How I got started..... Again.

Ok so here's how I got suckered back into youth ministry.

I was working a job that I pretty much hated. So I decided to take a vacation day and to alleviate the guilt of abandoning work for a day I went to an event.

So go figure I ran into the new youth minister (a friend from the days of yore) and a bunch of kids on the way.

And quite frankly I had no intention of getting back into ministry. I doubt many people understand the time commitment necessary to be totally rocking in ministry.

I just wanted to take a day and decompress so I could get back to the grind a little less downtrodden.

Now inevitably when you put a bunch of kids and adults together and whatever has brought them together has some relation to religion or something along those lines there will be questions.

Now this was rather interesting to observe.

I hate to say it but some of the questions were stupid. And yes I know people say there is no such things as a stupid question. But they are wrong has anyone taken the time to examine the previous statement. But that is another post.

And I felt that the answers were less than adequate as well.

Eventually I became exasperated and had to weigh in. I felt that some of the questions and the questioners would have been shut down with proper answers. And I felt that some of the questions would result in less than optimum future actions.

Now unfortunately some of these children come from less than perfect backgrounds. And here comes someone who seems known and liked that also happens to appear to know what they are talking about.

So what happened? They jumped on the situation. And due to the fact that I had been away from ministry from a while, I mistook the enthusiasm of some as a genuine desire to grow as young catholics instead of a ginormous scream for attention.

Finally towards the end of the day one young man asked me if I would be involving myself in ministry again. And I flat out told him no. Then he pointed out to me that there are not enough male role models in youth ministry. And I conceded the point with a non answer hoping that would handle him. And finally at the end of the day. This rather persistent young man told me he would be seeing me Sunday.

Now in my arrogance I assumed that maybe God was using this child to prompt me to return to ministry because I might happen to have gifts which could benefit others and were being wasted in my current situations.

I have learned some things since this day. Many children don't want role models they want someone to tell them that the things they are doing are not bad. And that there is a lack of role models in ministry of both sexes period.

This would be the beginning of an eye opening journey.