Power in The Powder

I’m having to turn over an old, new leaf…get it? An old, new…never mind. I used to be a youth pastor. I now consider myself a Youthasauros. Living in the cauldron of extinction. I was a serious youth pastor…I used to say about one of my groups that it would take “naked women and fireworks to make them happy.” I was kidding on the outside but screaming for help on the inside. We continually meet with the few who gather here on Sunday nights as we have done for a couple of years or so. Waiting for something to break out. And better yet, there are many days when I am at the church and I watch the crowd gather outside the door when Beaufort High lets out. Amazing.

This week we’ve been in sort of an experiment. I challenged our church family to show up between 2 and 4 this week to witness the possibilities that we have when students hang out right outside the door everyday. Sometimes, they peek in while I am studying or staring back through the tinted glass. “Go away kid! I’m studying for Sunday. You can’t just come in here, it’s a church now. I’ve got to study!” Something a lot like Jesus, I’m sure.

This week has been especially cold in Beaufort. Doggone cold everywhere, but especially for Beaufort. So the experiment was with hot chocolate. Went to Food Lion and bought some. Made a couple simply said signs and Tuesday, we said, “How about some free hot chocolate?” And 28 of them came inside. Wednesday, 22 came in. Today is Thursday. We ran out of the kind with marshmallows, but they didn’t care. We talked a lot. We kept filling up the pump pots with hot water and we talked some more. I learned about lives lived and lives hoped for. I learned about lives where they made the best of what they had. And I’ve heard a few dreams and uncovered talents their best friends were unaware of. I’m learning about hot chocolate’s magic power. So far this week anyway. How about this? “There’s power in the powder.” At least enough power for me and a few of my friends to say, “How about a free cup of hot chocolate?” Today, 69 came in.

I have started in the last couple months to - I should just say I’ve renewed some things… I have began to process how I am going to react when their generation begins to turn to Jesus and take over the ministry world…when they confuse me with their faith without boundaries…when they totally ruin my earlier opinions of them being trouble makers and just plain ole’ punks…

I hope I will facilitate them instead of fighting them. I know they will laugh at my innovation and call me traditional. I hope I will do my best to learn from them. I’m not “Yoda-like.” I need their input in my life. I’m not going to be the old guy who tells them they can’t do what God says they can and SHOULD DO, so I hope I will do my best to encourage them. Hot chocolate.

So, what do I do now?

Right.

I’m headed back to Food Lion and I’m only buying the kind with mini marshmallows. I hope it stays cold a while.