Discouragment

I think one thing that we all face at one time or another is a certain amount of discouragement. A time when you are putting your best foot forward and things just don't go the way you want them to. Well I was facing one of those days this week.

It's way to easy to get caught up with numbers when you're working in youth ministry. It seems that we adopt this false view that success is based on size, and to a certain degree it is, if a youth group is healthy than it is going to increase, but size is not the standard by which success is measured. Let's just get that out of the way, I know this and understand that. However there is something in the genetic make - up of youth pastors, at least the ones that I know including myself that can be seduced by the numbers game. We also put those pastors with "large" youth groups in leadership positions formally or informally because of the size of their pack.

After reading through two thirds of Mark Oestreicher's book Youth Ministry 3.0
I've come to understand that youth culture has splintered in such a way that it is going to be difficult to reach Large groups of students and that this one to one relational connection with an adult is what is going to make the spiritual impact. That has always been true but it is going to become even more important in the future.

I've been reading a lot of reviews of Marko's book on his blog ysmarko.com and this book has put into words what I've been struggling with for awhile and has kept me from burning myself out trying to create another program that will solve the problems that we are facing with our youth ministry. The truth is, there isn't a program out there that will solve the problem. This sets you free to start exploring new things without second guessing yourself. I appreciated this book a lot and would reccomend it highly!