Heading towards Youth Sunday 2009

Hey everyone. Well, it seems like there is never any down time around here. Just when we thought we could breathe following Silver Birch we have begun trudging full steam ahead towards Youth Sunday 2009, which is February 8th. As our staff knows all too well Youth Sunday normally carries the moniker "Doomsday Sunday" in my mind, as it always seems to be more of a headache then anything else. I guess I've never really been a fan of youth Sunday as I have often struggled to see the point of it, other then providing church goers the chance to laugh at kids who make mistakes and cause plenty of anxiety for those chosen to have speaking parts. For all the hours that get poured into I've often wondered if it's an effective use of our ministry's time and energy. I especially struggle since our students are so active in the planning of their own monthly worship service anyway. It's kinda like "why are we doing this?" This year I have a better attitude because we have been doing some really exciting things with the service. We have put together our very own 20 piece "rock orchestra," which I am really pumped about. I have to admit that I worried about how it would pull together, but the students and our church music director have worked really hard and are going to add so much to worship. What also excites me is that our juniors will be presenting a great message. They will be revealing the new name for our ministry, BLAST, which is an acronym for the five major purposes of our entire ministry. Not only are they the purposes for our ministry, but they are five Biblically based parts of living a Christian life that all of us should be following daily. The service is just dripping with meaning and purposes, and I feel like God is really going to use it in a positive way. So yes, I have to actually admit that maybe Youth Sunday is a really great thing after all, and I'll even admit it very proudly.