erikscottberg.com

I recently subscribed to the RSS Feed for neueministry.com. From their site:

Neue (pronounced “new”) is a creative resource and collaborative community focused specifically on the issues, challenges and opportunities facing emerging ministry leaders.

Today they posted a link to an article from Lifeway Research about a recent study they did on young adults leaving the church. According to their research, more than 2/3 of them (between the ages of 18-22) will stop attending church regularly for at least a year.

As a youth pastor, my job isn’t just to bring students through high school, but to help prepare them for the future. One of the values I want to instill in students is the importance of staying connected to others. It’s the idea that our relationship with God doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We need the love, encouragement and support of others along the way. Hopefully I’m providing opportunities for this to occur and my prayer is that these relationships will be the “glue” (as the article puts it) that keeps these students connected through times of transition.

Anyway, just some thoughts.
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Today we had our annual Speed the Light service at Stone Church. I typically have one chance per year to speak to the congregation as a whole during this missions-focused service. I love having the opportunity to do this, but I must say, I’m wiped out. Planning, preparing and speaking at all three weekend service (Saturday evening and two today) takes quite a bit out of you.

I’m not sure how it happened, but I didn’t plan out the youth calendar for this month very well. We had Open Gym on Friday. I spoke yesterday and today. This Wednesday night we have a special outreach event planned for our students and Saturday we hold our Fall Fest.

I’m not sure what I was thinking, but it should be fun getting through it all.
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Today was one of those days when “tyranny of the urgent” kicked in. From the moment I walked into the office, I was inundated with requests for assistance that took me away from my growing To Do list.

Fortunately, I was able to manage the extra work and get most of what I planned done.

Part of that was getting ready for our Open Gym. Basically we let a bunch of Jr. High and High School students run around in a gym for three hours. There’s lots of sweat. Lots of smell. Lots of awkward adolescence.

We had several visitors tonight and I’m excited that some of our students are beginning to understand that this is the purpose of the event.

So after a crazy hectic day, I don’t mind coming home exhausted because I believe that investing in students is worth it.

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Apparently today is “Talk Like a Pirate” day. You can visit the website here.

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