miss way too often.

By: YPClayConry

YPClayConry — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:48:31 +0000

Thanks for snaping me to attention and reminding me that YM is about partnering w/ God in what he is doing in and through the lives of the students He’s entrusted to us!

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:10:58 +0000

Crap! Now you’ve made me think!

This is a really good post. Thanks for hte shake up.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:49:24 +0000

Adam, Thank you for sharing this. I was just sitting here working on the “plot” for tonight, and this was a welcome wake-up call for me.

By: Joel Mayward

Joel Mayward — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:43:42 +0000

This. Is. Awesome! In a convicting, “hmm, I’ve got some things to think about,” sort of way.

By: whydavid

whydavid — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:34:08 +0000

We meet on Sat. nights so we have TIME. I let our teens(high school) know that we come to God with all our imperfections and they don’t need to hide their real selves for fear of getting in trouble. We have teens who have never been in church, teens who have been kicked out of their church, teens who don’t know God’s love yet, teens who have strong relationships with God. I come with a plan, but that plan often gets dropped when they begin sharing their struggles, their pain and their failures and doubts. We minister to real needs! I’m not a young guy-I’m 49-but I make it clear that I want to know them as they are because it would be a waste of my (volunteer) time to talk to a bunch of teens pretending to be something they aren’t. We see changed lives as they come to understand and accept God’s UNCONDITIONAL love. They reach out to their hurting friends and bring them in. I had to learn and help our Christian teens learn to be shock-proof and non-judgemental and just let God’s love work through us. It’s been an amazing experience to see what He can do when we aren’t afraid to reach out to the people He loves!

By: Adam Lehman

Adam Lehman — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:29:57 +0000

@Marty.

When i first started, I think our student ministry did a really good job of dealing with the subplots, but it takes hard work and lots of emotional & relational energy.

But here’s what we did. We trained the adults to ask LOTS of questions. The goal was to LISTEN to the students’ stories and connect those stories with God’s story.

When we show up with such a strong agenda that we can’t really HEAR what’s going on in their life, we’re being too rigid.

Just my thoughts.

By: Marty

Marty — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:02:54 +0000

This hit me like a ton of bricks. Big stuff to think about. How do you suggest we get to the God-plot and not what we’ve already spent time and effort planning?

By: Adam Lehman

Adam Lehman — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:00:24 +0000

SO
TRUE
!!!!