NYMC Day 3

Well another great day, that is for sure. I have to admit, I hate that tomorrow means back to the "real world" but I think I am almost as excited to get back into things as I was about being here. I still have a lot to process and a lot of work to do, but I think this conference has helped me take a few steps in the right direction.

So here is what I'll have to chew on from today. Greg Stier spoke tonight about "Challenging/Difficult" conversations. He emphasized the fact that we HAVE to have those difficult conversations with our kids even when we are afraid of the outcome. Again I thought-how do they know exactly where I am? In addition to the idea of having these conversations, he mentioned that we need to allow kids to question and process through the difficult questions and let God work the answers. Our job as youth ministers is to work through the issues WITH the students, and not necessarily always have the answers, but be committed to finding the answers with the students. Again this will be a challenge for me, because I have always thought I had to have all the answers since I was the youth pastor. So with that said I am glad that I now have the freedom to say I don't know, but let's find out together which will hopefully lead to deeper meaningful relationships with students.

So this has been an awesome weekend. I highly recommend ANY youth worker attending this conference next year...especially if you live in Ohio since it's in Columbus. I promise you'll leave feeling like you connected, learned some great things, and got fed.

Thanks Group and SYM for an amazing weekend and for pouring yourselves into us. You'll never know how much it has meant to me.