Youth ministry

Teenagers are like animals, they can smell your fear. Give me a class of primary school children, give me parents, give me seniors, give me a speaking gig to a crowd of 1000's, but give me teenagers and you've given me a death sentence. At least that was my thought as Sarah and I began youth ministry this year.

Thankfully our first couple of weeks have demonstrated things are never as bad as they appear. We even got some positive feedback from one of the parents who when asking their child what he thought of the new leaders replied "They're alright. They're not too Christian." The comment could be taken a number of ways but the parent saw it as a positive so I will too.

Another highlight came during the interview at church to introduce us to the congregation. We'd been lovingly given the questions beforehand to prepare our answers, but problems arose when Costa tried one off the cuff. "You're both bloggers. Why do you blog and what do you blog about?" So far so good, that was one of the prepared questions. "Sarah, your blog is called simplici-tea [Cue powerpoint slide, and unhelpfully leading question] - do you prefer teabags or pot?"

Sarah: "I've recently converted to pot."

[Cue uncontrolled sniggering building to full blown laughter from teenagers]

It'll take a long time to live that one down. As I said, they can smell your fear.