Youth Ministry Round Up #176

Greetings Awesome Person,

ABC's of Youth Ministry

X is for X-Ray Vision

When I was a kid, I remember conversation between classmates, mostly male, about which of superman's powers we'd like to have and x ray vision was hands down the favorite. Not a saint among us.

I think X-Ray vision is a super power every youth pastor must have to survive because you have to see through so many things.

You have to see through the church

How many of you wish you had x-ray vision to peer into the souls of the church you know work at before you started working there?

You may not know this, but Superman can't see through lead. His creators did not want him to be all powerful. He needed some limitations.

My lead, as a young youth pastor, was idealism. I couldn't see through my own lead tinted glasses to understand that the church is made up of people just like me, broken, hurting and insecure.

Don't let idealism became your kryptonite.

You have see through a kids bad behavior

I think we've all had that one kid that no one believes in but us. The people around us don't have x-ray vision like we do. They can't see the potential in that kid the way we do.

If you're struggling with a student with behavior issue, look past the action and look at the intent. Look at those students as Jesus looked at Matthew, Peter, Zachaeus and even Judas, with love and hopefulness that this life, through the power of God, can be changed.

You have to see through the chaff to see the wheat

John said of the coming of Jesus,

His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Luke 3:17

You also must look at your own threshing floor and ask, "What should I let burn up and what should remain?"

This requires a certain amount of x-ray vision in order to see where there might be some chaff pretending to be wheat.