As a youth pastor, my mind is always full of youth ministry-related ideas. So many times, my tendency is to camp out in my office and navigate each idea and its usefulness to our student ministry. But when I think back to being a student myself, my memories aren’t made up mainly of knowing that Danny (my youth pastor) was in his office, hard at work. The most memorable moments were spent when he invested in me personally, wherever we were. A lot of our meetings were surrounded by coffee (now you know why I’m a Starbucks addict!), but he was always taking me alongside him – I’m so thankful for that.
So, this post isn’t just a tribute to my youth pastor, but it’s a reminder to myself and all you other youth pastors that a huge part of student ministry is about being with your students – that’s it.
1. 6 a.m. meetings at Starbucks. I’ll be honest. I hated these when I was a teenager. It’s a funny thing to think about it now, but I’m always making decisions based on “what teenagers like.” Looking back, this is one of my favorite memories, but what teenager likes waking up at 6 am? Exactly.
2. Praying with him every morning at 7 am during an entire summer. Again, I wasn’t a huge fan of waking up at 7 am every morning (yep, I said every morning) during multiple summers to pray together as a group. But that time was so precious. It taught me that prayer is so important, it should be the first thing that happens every day. It also taught me how to pray, as we were joining with several older men to pray. It was a privilege to listen to them pour their hearts out to God. On a very real note, it taught me about commitment. Danny always called us to a higher level of commitment to Jesus. Our morning prayer time was a small example of devotion to Christ.
3. Visiting North Point Community Church together. While we were at camp one year in Georgia, we decided that we’d take a trip to go see North Point. Danny had introduced me to Andy by giving me one of his books, Next Generation Leader. I’d heard that North Point was a pretty inspiring place, so we went together. The funny thing is I was more impacted by the fact that Danny took me with him on such a cool trip, then by the actual destination.
4. Early morning coffee during an over-night event. I was an intern for Danny one summer. We went to visit a local Christian college and Kings Island. The night that we stayed in the dorms was hell for Danny, because our teenagers had no desire to fall asleep. He sent me in to calm them down, but they didn’t listen. Eventually, we all fell asleep. That next morning, Danny woke me up and asked me if I wanted to go out for coffee before everyone woke up. I wasn’t ever the kind of guy to turn opportunities like this down (the time with Danny, not just the caffeine), so I got up and went with him. We went to a local coffee shop, got our coffee, and spent some time together as friends. He had every right to be ticked off at me for not calming those students down, but he wasn’t. Sometimes, it’s the small things that we remember.
5. Meeting with him a couple years after I’d been “sent out” to discuss the realities of youth ministry. Something that every rookie pastor goes through is realizing that ministry isn’t all roses. One weekend, I visited my family. I knew he was a pretty busy guy, so I didn’t try to meet up with him. I don’t know if I was more worried about his schedule, or being disappointed if we couldn’t meet, but I just didn’t try. He heard I was home, and asked me if I could meet with him a couple hours before I left. Of course I said yes. We talked for three hours that morning about the difficulties of ministry, the disappointment from different people, and the general struggles of spiritual leadership. This is so valuable. I got to hear my hero’s struggles, and share mine with him.
6. Talking with him one night at camp, about how God had answered prayers for our students. The summer after I graduated, I had shared with Danny that God had placed it on my heart to be in intense prayer for the students that were going to camp that year. He told me that that was cool, and that he would pray alongside me. That year at camp, I watched, night after night, as the students ignored God’s work in their life. Until the last night. And it was exactly what you’re thinking – a camp fire, a guitar, and testimonies. When it came out that God had been working in all these students’ lives, I broke down like a school girl. Danny came to sit next to me and put his hand on my shoulder. I looked up, and he was crying to. He nodded at me, and a word was never spoken.
I realized this was a pretty long post, so this will be split up into two parts. Part two comes tomorrow…