As a camp speaker for 20 years, I've had some epic and strange moments with students, this was one of them. A young lady showed up one night to chapel with this t-shirt that said, "Paul in Training." I was both honored and saddened.
You see, I didn't want kids to be more like me, I wanted kids to be more like Jesus. I'm not saying that wasn't her goal, but sometimes personalities can get in the way of true spiritual growth. I guess I was an influencer before my time.
In my book The Disciple Project, I make a distinction between youth group and youth church.
Youth Group says, "Be more like us, wear our shirts and logos, use our lingo"
Youth Church says, "Walk like Jesus."
Students shouldn't be training to be more like us, but more like Christ.
My hope is, in the end, I didn't hinder this young lady's spiritual growth due to personality and stage presence and that she found her true identity in Christ.
Have a great week,
Paul
P.S. I'm going to be changing up the format of the newsletter next week with the hopes of bringing you more answers and less research.
Still time to get your whole fall planned and now at 50% off
5th Quarters can be a great outreach but make sure you watch this videos so you'll cover all the bases. Pardon the janky recording, this is one of my early Youtube videos, but the advice holds up.