I Got Chills...

So this Sunday is a big day... As most of you know by now, we took over the student ministry at our church this past fall... We love, love LOVE it, but it has been a lot of work and I for one feel inadequate for the job quite often. We are not who I picture when I picture youth leaders... Not even a little. Paul seems so much more confident. Not that I lack confidence with the teens... I love them all! I am rarely more happy then when were are actually working with the teens.

They.Are.The.Best...

Hands down...

It is the adults who freak me out... Our amazing pastor completely supports us... Admittedly at first he was hesitant... We were no more what he pictured when he was praying for youth leaders then we pictured ourselves in this role. That being said, it became clear to him within a really short time that the Lord had called us to this and we have his full support... Not only that, but since we are around the same age and have similar backgrounds, I think we are all bonded in a unique way. It is all of the other adults that freak me out...

And this week AfterShock (our student ministry name) is leading the whole service Sunday morning. Yes, we are going public... and I am nervous for all the usual Jr. High reasons... "What if they don't like me us?"

 But enough about me.. This post is supposed to be about them... One of the first things we did when we took over is have them vote on a name/theme verse combo... (They simply called it "youth group" previously.) They chose "AfterShock and the theme verse is Acts 4:31 "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."  They chose this verse (and name) because they all desired to speak the word of God boldly and they like the analogy that they are all living in the "after shocks" of meeting the Lord personally... We designed tee shirts for them to solidify the group.

Here was the final design... We went with the purple...

Here they are on our newly formed youth worship team...

Look how sweet and loving they are... Not at all goofy...

Wait this one seems more like them...

Yep this is definitely more them...

This one somehow seems like what I see more...

This was the day the shirts came in so they donned them for me to get a worship team photo... I think I captured them nicely...

Seriously though, even tough they did not have a worship team (they had made a few stabs at it but nothing really took) when we took over, we did inherit some seriously talented teens...

Remember this lock-in photo... Yep, they are seriously talented...

So Sunday they will be leading the church in:

My Redeemer Lives by Hillsongs,

Revelation Song by Jennie Lee Riddle

Amazing Love by Chris Tomlin &

I Wonder by Leeland

And until this week they were ok... Actually, they were barely ok... I kept telling myself it didn't matter... They were worshiping and doing it in such a pure way, and everyone would support them... But... Well, I was worried. They are all talented singers and/or musicians but they just weren't gelling, if you know what I mean... It sounded like a performance... A recital... Until tonight... Tonight they gelled... Tonight they sounded good... Tonight they worshiped... Tonight the hairs on my arm stood up as they did I Wonder... Tonight other people in the church stopped what they were doing and spontaneously wandered into listen... Tonight the Holy Spirit was there...

It was amazing...

And my heart was changed...

I no longer care what people think of us as youth leaders, or what they think of what we are doing with the teens. We are where we are supposed to be, and the Lord is blessing that.

If you are in the area and you want to see these amazing kids (ok, I am biased) worship come on by Celebration Life Family Church in Camden, Maine Sunday at 9:30 or you can hear them Saturday night at the talent show fundraiser for our sister youth group at Littlefield Memorial Baptist Church in Rockland, Maine at 6 PM. You will be blessed.

Thanks for listening,