Come and help me out with the youth group. Those are very dangerous words, yet I think most of us in ministry have used them many times. To be blunt.. how arrogant can we be… And yes I was the most arrogant of them all. Let me tell you what I mean. When I first got into youth ministry back in the 80’s I was a one man show, a lone ranger. I knew that God had called me to youth ministry, so I took that call very seriously and wanted to make sure it was done RIGHT! So I was pretty sure that I was the only one who could really do it right. My first couple of years I did not even use volunteers,I guess I did not trust anyone else. After going to a couple of youth ministries training’s I was finally convinced to get some volunteers to HELP ME out. So what that meant was very simple, come HELP me. Those first lucky volunteers got the privilege of sitting in the back of the room and making sure everyone behaved during the program, and if they were really good volunteers I would allow them to hand out cookies… WOW. But I could not figure out why all of my volunteers would leave after a couple of months of shushing kids and handing out cookies. I just thought they did not have what it took to be in the world of Youth Ministry. After all, I did all the hard stuff, welcome, announcements, music, games and speaking, why were they leaving. Finally I had some one who was honest enough with me to speak the truth, ROG I know that God has better things for me to do then hand out cookies. Finally God got my attention, ministry was NOT ABOUT ME. Yep it was not all about me. And guess what, it is Not our Youth Ministry, it is Gods, and he has just simply allowed us to be a part of it. But lets take this a step further, think about our ministries. When I was a one man show, it was OK,but I have to think that the kids got sick of seeing me on stage all the time , every week. Maybe we need to realise that someone out there just might lead music better then we do, or lead games. Don’t we want to give our kids the best,give God the best. We may not always be the best. Sense God finally got it through my thick head, our ministry has grown and has defiantly gotten better. It is simple multiplication, If I can appeal and reach 15 to 20 kids, what if I train 15 adults who can reach and appeal to 15 or 20 kids, well now we are making a impact. At my last ministry we had a car ministry, I hate car stuff, but I had a volunteer leader who loved cars, so every week he had a group of 10 to 15 guys and they would work on each other cars and just hang out and talk about life.

Maybe it is time for us (The Professional ) to take a back seat and spend most of our time training and investing into the lives of the adults that God throws our way. After all it is not ALL ABOUT US right!

Oh YA, you just might have someone who loves handing out cookies…. Let them.