so…in our youth worker meeting meeting the other night we talked at great length about discipline. No not the book of Discipline all you good methodists, but rather the question of how we as youth workers respond faithfully to the antics of young people in a way that shows grace and love and caring while still providing a place where all can come and learn and be themselves. This seems to be one of the hardest questions for me to answer. I know that no one comes into youth ministry to be the bad guy Drill Sargent because the kids will break that mentality quickly and there is little grace in that. Yet I feel my heart drawn to the kids on the margins and of course they are going to be a little more off the wall. Yet, as a youth pastor on the larger level I love my time with the leadership and mentoring relationships. I feel like that is where the real growth comes from.
So my task, having already accepted it, is how to find a place where my off the wallers are comfortable to be themselves and where my leaders can grow and be fed…we will see.
