I have been thinking a lot lately about how amazing God is and how cool it is when we sit back and just let him work. I try really hard as a youth pastor not to get caught up in numbers. It's great to have a big youth group and everything, but what matters most is individual teens and their individual lives...
But I was sitting in youth group Wednesday night and realizing how much God has blessed us with numbers too. When I started almost 4 years ago, we had less than 10 teens that came. Now we're close to 100 active teens.
I got our picture back from summer camp this summer... the one of just our teens. And I couldn't help but think back to the first year I took teens to camp. I think we had 5 that went. We had few enough that they fit in 2 cars (with all of their luggage). This year, we had to rent a school bus. We had almost 40 teens that went.
In addition to the great growth in numbers, God has done some amazing things in the lives of our individual teens. We've had many teens accept Jesus for the first time (about 10 in the last month or so), and we've had many that have re-dedicated their lives, been called to ministry, started leadership roles, encouraged others students (and their youth pastors), taken a stand for their faith with family and friends, gone to Bible clubs at school, invited their friends to church, fought HUGE spiritual battles, and made a difference for Christ in the world.
Wow, God is amazing.
I'll leave you with this picture of our teens at camp.
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!
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