I work with teenagers.
If you havent figured that out yet than you REALLY need to re-read my blogs :)
But the one thing that is most exciting for the teens and most difficult for the adults is when they discover... each other. By that I mean the boys discover the girls... and the girls discover the boys... and they realize that they actually aren't "icky" but rather "cute".
I hate that moment.
It would sure be nice if they all thought they were "icky" until they were 30.
But we've had some issues with teens and dating, so we have really been talking a lot about it.
Last weekend we decided to have an overnighter... well two actually. One for the boys and one for the girls. We split them up and really challenged the teens. We talked about purity and different aspects that apply to the different groups.
Both overnighters were powerful and effective (at least we think so!).
We followed those up on Wednesday night with a Purity ceremony. We bought purity rings for the teens and gave them the choice to participate. We had 31 teens that decided to commit to pure lives. The thing that ended up almost overshadowing that amazing fact was the unity.
See, a little over a year ago we merged with a Spanish speaking church. Then in January we FULLY merged our two youth groups into one. We are not two different churches meeting in one building... we are ONE church. We are still a bit bound by the language barrier among the adults, but we knew we could do one service.... AND IT WAS AMAZING!
We had everyone worshiping together in English and Spanish, and then we had both pastors, as well as Javier and I. We translated everything into both languages and it was spectacular. I think it's something we'll all remember for a long time to come. It's amazing what God can do, despite the barriers Satan tries to use! Its so cool to see such a united church body of believers that is truly diverse and yet able to worship together!
All the girls:
Pastor Orlando, Me, Javier, and Pastor Rollie (my dad)
all the boys:
Praying
Showing off their rings...
Welcome to my Blog!
I'm a youth pastor in Southern California at a Nazarene church. I've been serving here for about 4 years. We have a large youth group of around 100 teens from all different cultures and backgrounds.
We merged with a Spanish church in January of 07 and our youth groups are now ONE! As of a little more than a year ago, I am working with a co-youth pastor named Javier. If you want to know more about me, you can read my very first blog post here.
I started this blog as a way to remember the amazing things that happen in my everyday life in ministry... the hilarious things that my teens say and do, the joys and victories, and the life stories of the amazing teenagers that are the future of our church, and our world. But I am also glad when it brings encouragement and joy to others. Feel free to leave your comments and let me know you're reading!
I am so blessed to be here, I love my teens... they are my heart!
And by the way...
at our church...
we speak 5 languages!!!
English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Gypsy! :)
Music We Love!
0 comments:
Post a Comment