warning: youth ministry can be dangerous

A London newspaper is reported to have run this ad in 1912:

“MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG
MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL.
HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS. SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON”

More than 5000 men–and 3 women–responded to the ad.  Though they never reached the South Pole, and endured some of the horrific ordeal, they all lived to return home.

Interested in youth ministry?  Be warned:  the advertisement for youth ministry could read much like Shackleton’s.

But the payoff–walking with students who are in the throes of their teenage years, helping them process all the changes that their hormones are producing, diving into the murky waters of “what I believe about God and life,” plunging into the darkness of doubts and fears, all with the hope, the fervent belief that God wants them to connect with him!  The God of the universe is intimately acquainted with them, and with us, and he invites us to join his kingdom.  The opportunity to be part of that process, and the subsequent changes that it produces in me/us is stunning!

I am so grateful for the people I’ve had the privilege to share this ministry with, and for what God has done in me along the way.

But, should you choose to become involved, you will not emerge unscathed:  some of those teens bite.

Yes, that’s my thumb.  Yes, that blurry red line is the result of my thumb coming into contact with the teeth of a student.  Yes, my tetanus shot is up to date.

Consider yourself warned!