Seeing God in all of Life

Dear Church,

I have heard from your Senior Pastor of the great faith and hope that you have in Jesus.  I am greatly encouraged to also hear of the investment you have made and the desire you have for a strong youth ministry.  The developing Young Adult ministry is also a great encouragement.  Your desire to impact younger generations are one that I hope to be a part of.  Through this letter it is my hope that you see what my heart longs for in ministry and the vision I hold for these ministries.

Today I watched a student play the greatest game of baseball in his life.  In fact he may receive a scholarship after a game like today.  You should have seen the excitement on his face and the proud look his parents had. 

Last week, sitting in Wendy’s across the table from a student who was struggling with the separation of her parents, I was at a loss for words.  If only you could have seen the tears, and all I wanted to do was tell her that everything was going to be ok and that her parents were going to be together again but I couldn’t. Not knowing if her family would ever be the same again all I could do was be there for her and pray with her.   

The above stories, while mostly fiction, are examples of the powerful impact living life together can have.  Being there has an amazing way of showing the incredible love that we have for students and subsequently shows the great love God has for them.  A willingness to be involved in a student’s life is, I believe, essential to the development of a growing relationship with God.  Everyone wants to feel like they belong, like people want them to be around and everyone wants to feel like someone cares about them.  These types of relationships are what I see this ministry revolving around.

Developing strong relationships with the volunteers, parents and students would be my first priority in my vision.  I would hope to get together, away from distractions, with the volunteer team to create a vision for the next three years with checkpoints at every year.  Moving beyond the vision are the events and methods of creating this ministry with these types of relationships.  Some of our possible events to be attractive are those of paintball, camps, retreats, house parties, mission trips, girl’s night out, guy’s night out, around town scavenger hunts, lock-ins and concerts.  For relationship development and discipleship we may have: small groups, worship experiences, breakfast or lunch with students, occasionally attending student’s activities, one on one mentoring, service projects, mission trips, camps and retreats.  The previous lists are not all the activities but are a small sampling of some of the possibilities.    

My hopes are that this group would become a group that when students walk in they walk in as friends, but when they leave they leave as part of the family.  I envision a group that has a great time together while creating strong disciples of Jesus.  I also see a group that grows not only by attractive events, but more importantly, by the love that they see our students having for each other and Jesus.

As I begin to close this small abstract of what I hope to see in the youth ministry at your Church, I would like to say a few more specific words to a few people:

First to the parent, in a world of constantly changing culture, technology and media it can be a challenge just to keep up.  I hope through time you will allow me to be on your side, partnering with you to keep you up to date on the latest trends and hopefully answer the all important question of ‘what is a tweet?’.

To the volunteer, I am anxiously awaiting the day that we can join together as a team and dream where God would have the youth ministry go. May your love for students shine through the bonds and friendships you create with them.  My hope and prayer is that you would find five students who you can deeply connect with and pour your life into, that you can bring the best out of them.  I pray that by your life, they would come to know and grow in faith through Jesus.

Last and most definitely not least, to the students, I am extremely excited about the fun times we are going to have together from shooting paintball at one another to praying with each other, from screaming together on the newest rollercoaster or yelling and raising our hands at a concert, from running around town for clues to standing in anticipation as you prepare to throw a pie at me.  In all of this I am most excited about getting to know you where you are and exactly for who you are, the way God has designed you to be.  My hope is that you would see the greatness of God and His strong desire to be a part of your life.

I close with this; Jesus had twelve disciples, whom he spent at least three years of his life with.  Jesus ate with them, taught them, slept in a boat beside them, fed them and was even betrayed by one of them.  Yet in all of this, He still loved them and us.  I only hope that we can in a small way show the students in your area this kind of love, a love that Jesus was willing to die for.

My wife, Ashley, and I are greatly looking forward to getting the opportunity to meet everyone!

May the grace and peace of Jesus be upon you,

Brian Lawson