See You at the Pole

I received an invitation to speak at the “See You at the Pole” student gathering sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a club of West Central High. I was given the freedom to talk about any topic I so desired, so I made the intentional decision to not talk about any topic. I read a blog entry by Once A Youth Pastor… (read HERE). It was a personal story of an ambitious first time gardener that had a few unexpected results along the way. Instead of reading the author’s final thoughts I encouraged students to come up with and share a few thoughts of there own. A number of students shared their ideas…all very good. I read a shorten section of John 15 (the vine and the branches). I had no clear “message” but I succeed in getting students to think about God through an real life, every day story.

One of the values that I have as a Christian (therefore youth pastor) is to embrace the messiness of life and faith. Not everything makes sense. Faith can be confusing. I attempt to have students think on their own without the need for me (the paid youth minister that went to Bible College therefore is an assumed authority of the Bible) or a person like me to provide a comfortable answer to difficult answers. This can get messy. But I think it’s a necessary mess because too few Christian students can think on their own about God without footnotes or a trusted pastor to tell them what to think. The Kingdom needs free thinking Christians, not people that can spout out Bible trivia.

I’m please how this morning went. I’m not sure what the students took away…but that’s O.K.. I’m trusting God to speak into someone’s life.

Thanks to the FCA of W.C. for the invitation. I was honored by your invitation.