Serving Changes US

on November 26th, 2009

One of the great outcomes of a youth mission trip is the cast of characters met while serving. Some interesting people are thrown into the mix – both those who are being served and those with whom you serve. Our camps provide such a rich relational soup – meeting residents who need your service and youth and youth leaders who serve along side of you…. Don’t miss the opportunity to mine for the high grade “ore” of relationships while serving.

I’m particularly grateful for one character met while serving in Haiti. We were visiting a hospital for children with TB when I almost walked past a dimly lit room at the back of the building. I looked inside the room to discover an elderly woman in a rocking chair with a baby in each arm – smiling at first the babies then at me. She explained that she and her husband had been missionaries in Haiti for years and upon retirement had moved home. After many years, her husband had died and she found herself in a nursing home with little to do but rock in a chair. Coming to her senses, she determined to return to Haiti where she could “rock with a purpose”. This is one huge and inspiring story coming from one person who connected to Jesus while serving and it changed her life forever. Serving Jesus changes everything!

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Selfish Serving?

on November 24th, 2009

We have a problem in youth ministry:  kids are selfish.  You know what?  Adults are too.  I know it sounds like an oxymoron – selfish serving.  I’m guilty of doing just that sometimes – selfishly serving to get what I want.  When selfishness gets combined with service it can be pretty ugly and un-productive.  People know when we’re trying to get something from them through our acts of service.  It’s called manipulation or worse and it seems contrived to those who are “beneficiaries” of such service.  Kids in my youth groups knew when I was trying to move them to a different place through disingenuous service.  They got what I was trying to do to and for them and they resisted my efforts.   However, I noticed that when I genuinely served them out of response to Jesus – not for what I could get out of them – my service had an impact.  If we want our youth ministries to possess genuine service in the core of the group, the leaders (you, me, other adults who have influence) must check their serve and open our hearts to genuine open handed Jesus connected service .  That kind of service, the kind we want to see our kids possess in their faith and character, is often caught from a leader who shows the way.  So how’s your serve?

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