a blog for those starting out...

Youth Ministry can be rough. It can also be incredible and exhilarating at times as well.

I've been doing fulltime Youth Ministry for almost 10 years now. One of the most humbling things about doing youth ministry is that now, at least one of my former students is doing youth ministry himself. There's a whole domino effect there that is both incredibly humbling and insanely scary.

But I remember those first days (and I feel like Screwtape writing to Wormwood here). Sitting in my office... looking around... dreaming... planning... vision casting... trying to figure it all out... It can be a very exciting time.

This past week, one of my former youth ministry students, Kraig Bishop, began his own youth ministry in Ironton, Ohio. He's also started a blog (CHECK IT OUT HERE) to catch some of his thoughts... Here's a couple that caught my attention:
"so i've read all the books and taken all the classes and last friday they even gave me a piece of paper that says i have a bachelor of science degree. saturday i drove a big uhaul from Knoxville, TN to Ironton, OH while my parents followed in my car. we moved all the boxes in saturday and went to church sunday morning. by monday morning at 7:55am, i was sitting in my office trying to decide what to do."
"i love the people of this church. they are some of the most warm and loving people i have ever met and they care about the youth of this area. i have never had my hand shaken more times than i do every single day here. i love it and i can't wait to get even more started than i already have gotten started!"

Feel free to drop by and check out the recent learnings of someone trying to get started.

Jim