One of the things that I am starting to enjoy most this year is that I am beginning to be able to spend more time working with people and less time organising programs. Now, I am not as anti-programs as many are. I see their place in ministry. As long as the programs are serving the vision and the vision is not serving the programs, they are ok. When I started last year, where the youth ministry was at required me to spend significant periods of my time making sure the various programs we wanted to run, happened. For most of 2010 my week consisted of putting things together for the weekly youth program, this was just necessary for where we wanted to get to.

Just this past week I spent more time in one of one meetings/catch ups than I spent in the office doing program stuff. This is only going to grow as I continue to find and start to develop young leaders in the ministry. I am also getting the opportunities to get alongside 2-3 youth at a time, as opposed to the whole group. This also will continue to grow as time goes by.

One of the biggest reasons I have started to be able to do this is because I have more people involved across a broader spectrum. Last year we actually had more ‘leaders’, but they were all involved in the one area. This year we have slightly fewer (though that is looking like it is about to change too), but they are involved in a broader spectrum of activities. It isn’t that they are themselves doing more (though a few are), but that we are being specific and strategic about what and how our leaders operate. We’ve looked closely at where they are gifted and passionate and looked at how these things best fit within the ministry.

I spoke about rhythms in a previous briefing, which is very similar to seasons. There clearly are seasons in developing a youth ministry. I just so happen to be really enjoying the current season that we are in! I can see some challenges coming that currently are in the distance, but which I know will arrive. I am already beginning to formulate plans to tackle those challenges when they arrive but for now I really am enjoying being involved in more peoples lives and less administrative matters (as much as I do love to organise things!)

Another Sunday, another briefing. This one will be short as I am both busy and don’t particularly have a lot to share. I will likely have more to share in a week or two, as I reflect on this period of time, but for the moment much of what I am thinking about is still developing and is not ready for blogging!

Tonight is a big night for The Hub. By big I mean we will learn a fair bit about how we will approach the plant from here till August. We are doing a bit of a special event tonight. If it goes well, we will likely look to do a few more special events (perhaps 1 every 6 weeks) between now and August. If tonight doesn’t go so well then we’ll have to reflect on our strategy and seek God again for guidance about what he would have us do. For now we feel confident that we are doing as God would desire, but I suppose we will see tonight.

Sync Youth is also really starting to kick off. We are close to what I would consider a ‘critical mass’, which is very exciting only two weeks in. What excites me more is that the youth we have appear to have a real openness to going deeper. I don’t just want to get lots of kids along, I want to challenge our teenagers to really go deep and grapple with what faith is all about and what it could mean for their lives.

This week should allow me a little time to reflect and get set for the next few weeks. I’ll be looking to consolidate over the next little while, in every area, and I am looking forward to that.