How to Beat the Youth Ministry Blues
An antidepressant for times when teens skip out, dollars run short, and buses break down.
Rickey Short
July 1, 1984
The decorations were complete. The new washpan for bobbing apples stood full of water. A sack of apples leaned against the wall nearby. Forty bananas lay on the kitchen counter for making banana splits. The buns and chips were stacked high along with cookies and a mountain of soda pop. Preparations for the all-night party had kept me running all day long. I was expecting about thirty-five teens and four sponsors. Everyone in the youth group had said they would be there, and several had asked if they could bring friends. As the hour drew closer, l began to worry that I might not have enough food. I could hardly resist the urge to run to the grocery store for more bananas. Two senior high girls showed up and went into the nursery to discuss boys. Two more girls and a boy much younger than the girls came in together. One of the sponsoring couples showed up. And that was it. Four girls. One boy. Two sponsors. A mountain of food. And me. So there I was with nearly $150 spent and an activity planned for more than thirty teens. None of my games would work. You can't run relays with two on a team. The devotional had been planned as a singing and sharing time. Should I send everybody home or what? I had a bad case of the youth ministry blues. As I remember that experience, several others come to mind that did not go according to plan. Most were times I did not get a gold star by my name. There is nothing like sitting in a big McDonald's for an Early Morning Before School Bible Study (which is supposed to go over great with teens) and having only one teen show up. Whatever happened to the Noon Prayer Meeting phenomenon? I had figured by the third week we would be renting the McDonald's and perhaps a Hardee's down the street. Alas, on the ...
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