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

Youth Ministry Excuse #6 It’s Too Much Work

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It’s too much work. Similar excuses sound like  “it costs too much” and “it’s unreasonable”.

Youth ministry is hard work, it costs money, and is often unappreciated. You should embrace the challenge of the work by bringing your best to it and providing joy because of it. Besides, what did you think you signed up for? Cheap, Easy, and Reasonable? That’s a motel, not a ministry.

It’s too much work is the excuse I hate the most because it denies us a greater return on our investment.

Let me by honest, everyone wants ministry to be easy , stress free, and even prayer free. We don’t even want to have to pray about it. If we don’t even have to pray about it, maybe it’s not be big enough for God to be involved with it, and that’s a bad thing by the way.

I get it. You just want things to work, but the events, camps, and meetings that I’ve put the extra time into, are my most satisfying. The extra work, time, prayer and detail I put into anything, gives me the greatest satisfaction. Even if the event didn’t meet my expectations I never regreted the extra effort.

How To Kill This Excuse:  Weighing Effort vs  Impact

I once drove a car into the chapel at the camp I speak at. It was the biggest, most audacious, illustration I had ever done. I called people, went shopping for rental cars that would fit through the chapel doors and prayed..a lot. I saw in my mind the effect it would have on the kids and how it fit into my message.

The Impact was worth the effort.

I’ve taken kids to jail in a paddy wagon to talk about tithing and robbing God.

I’ve had people build me a jail cell at camp so I could preach as the Apostle Paul.

I’ve shown up in a clown suit to a kids birthday lunch.

There is no limit I will not go to to make a point or bring a joy.

Yes, it will cost you

extra money for a prop,
extra time to make the right slides
extra effort to build and train the team

It’s only too much work if you can’t see the impact it will have.  This means you should stop and dream a little bit more, catch a vision of what the event might look like if you did X.

“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.”
― Helen Keller

We have to remember that God is not sitting idly by watching you work your butts off for nothing. God may be waiting for you to bring your extra to the table so He can bring His blessing.

Dream of the impact and then put in the effort to make that impact a realty.

On to Excuse #7: I’m Afraid

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