tell you why.

Earlier today I was asked, "Why would you want to work with High School kids at your church?".... Well, the short answer is, "Because they're awesome!!!"

The people that ask me this usually squish up their face like they just smelled something foul at the same time. I always want to say to them, "You don't really have to make that face, they're just teenagers.....only some of them smell."

For the most part, I volunteer because it is fun, but there are so many other reasons as well. I have never experienced a High School Ministry growing up, It's not something that was even on my radar. Like many of the people who ask me this question (I can tell just by the way they squish up their faces) I had a very tainted view of what a ministry like this was all about. It is not an advanced sunday school where the church herds the teens so the adults don't have to deal with them. It is a Church for young adults who actually want to be there and share the word of Jesus. It is a community of loving caring people who share their worries, doubts, fears and blessings with one another, who lift each other up when they fall, give each other strength, and teach each other how to be better people. Oh my goodness it's just like church.......only with better music! (hahaha)

I honestly believe I learn more from these students than they will ever learn from me. I am just support when needed.

I feel like a truly healthy high school ministry can create leaders from the next generation that were better than the prior. It better prepares the students for the world ahead of them by having them engage in the world around them now. There is accountability and support from not only their peers but from the leaders who are serving them now. Rarely have I seen a student there that didn't truly want to be there.

Now, don't get me wrong, it is not without it's fair share of drama and challenge. Show me one thing in life that isn't without drama and challenge and I will tell you to look deeper. Drama, insecurities, arguements and misunderstandings are a major part of life in general, but in the teenage world they can be amplified.

Through the years adults have either learned how to control some of the emotions, become a bit numb to their surroundings or maybe even a little cynical about the goings on of their everyday lives. I am guilty of it myself. Think about this, when was the last time you truly cared about something so deeply that it made you angry, sad, excited, cautious, giddy, and exhausted all at the same time? When was the last time you called everyone you know to tell them about something silly that happened to you, and couldn't wait till the next day when you could see them and tell them again in person?

As adults we have lost all of that wonder. We don't even speak the same language anymore, the reason adults and teens stare blankly at each other is because we are standing in different dimensions within the same space. We see each other, we hear each other, (some times we can even smell each other..ugh) we speak the same language but most of the time we are not communicating. Adults are stuck in the realm of everyday life, kind of like the guy in the old Duncan Donuts commercial where he gets up every morning, day after day muttering to himself, "Time to make the donuts..." while teens are experiencing the biggest social events of their lives......Highschool.

Their lives are at warp speed right now, everything is constantly moving, never stopping, classes, friends, learning to drive, trying to get a job, applying for college, parents threatening responsibility, boyfriends / girlfriends, best friends, enemies, the social drama, love stress, peer pressure and the constant threat that the real world is BANGING ON THEIR DOOR!........

When that door is opened, without the guidance of caring adults there to help slow them down to the speed of the real world, they will run straight into it at full speed like a bullet to a cinder block wall and when the dust finally settles they will have the same look on their face that I had after my graduation....."What happened? Where do I go from here?"

Growing up I never had the community structure that our teens have. I never had a group of adults who cared about who I was and where I might be going in life, who took the time to get to know me and share their experiences with me. I know I will never fully learn their language again, and to be honest I don't think I should have to (Man, I can't even get the cool handshakes right but who cares, right?) as long as I stay real to myself and to them.

I work with them because guidance should be something that is given willingly, and freely. It may not be all fun and sunshine but it is completely worth it.


Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

(Proverbs 22:6 ESV)


Thank you for reading.
Tom.