Just Sit With Me
One of the greatest impacts that I had during my time in youth ministry as a student was our Wednesday night gatherings that we called, “The Mix”. At the Mix, we were encouraged to sit and eat dinner with students who weren’t in the same grade level as we were. On top of that, we were asked to sit with that person at worship that night. This often times made people feel very awkward, especially guests. It is something that took a lot to be intentional about, and very easy to make excuses about why I couldn’t take time to talk with someone else outside of my group. The whole point was to “Mix It Up”, do something different, talk to someone new, get out of your comfort zone, be willing and receptive to new people and things that God sets in front of you.
What I found during that time, especially as I inched closer and closer to graduation was that there were many people before me who accepted the challenge to, “Mix It Up”, and most of the time, that person simply sat with me, ate chicken nuggets, pizza, or sandwiches with me, and asked me about how I was as a person. There wasn’t an agenda, there wasn’t a box to check for them. They would simply take 15 minutes to sit and talk with someone new. This is our vision during our times that we gather together as a youth ministry. We want to know and love our fellow student. We don’t want this passive relationship that checks the box. We want something deeper. We want to be known and see like God sees us and knows us. That is where you come in.
Over time, as these relationships formed at the Mix, we implemented small groups by grade that met after our worship time that night. These leaders would listen to the same lesson we did, worship to the same songs that we did, and they felt like members of our family. My groups would take time to talk about the lesson, but what our leaders realized is that there were a lot of areas of our lives that we didn’t get the opportunity to talk about. Whether that be a victory or a hurt, they urged us to speak that. They urged us to dive deep to see the areas of our life that we just wanted someone to listen to us for just a few minutes. They knew the value of sitting and listening to someone beg and plea for God to intervene, and simply prayed that God would come near to us in this moment, in this area that we desperately needed his loving arms to surround us in.
There has never been more of a demand for people to be involved in youth ministry. For someone to simply hear and pray with our students. As we sit in the presence of God, would you sit with our students? Will you hear their hurt? Their joy? Their dreams? If this is the person that you needed when you were going through your middle and high school years, come and talk to me. Come and sit with our students. We have trips to Nashville (June 25-July 1) to serve and camp in Dallas (July 10-15) where we would love for you to partner with our students as they seek to be become the resilient disciples that God has created them to be.