students

Tuesday has become a very long day for me. It's good because I get to do a lot of the stuff that I like - and it's bad because I barely see my family. It's good because we just hired a good guy who works part time with me - and Tuesdays is one of those days - but it's so busy it feels like I'm just throwing projects at him all day.

The hardest part of my last job was that there was rarely a point of completion. You never felt like you were done. There was always something going on...and when you work in relational ministry - it's not like you're done once you've cranked out some program.

I think that's the appeal of most student ministries that I've seen. The majority of the churches I've seen are more about the world's biggest pizza party than they are about going to where the students hang out. I'd ask someone working with students how many nights they have kids visit and they'd just look at me blankly, like..."why would they come to my house?" And I'd look at them with my, "seriously? You don't have kids in your home a couple of times a week?" and they'd return their, "what does that have to do with me getting a lot of kids to show up at my events?" and then I'd think, "yup, that's too bad" ...or something like that.

There's a great line from an E.M. Bounds book that I'll paraphrase because I don't have it in front of me right now. "God is far more concerned with people than He ever will be with programs" He doesn't care how many are showing up nearly as much as you do. He doesn't get all that excited about the cool video or creative illustration as you do either.

I believe He's excited about the people quietly showing up at the schools 3 or 4 days a week. Folks that are spending time in the world of a student - they're the one's creating relationships that impact students. It doesn't show up in their stats - but I believe it shows up on internal change-o-meter of these kid's lives. (it's a real thing)