• To gain access to Yvonne’s coveted red key.
• You love bottle drives.
• You don’t have to work full time.
• You save money by not dating for a year.
• Intern nap times at lunch.
• What other way would you spend $7,000??
• You feel that Starbucks needs more of your financial contribution.
• Who doesn’t like picking up garbage in the rain??
• Because cramming is exhilerating!
• Really?? You need a reason?!?!

Top Ten Reasons Interns Cry

• Everyone is going out for lunch and you’re broke.
• You’ve been put on the spot in class and you haven’t done your homework.
• Chris dyes his hair platinum blond right before your grad.
• You discover on your interns missions trip that the world doesn’t revolve around you.
• You have to be confronted about your attitude… two days in a row.
• You haven’t slept in 72 hours and you’re about to teach a class that you haven’t prepared for.
• You’re learning to communicate better and your friends are starting to say no to your requests.
• Your Krispy Kreme fundraiser doesn’t work out and you have 40 dozen donuts left over.
• The Holy Spirit is breaking you.
• You want to date.

As I watched this video I couldn’t but help to laugh at what these guys have done.  I think that this video it is very witty and comical to depicet really what youth pastors/leaders go through to reach a generation.

How many times have I said to a kid, “hey let’s go for coffee or a movie,” wanting to spend time with them but fully knowing that the only way on a YP’s salary, it was really all coming out of the youth budget.  Or how many times I have dreamed of that mustang GT or that pro water ski boat that I have always wanted to own, but to realize that today I’m taking out 15 kids on a retreat in my church “pimped” out grey van that smells, hurts driving after 15 mins, and rattles and hums all the way down the highway while kids yell out “hey PC is this door going to stay closed.”  Or here’s my favorite,  how about the scene where he’s telling kid’s that it’s wrong to watch “family guy”, because of well…you know why and yet he himself thinks it’s one of the funniest shows he’s ever seen.  Now don’t get me wrong I’m not endorcing “family guy” by any means but how many times have you told someone don’t do that or watch that yet you find a little humor in some of the things that are out there.

Why am I saying all this?  I’m saying all this because as funny as this video is and in some circumstance it’s very comedy speaks to real life, I began to really think about, what is a Youth Pastor/Leader?  There are many times and hours we spend with kids counselling, taking them on trips, conferences, missions, one on one time, youth worship nights, listening to their ridiculous comments, funny comments, realistic goals & unrealistic goals, dreams, and hopes, hurts and pains. I came to the realization that Youth Pastoring is all about “Calling.”  You see there are great programs within communities and even through out the world that encourage young people, that engage young people in mind and in body.  There are great programs through out the world that help them find their careers one day and even help the one’s dissasociated from society get back on track.

But there is no program in the world or no counsel in my mind that can help them get on track and closer to God then that of a Youth Pastor.  How many times have I had a parent call saying, “can you talk to my son or daughter.” Or how many times have have young men confess to me that they want to remain pure or here from a daughters heart their virginity was taken.  And I get to spend time, with them and see God radically change their lives.   How many endless coffee’s and movies have I gone too, to spend time with a young person in the hopes to draw them closer to their creator in heaven.

Really this is the goal of a YP/Ldr, the goal is to draw them all back to God, to get their minds off of themselves and back to the one who gave them life, and the God who wants to spend eternity with them.  This is why I say it’s a calling.  As much at times as youth pastor’s we may struggle with a budget or lack of budget and may struggle internally with our own battles, there is this God given drive and wooing of His Spirit to draw that young person to Christ.  How many times have I talked with other youth pastors who have wanted to quit or have and even myself have felt that very frustration and yet there is this tugging in our hearts to draw this generation to Christ.  I say the calling is one that seperates the men from the boys, the calling of a youth pastor is many times looked down upon or even looked at as a baby sitting service or a ministry we push to the side, within certain church’s.  But it is much more than that, we have the awesome responsibility of shepherding God’s younger people.  They may not know everything and may not have the grey hair to signify to us that they have gone through the “stuff.”  But none the less they are His people, and they are lost, hurting, intimidated, scared, full of dreams, energy, love and they need someone to lead them and show them Christ.

Romans 11:29 says, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”  1 Corinthians says, “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.”  1Corinthians 1:26-27 says, “For you see your calling brethern, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many well-born are called but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”

These verses speak of the very nature of what God is doing in the hearts of people who feel called to this very ministry to young people.  Past all the fun, trips, and counselling. God has called us with his very spirit to remain steadfast, unmovable, and committed to his very goals and visions that he put on our hearts.  1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity…do not neglect the gift in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of eldership.”

I love these verses, here Paul is not only addressing the older generation but specificly charging Timothy his protage, disciple, “Youth Pastor,” to walk fully in the grace and teaching of our lord Jesus, be that person that God has called him to be, to have fun and live life to the fullest, but to “not neglect the gift that was given to him by prophecy.”   And to begin to pass it on to his generation.

I will conclude with these last thougts.  Youth Pastoring/Leading is more then just baby sitting, “hangn” with kids, or even stepping stones in our personal lives.

Youth Pastoring in four quick thoughts are this: 1)Youth pastors have got to carry the presence of God.  Without the presence there is no youth pastor and without the his presence there is no ministry.  It’s not a career it’s a calling.  2) YP’s need the ministry of Holiness.  There is a need to revisit the wells of holiness and not be relevant in today’s society, kids need holiness not relevance.  Everything in our lives needs to strive towards holiness. 3) We need to develop the Giftings of God within our lives.  There is an underdevelopment of the giftings within the body.  Pray, read the word, and we need to ask ourselves.  “What are we doing to develop the anointing in our lives.”  Gifting only flows out of relationship with Him. 4)YP’s need to preach the gospel with unbridaled passion.  There is no church with out the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with good old fashion alter calls.

As you have read this I hope you feel encouraged in that your calling is greater and louder then the critics and the voices that come against you saying you are not worthy…you are worthy because you are his child.

Well, year four has finished and five begins.  As you have been accepted into the ministry of interns we are ready to embark on one of the greatest times of your life. You now have many opportunities before you:  You have the opportunity to press in during prayer times and visit with the Father, you now have the opportunity to learn and ask as many questions as you can during teaching times, you now have the opportunity to hear the voice of God daily and act on that voice with unbridled passion, you now have the opportunity to serve a body of believers that are like minded as you are, and you now have the opportunity to CALL a generation to repentance and holiness before an awesome and great God. You also have the opportunity to see the hand of God move within this generation and generation(s) to come.  Yes, I’m excited to see people change, I’m excited for you to go from apathy to passion and I am also excited because of the unknown that will help stretch your faith and mine.

This year’s theme is “Dreaming with God!” out of Joel 2:28 and the story of Joseph. This year the Lord spoke to me and said, “Chris what are your Dreams?”  When I really thought about this I had to be honest with Him and say, “Lord I don’t know anymore.”  The Lord then directed me to Proverbs 22:28 which says, “Do not remove the ancient boundaries that your fathers have set.” I began to realize that God is calling me back to the former dreams that He has given me in the past and that I was to go back to those places and resurrect those dreams in my heart.  Maybe your at that place or maybe you haven’t dreamed with God yet.  This is the call this year, the call to Dream again or to start new dreams.  Joel 2:28 says, “…Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” It’s time to take up the radical call of obedience to God and seek his heart and hear his voice and begin to dream with Him.

On September 23^rd I will see you at 8:15 in the morning at the portables and we will begin this great adventure that you have stepped out into called PG Interns.  The great thing is, is that we do not face it alone we face it with each other and most of all with our Father – the commander in Chief, the Holy Spirit – our guide, and Jesus – our Friend & Leader.