Shaver's Razor

I hit a wall in youth ministry a few weeks ago.

During the Wednesday night worship service with our middle school students I found myself, as I had  several weeks in a row, very frustrated.

Why? I felt like the students didn’t GET worship. It seemed they didn’t care to focus on a great God who loves them. Or the middle schoolers didn’t appreciate what an amazing worship environment the leaders and I had created for them.

I found myself agonizing over the lights (dim or full-up) , the music (too loud/soft), …My mind wandered to every distraction that was present in the room that could steal away the attention of our middle school students during these few precious moments of worship. Why!?!  Why were they so distracted? Why, week after week, does it take so much effort for them to sing in adoration to our God.?

BAM! I hit the wall ….

After that night, I got honest and expressed my concern with my leadership team. It was in that meeting that we discovered together that our responsibility is NOT to make these middle schoolers GET worship …or make them fall in love with Jesus while we sing praise choruses. We don’t carry that responsibility because we, as humans, can’t change their hearts.

I do, however, have another responsibility to those students as their pastor:  TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT

What does this mean?

It is said among doctors and physicians that their skill and responsibility is not  to heal because they cannot heal; the body has to heal itself. A doctor’s responsibility is to create an enviroment for the body/within the body to allow it to heal itself.

My team and I discovered that we cannot change the hearts of these middle schoolers. We are ultimately responsible to create a consistently holy environment where they experience His holiness.  Our hope and prayer is that these teens will learn from the example set before them.

Since then, I felt a burden lifted. Truly, the burden to change the way these middle schoolers engaged in worship  - it was never my burden. Knowing that has allow my team to redirect our focus on what we are actually capable of changing.

Are you trying to change hearts or create a holy environment where He can change hearts?