Visiting an Old yet New group

I stepped into the all too familiar doorway; the gateway I had dared venture through so many years ago for the first time as a young middle school student. I walked into the retro youth room looking around for what I was familiar with. The decor was the same, the sponsors were the same, and the atmosphere felt the same; but it was all different. I walked over and bought the stereotypical can of Mountain Dew that I used to buy and partook in small dialogues with the adult sponsors until it was time to start. At seven I drifted to the back of crowd and found a very inconspicuous seat where I could observe out of anyone's view. As we sang worship songs, led by my brother, I looked around and noticed the dynamics. I saw who the groups were and who were the "outsiders" and I noticed that everyone seemed to belong; in their distracted minds they all were a part of community. 

In observing the community I finally felt like an outsider. I finally felt like an adult, not in a bad way, but in a growing way. I sat in the back expecting not to talk to anyone when my youth pastor came back and cracked a few jokes with me and asked me to lead the group in prayer. So as I prepared to pray he gave me a short introduction since I used to be a student and intern there and in describing my summer job he allowed for my adult feeling to stay. Upon praying I returned to the back of the crowd and observed everyone as I listened to his lesson. I immediately noticed the ones who appeared to not be listening but were, the ones who appeared to be listening but weren't, the ones who were attentively listening and the ones who I could tell wanted to listen but their friends were distracting them. Sitting amongst the crowd helps one going into youth ministry understand student dynamics better I think. This might be unique to my desire to figure out people and why they do what they do. 

At the end of the lesson everyone went outside to play games together and it was beautiful to see that there wasn't someone inside alone; everyone had a friend to be with. I remembered when I had attended there was always one or two students who didn't relate to everyone the most so they would stay near the adult sponsors or leave right after group. It was so nice to witness a group where that wasn't the case and everyone had a friend group that they could connect with. It was refreshing seeing the students who were young when I attended being leaders now and the new students being brought up in the Way of Christ. 

I caught up with the adult sponsors and then headed out, with anew feeling of adulthood and with a burning desire for my summer job with YouthWorks and a willingness to be used by God in my journey to walk alongside teenagers. 

These were simply the thoughts from the dust of the former youth intern at Ship Naz.