There were two things that made for a good weekend. The first, which I’ve already posted about, was Valerie coming home. (Did I mention we missed her? Oh yeah, I did but it bears repeating, her aunt and I really missed her!) The other thing…the other thing…I was elected to the Board of Youth Ministry. I will serve as co-chair with a friend, whom I also consider part of my extended family, serving as the chair.
What makes this so funny for me right now, is that within the last month, I was told that I wasn’t capable of understanding children because I don’t have any little raggamuffins of my own. (Oh, that’s a whole other post, isn’t it?)
I had four people come up to me before the voters meeting and tell me how excited they were that I agreed to serve. “What these kids need is a little discipline as well as someone who understands them” is what one woman told me. The other three echoed the first’s point of view.
The first thing I had to remind each of them is that I’m only serving as co chair this year. Just because I can take charge and lead, doesn’t mean I will. To automatically think that, just because I’m fifteen years older than the chair, I'm going to be running the show is really doing the chair a gross injustice.
The punch line of all of this is that none of the people who talked to me before the voters meeting have children in our youth group! Yep, that one is going keep me going for a while.
Congratulations! You can bank on it being a rather thankless job -- perfect for a theologican of the Cross. Even so, youth ministry is often one of the first to fall to fads and tricks -- your thoughtful analyses will be a great blessing to your congregation.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I served as President and Treasurer of our Child Care Board of Directors. At the time, we had no children and were once told during a heated discussion that we "could never understand" because we had no children. The funny part was that this accusation came from a couple incapable of having children, who had to adopt from Korea. Logic and parenting are often as far removed as whipped cream and health food.