jr. high retreat
some where in the top 10 things to know in youth ministry is…
smaller doesn’t equal bad
we had our first annual jr. high retreat at camp christian this weekend. we had high hopes as we planned it. we were shooting for a hundred kids. but as the registrations came in we realized the final number would be much less than that. in the end, we had 17 or so kids show up. the lack of numbers at a well planned event can always be disappointing. it can feel like all that hard work and planning was for nothing. and that’s where we get ourselves in trouble. we begin to think that the success of a weekend, or
event, is based on how many kids show up.
thankfully, the group of guys i worked with on this didn’t see it that way. we realized that though we had less students than expected, that we were going to invest in them and have a good time. and a good time was had. we were able to get jr. high girls to actually play paintball. we had some really cool moments on the climbing tower as we watched students over come their fears. we focused on how we weren’t meant to be alone (thanks CIY!) in each of our worship gatherings, and the students really seemed to respond.
but it all came down to realizing that just because we didn’t have a lot of students, didn’t mean that it was a total failure. as is always the case, God takes things/situations and flips them for His glory.
(picture above is of the cool stage set that caleb put together)
Reminds me of what Devin said at Practitioners…”Even if we only get a couple of kids we aren’t going to just cancel the event. We will keep on as scheduled and tweak the programming to accomidate and allow the Spirit to move in the midst of the small gathering.”