Giving youth pastors the tools they need to make and shape disciples.

Three Reasons I’ll Volunteer Again At The #NYWC

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NYWC

Welcome to my 400th blog post! I never thought it would happen but I’m glad it did. Thank you all who read my scribblings and I hope to write 400 more in 2015. Please tell me how I can best serve you and you youth ministry.

I am reflecting on my time at the Youth Specialties NYWC in Atlanta this year. This year was a different kind of year for me because I volunteered instead of just attended. I have to say attending it alone sucked. My team never had enough money and I had no money to give them to go so my learning experiences were very lonely. Volunteering was actually the best thing I could have done and here’s why I’ll do it again.

  • Instant Community – Attending anything alone is like the Junior High dance. You go to the dance and hoping someone, anyone will dance with you but eventually wind up holding up the wall. Volunteering put me community immediately with other youth workers like myself and the ice breaking process became much easier. In fact I seem to remember us dancing quite a bit, so Take That Jr. High dance!
  • Re-Learning Team Building Skills – For most part of an average day i work alone. I set my own schedule and plan what I want. Working with the YS team was a refresher course in team work. I learned how things worked at YS  and how to work along-side others different from myself in personality and experience.
  • It Was My Personal Missions Trip – Let me be honest, I could not afford the NYWC trip but I felt like I needed to get away from the church for a while. I like the sessions and all that is going on but after 10 YS events I am pretty sure I knew what to expect. I needed the unexpected. I needed God to show up, not in a seminar or in speakers but in serving and He did just that. I could have have gorged myself on a buffet of activities but I found that serving was what this soul needed most.

Your Turn

Have you every volunteered at the NYWC? When and which one? How was it? What did you receive from serving?

What do you do to break your routine so you can have a spiritual breakthrough?

Have you ever taken off leading a missions trip so that you could go on a missions trip? What was that like?

 

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