Youth Ministry

"Youth ministry takes people who dare to be available for God and
allows them to rise to greatness for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Youth Ministry is grueling hours, continual heartbreak, a wretched
stomach, verbal abuse, money, time-time-time, loving the seemingly
unlovable, listening, caring, reaching out and praising God for
kids.

People in youth ministry as well as any other aspect of Christian
service must be searching for ways to be used by God to effect the
present and future. They are people who are dreaming dreams as they
reach for the stars and grasp the hand of there Creator while
walking with the Son.

Youth ministry is scrubbing floors, setting up tables, staying up
half the night struggling with a Biblical principle and coming to
grips with how to communicate this principle to the kids.

Youth ministry is whatever we allow God to do through us, the kids,
and those around us. It's helping a family through the tragic death
of a teenage son, the rape of a daughter, or the death of a mother.
It's struggling with someone as they wrestle with whether life is
worth living.

Youth ministry can feel like Heaven or Hell on earth. It is
watching kids grow in the Lord and giving in to temptation--it's
laughing with them and crying with them. Youth ministry is living
in the midst of their heartaches, failures, victories and struggles
during which you're praying God will give them the strength and
stamina to stand before the world and claim Jesus Christ as their
Lord.

Youth ministry is a way of living not a job, party, program or
Sunday School class. It's allowing God to have and use our total
being to touch the lives of hurting, crying, love- starved teens as
they grow into adulthood."

- Mike Lewis