Thankyou for yesterdays comments, I will take everything on board, but I did want to clarify the way my thoughts are going and what we are doing.
Believe me, I don't mind who I help, I want to be there for them all, some things have been damaged on the Friday night, a suggestion was made that we make a point and hopefully people will just take a little bit more responsibility and pride in something that is theirs.
I was making the point yesterday, should I have an ulterior motive? I suppose the answer is no, I should just be who I am inspired to be, I just want people to know who the inspirer is. I will always try to help others, whenever I can, and for the same reason, that something inside makes me want to reach out, where maybe others don't, and on these occasions, I am just an anonymous hand, I am just wondering if I should be more than an anonymous hand on a Friday night?
I go out as a street pastor, in uniform, most people will have an idea of who we are. I don't want to preach at people, I certainly don't want to sell Jesus, as I believe if you sell people Jesus, they are likely to bring Him back unwrapped. If people meet Jesus themselves, they might want to know Him, if they do not know it is Jesus they are meeting, how can they know Him?
I don't want to put God in a box, but I am not sure how to let Him out either. I do also believe as a youth club there should be something different, not as much slotting God in, but, as for instance with 24/7, praying, listening, picking people up and probably being a lot more patient than a normal youth club is. Does that make it right that we didn't open last week, I don't know, does that mean I have a hidden agenda, no, just being who I am, a listener, a prayer and a comforter, as God has done for me.
3 comments:
Hi there,
I don't know what you should do about the youth club. Maybe you should restructure is so that opening times are set for specific age groups (not sure if you do this). That way you won't have so many to handle. 70-80 seems an awful lot of kids to handle in one sitting.
I do know that if I was a good kid that did nothing and enjoyed my Friday night out then I would be more than p****d off if it was closed because of some idiots...
My only other comment from yesterday is this. I think you are struggling with what you want to be and represent. I think that you can really be one of two things:
You simply want people to know that you love Jesus. Don't wear a dog collar though :-) That says..."I am different from you" and puts up barriers. You want to help your community but you are not going to ram anything down their throats.
You want people to listen to you and for them to be interested with and join with you in your love of Jesus. (Throating ramming is optional :-) ) This is different entirely.. Those that already love Jesus will join you if they stumble across you, but to reach out to young people that are blinded by so many other things, is going to require (in my humble opinion) some sales techniques. I don't mean anything so vulgar as selling God. I mean more subtle things that present new ideas to young people who are looking for answers, prayer after youth club, teachings, book lending etc etc.
I'm not sure that these two thing are mutually exclusive but you need to know which hat you are wearing and at what times... Youth centre guy hat or preacher hat...
Warning: All thoughts should be taken with a pinch of salt and are simply from an interested person who likes reading your blog, what you are doing and wishes you well..
I don't think
John you said 'should I have an ulterior motive? I suppose the answer is no, I should just be who I am inspired to be, I just want people to know who the inspirer is.'
You are who you're inspired to be and you know from the relationships we have built with the young people at The YC whose hearts have been soften by Jesus and those who are searching for something/one, see your inspirer in you and want to know more.
I know you, and I know you have no ulterior motive in what you do. God may have inspired you to reach out to these young people but ultimatly you choose to do it, God didn't make you.
The young people from The YC who see Jesus in you now come to church on Sunday because they choose to pursue their own personal salvation, and you never sold or preached anything to them. You've just showed them God's love.
Thanks for the comments, the only added thing I want to say is, I don't want to wear 2 hats, just one, and the 'it is the me' hat seems to fit, I suppose that is the first category of wanting people to know who and why I am, rather than the preacher hat, personally I think a dog collar is a good idea. Thankyou for the encouragement as well Tanya, which of course we talk about as well, not just communicate via the PC.
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