It's hard to know sometimes, whether I'm doing the right "thing" or not as a youth pastor.

There's no set criteria except "preaching the word" and discipling young people. The problem is no matter who you are, you're going to bring your own personality or agenda into the mix.
I often find myself being nervous about whether my leaning is the right one for our youth group.

I put high priority on relationships and preaching, but so many other ministries seem to put all of it on events and preaching, games and relationships, or "coolness" and training.
All of those elements can be productive for making fully devoted followers of Christ, but when I hear other Youth Pastor's talk about what they're doing, I feel so different.

For example, I know a guy who has got to be one of the smartest men alive, when it comes to Reformation Theology. He can talk up and down about the Romans road, but couldn't tell a joke or build a relationship with a teen to save his own life.

I know other guys who can put together a calendar full of fun events, but couldn't preach his way out of a whole in the ground.

On the other hand, both of these guys seemed to have ministries with kids coming out of the wood work.

The question for them is "what kind of Christ follower is leaving your group after graduation?"

So I should look to the famous guys right?

Well sometimes that does in deed help. But, they can't do my job for me. And what can really get to me, is the fact that I can't always figure what's getting through and what's not. Arg.

If my youth pastor would have known who I was and what I was doing as a teen, he would have been so hurt, frustrated, and confused that he might have thought he was never getting through to me.
BUT HE WAS

And his lessons and the relationship that he built with me have helped mold me into a better man today, so I try not to stress.

Capitalism Sucks

What does the "work" or "job" world tell you? You produce or your worthless to the company's bottom line and you're fired.
So how do I "measure" whether I'm worthless or not?

yeah I know... "God made you..." Ok, so I'll sprinkle myself with happy Jesus juice and I won't be nervous anymore right?

Wrong.

I'm confident in the word, my God, and nothing else. I just hope and pray I'm doing right.

Because all of these books (i.e. you're not a real Christian unless you read them) claim to know they're doing things right (though they don't claim perfection) and talk about other churches (not by name) who are screwing it up...
So how do I know if I'm one those "look at that guy, don't do that" cases?

I guess I'll know if I'm ever as cool as one of those author's.


That brings me to another point completely.
I love, respect, and praise God for the Doug and the guys over at Simply. I just don't think it's fair to them to build them up so high. I don't hang on every word that the guy says, I just consider his thoughts because of His wisdom and experience.

If I ever got to hang with him, I'd want to minister to him more than him minister to me, because that's what you do for the people that have helped you so much.

I just wish people would lay off of him and stop kissing his... behind so much.

Praise God for the guy, but don't magnify him beyond something that he isn't.
I'm pretty sure he would feel the same way.