The Less-Than-Safe-Sanctuaries Edition!

I have this internal battle as a youth minister.  On one side, I want to create an atmosphere of discipleship, where everyone is following Christ wholeheartedly.  On the other and more realistic side, I realize the reality that most young people are exploring what they do and don’t believe, and that there are people present in my ministry who are definitely not trying to be disciples of Christ.  So what is my role as the minister? To attract anyone and everyone, to plan fun events sprinkled with works of mercy and piety to peak their interest in Christ?  There’s loads of time bonding together, definitely moments of closeness to Christ, and then inevitably, something akin to the streaking in this week’s comic (though thankfully I haven’t had to deal with that yet…)

We want to offer grace, we want to connect to people on their level (and right now, youth are very interested in outreach).  John Wesley was taught to preach (or practice) faith until you have it, and that’s what I’m trying to do in my youth ministry…  I’m interested in other people’s thoughts on it.

By the way, this whole comic came out of a conversation with a non-Christian friend of mine who said he didn’t fathom my job, and imagined this scenario when I told him I was taking a group of 20 kids to do missions in Florida for Spring Break.