I'm the Wrong person for the Job!

I'm the wrong person for the job. I can't even tell you how often I've told God this.

Here's the deal. I'm 50 ish, white, a woman and not a minister. I've never "out grown" working with students. But here is where I am all wrong. I work with really cool youth ministers. They are young. They are cool - so totally cool. They text each other in another language I can't even read. I still need vowels.

They shave their heads. They are really good speakers. And God called me to "connect them." I cried and begged and pleaded and told him I would follow Him, but this would take me 3 times as long, because I am all wrong for the job. First of all, I'm the wrong gender. For the most part, they are all male. I'm not.

Second of all, I'm the wrong age group. They are all 20 - 30 ish. I'm almost old enough to be their mother . . .

But we all love students. And we all love God. Those are the big things, right?

Yesterday (Acutally 1/14/10, but this has taken awhile to process!), I held a meeting. It was an amazing time. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all. It was a stressful meeting. I was on the hot seat for much of it - answering for past actions that were misunderstood. Years ago, I realized without love, without relationships, there was no love to cover misunderstandings or miscommunications. So, I answered to the best of my ability, hoping that who I am and Who I serve would shine through. I just tried to relax and let God talk thru me. I prayed and then answered. And those guys needed those answers to clear up all the misunderstandings and miscommunications, that I didn't even know were there.

My misunderstanding: I thought they were so absorbed in their own churches, they didn't care about connecting with each other or serving the community. I was wrong.

I had tried to build relationships, but really who wants to hang out with their mom?

I remember what it was like to rebuild the Youth Ministry Alliance in 1997 or 1998. We were moving from a night time, part time youth pastor meeting to a day time full time youth pastors meeting. I had a wonderful youth pastor commit to being there with me. Thank God for Doug Brown! For several years, it would be me and Doug Brown and one other youth pastor - who would rotate. The classic meeting was 3 people, it's just that the third person rotated. Sometimes, it would just be me and Doug Brown.

It was a painful several years, but finally, it took off. Frankly, we did a skate night and the next meeting there were 8 or 10 youth pastors there. I was totally shocked.

My expectations for the Youth Ministry Alliance were about the same this time. I expected to move alone for a while, gradually, slowly, more would see the goal of unity and working together and over time, we would become a team.

This wonderful youth minister - Bryan - who I met with 2 years ago - decided to call these other youth pastor guys and ask them to come to the meeting. He told them "I need you to be there." People who told me no, told him yes. I'm use to showing up and being thankful for 3! There must have been 10 people there!

The out come of all this is: I am going to have 2 wonderful youth pastors join my Baccalaureate Committee. I'm going to move my struggling Pearland Youth Ministry Alliance meeting to Wednesday Lunch time and they are all going to come. And, get this - I don't have to recruit a presenter - they just want to "fellowship".

I'm the wrong person for this job, but God has called me. I'm sure to show His power, because anyone who looks at this will say: How did you do this?

Because God is God. Because God is good. Because Bryan made phone calls. Because I didn't give up! Pearland - in one lunch - now has a thriving youth ministry network!