Re-Presenting The Icon

The Day After Christmas

 

Okay... I really don't like listening to myself, but a friend challenged me to do this. So here is a video of a brief message I preached the day after Christmas, during family sunday. 

"Relationships Unfiltered" A New Book By Andrew Root

In his latest book, "Relationships Unfiltered", Andrew Root challenges Youth Workers to re-examine their motives for building relationships with youth. As a Youth Worker I've always known that relationships are the key. For many of us as Youth Workers our reasoning could go something like this, " In order to get students to behave better, we must build genuine relationships with them." However, according to Root this is precisely the problem, "While our motives may be good, it's possible that by focusing on these goals, we're not ministering to the whole person. When we choose not to engage in the full life of a teen, we run the risk of failing them and our ministry." I must admit, when meeting with teens the temptation to use them as stats for my success is a very present reality. When they make good decisions I come out looking really good and everyone knows that I know what I'm doing. However, this year I faced the challenge of meeting with students who continued to make poor decisions. I remember being frustrated and even saying to one, "if you continue to go this route, I'm not going to meet with you anymore." A couple of weeks later his dad called to inform me that his son had once again made a terrible decision, but he was afraid to tell me because I wouldn't meet with him anymore. Needless to say, I was very convicted by the Spirit. When I saw him the following Sunday, I pulled him to the side and apologized to him, and assured him that our relationship was not performance based. He burst into tears and grabbed me tightly, and it was in that moment that I was thankful to God that my relationship with Him, is not performance based. The Scriptures make it clear that“God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8 NRSV). I am only halfway through Root's book, but  I am definitely jiving with it and find it to be a challenging read! Only one warning, while seeking to read this in order to be more effective in Youth Ministry, you may find yourself being transformed in the process!