Sadly, saying “I’ll pray about it” can be an excuse. It can be a stall tactic.
Other spiritual excuses include, but are not limited to,
I don’t fill led to …
I don’t feel it’s God’s will to …
The Spirt hasn’t told me to …
Most of these excuses are used as a way to avoid hard things, like discussions we should have with people we do not like (that’s a big one of mine).
Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. – George Washington Carver
God has called you and I to bold things and, yes, prayer is a part of doing the work we do with teenagers. In fact, we can’t do the work without it, but prayer should never act as excuse not to act on what we already know what to do and are just afraid to do it.
I’ve laid a lot of my failures at God’s feet and asked “Why?” when I should have taken responsibility (action) for the excuses I made that led to the failure.
How Do I Kill This Excuse: Keep Going Until God Says Stop (Action)
Many times we are waiting for the green light, the go ahead from God; but what if He’s waiting on us to get moving first?
We’d rather lay out fleeces and wait until the conditions are just right before we take the first step.
There are plenty of things we don’t have to pray about
Should I develop an outreach strategy?
Yes.
Should I disciple students?
Yes.
Should I create a pathway for kids to worship in the weekly meeting?
Yes.
Should I engage with teens on social media?
Yes.
It’s not IF you should do these things, it’s WHEN and HOW and HOW OFTEN which will require some prayer, but once you know, you need to go ahead and do it.
Yet, the sound of so much foot dragging is deafening. It sounds like a herd of zombies from The Walking Dead shuffling their feet to nowhere in particular.
I know this sounds harsh, but excuses will kill a ministry and then we chalk it up to “God must not want a big, growing, effective, (pick a word) youth ministry or He would have done something.”
We must stop using God as a scape goat for our lack of action and do, as this quote often attributed to Wesley John Wesley says
“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
In other words, just go until God says stop.
Pray about it and then do it. Go until God says stop.
Start this series from the beginning The 10 Excuses Killing Your Youth Ministry