Courage

So... I'm a big chicken when it comes to bringing people in to the church. Which is retarded because I'm supposed to be the bravest - right? I'm working for the church. I'm actually officially a leader now. I'm supposed to be setting an example.

One thing that is good is that I don't feel embarresed or scared actually inviting people to Sunday morning. I like our church because it's casual, it's comfortable, it's not a super polished performance based mega church. I like it because the messages are "seeker friendly" but not dumbed down.

Has anyone ever wondered about that why we think we need to be dumbed down to get people in to the church. It's like thinking that people who don't know God yet definately must not have very strong thinking capabilities so we make the messages fluffy and emotional.

Anyhow, as a youth pastor, I'm seeing a need for a certain group in the church to have opportunity to get deeper with God. We have no senior youth and there definatley is a small group that would be right in that category. However, I'm super chicken about starting something. I lack faith that they would be interested. By the time you're that age you are a bit too cool for school and I just can see it going badly.

However, I always seem to think that God can't do his job and that I'm going to end up on the sidelines looking lika FU. (fool) Odly enough, this group of kids keeps asking me to hang out with them. And then one of the boyfriends asked me if he could join the youth group. I don't even think this kid is churched. They like to talk to me about all the unchurchy things they do, and I don't even think they know what a good church kid should do. I don't think that they know that most kids shouldn't admit to some of these things to their youth pastor. And I don't want to institutionalize these kids and make them churchy, but I do want them to think about some of their life style choices and see the negative sides of them. And I want them to start asking some deeper questions and making God part of their choices. And I don't know how do create the scenarios to get these dialogues going. And I need so much wisdom and courage.

God help me!!!! (The above picture is of some of them in Los Angeles. I love this picture because they look like such ghetto rock stars and it's on a polaroid!!!)