I pulled into the church car park with minutes to spare before youth group started. It had been one of those days. You know the day where your coffee isn’t strong enough, your day isn’t long enough and your faith isn’t big enough.
Usually my young people are like the unicorns in Genesis who showed up too late and were shocked that everything had happened without them. But not today! Today they were lined up two by two impatiently tapping their feet because ‘Noah’ was taking too long. Okay, they weren’t lined up two by two but you get the idea, right?
I scrambled to open the door whilst holding boxes under each arm and let the young people in. I tried to go downstairs but I was surrounded by a sea of children who appeared to have had jelly beans for dinner and were so excited about life they don’t want to go into the kid’s club room just yet.
I finally escaped the swarm of children and headed for the stairs towards the youth room. Then I heard it. The scream. If you have worked with young people for any length of time you will be familiar with this scream. You will hear it when the group are playing sports together and one of the girls gets hurt (someone lightly bumped into her) and wants all the boys to notice. You will hear it whenever something very dramatic happens (I’ve heard it many times when someone drops their McDonalds or even worse they get the wrong order!); but it is most commonly heard whenever a little red notification pops up on Facebook telling a girl that the guy she’s (not so) secretly in love with has just liked her new profile picture. I’m used to this scream, it usually has no real meaning or purpose but not this day.
I heard another few screams followed by; ‘LAURA! THERE’S WATER EVERYWHERE!’ Oh no. Not today. Please not today. Half of me hoped someone had just spilled a bottle of water, but the other half knew that would be too easy. So I ran down the stairs to see what is going on.
As youth workers there will be times we have to be like the person who went to the burst pipe and chose to get drenched in order to help with the problem
Yep, they were right. We had our own mini Titanic happening. One of the water pipes had burst and utter mayhem had broken out. In the midst of the chaos three very different things happened.
One person went right to the water pipe and tried to stop it at the source. They knew there was a switch they had to hit so they chose to get drenched in order to fix things. A couple of people got some mops and started cleaning up, and even though water kept coming, they kept mopping. But my favourite response to the chaos has to be this…
One girl went into the next room and started building a fort with chairs, and within five minutes, all her friends were in there with her. Then they started to sing. I know what you’re thinking; Oceans would be the obvious choice, but instead they went a little more old school. So as one person stood in the next room wrestling a water pipe and a couple of people mopped the floor repeatedly; one tune started to ring out throughout the whole youth area…
‘In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight…’
Youth work is anything but predictable!
I went home that night and as I relived the madness over again in my head, God began to speak to me. Quite often in ministry we feel a great pressure to have it all together, to always be in control, to be the ones who run in and save the day. Yet so often we feel discouraged because we can’t live up to our expectations or even worse, other people's. That night God reminded me that amidst utter chaos He is the One who brings peace.
Ministry is not the fairytale you dream it would be when you enter Bible College all bright eyed and bushy tailed. Ministry is not a job, it is a calling…
As youth workers there will be times we have to be like the person who went to the burst pipe and chose to get drenched in order to help with the problem. We will choose to walk with a young person through the real, raw pain they are experiencing. We will choose to sacrifice our time and resources to be a constant, steadfast support for that young person. We will often get our hearts broken, have sleepless nights and have our faith tested, yet we know it is not in vain.
There will be times we will stand repeatedly mopping up a mess we did not create. We will see young people take one step forward and two steps back. We will see them commit to following Jesus and then watch them walk away. We will have the same conversation addressing the same issues multiple times and wonder when things are going to change, yet we persevere.
There will also be times when things seem overwhelming - we will want to build a fort and hide. Ministry is not the fairytale you dream it would be when you enter Bible College all bright eyed and bushy tailed. Ministry is not a job, it is a calling and a calling cannot be faked. There will be times when we question the impact we’re making, the purpose of our work and sometimes we’ll question if we’re the right person, yet despite our questions we are not defeated.
Whatever season of ministry you are in know that you are right where God wants you to be. So keep on loving, keep on praying, keep on reaching! You will have your mountain top moments, your valley moments and everything in between. But how wonderful it is to know that every step of the way you have the God of the entire universe walking with you gently speaking to your heart; ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ – Psalm 46:10a
Laura Rafferty has been involved in youth ministry for 6 years and is currently serving with a mission organisation working with rural churches. You can follow her on twitter here.
