For two years, I've had the
privilege of seeing some of the inside story of Servanthood. On the outside, Servanthood is a summer
week-long camp of community service encouraging middle school students from
different churches in The Midlands to reach out to the communities around them
with the love of Christ. This sounds
good all by itself, but it gets better.
Several years ago, when my kids
were in middle school, I was hesitant to send my kids to Servanthood. I remember thinking that I may trust my
youth leader, though I really didn't know the him very well, but I certainly
didn't know these other random youth pastors and didn't know if I trusted my
offspring to their care. I think it's
right to be cautious and prayerful.
Besides, youth pastors are notorious for being "carefree"
sometimes and, honestly, most of these guys are no exception. However, Servanthood was probably both of my
girls' favorite middle school youth event and competes for their favorite youth
event, period. Both came back as student leaders. If I knew then what I know now, I would have
more easily thrown some of my caution to the wind.
My younger daughter (and I) had
the opportunity to take a leadership and intern class with our youth
pastor. Part of this class was attending
the planning meeting for Servanthood.
She and I took notes and sent emails and talked about agendas for the
next meetings. We met the youth pastors
from around the area and watched them interact.
Starting in January, they met monthly to discuss, plan, and pray about
the event. As the time drew closer, they
met every other week and then weekly during the last month.
We watched how they encouraged
one another and got on rabbit trails and came back together. We watched them encourage one another. We saw when people disagreed, though it wasn't
often, and we watch these guys lay it down and walk together. We watched them dread some of the work and
the energy it was going to take. We also
watched their faces light with life as they really engaged in what they were doing. We saw how they loved their students. We
watched God provide in wonderful ways for Servanthood and we watched plans fall
through and frustration mount and then God carry out His purposes as they looked
to Him to do it. We saw interactions in
the event itself as guys who are used to making the decisions for their groups
figure out how to take charge or defer to the other leaders. I watched over and again these guys praying
for each other and encouraging one another on.
They showed the students how we need community to follow Christ
together. They provided this environment
in Servanthood and they walked it out as leaders.
We got to be involved a second
year and watched how the core guys invited and embraced other youth pastors
into the group. We saw fire light in the
eyes of the new folks and we watched these pastors bring their gifts to the
group and we watched while hardship entered the camp and the guys rallied to
one another and stood by and invited each other to holiness.
We got to see that these guys
became friends and that they had each others' backs. Our church and another ended up partnering
for a summer together. These two
churches have students that are friends.
We don't have a competition as to which church is better but rather that
we are all about the same business and it's good to walk together. The youth pastors can confer about how to
help students. More than one student
asked about other youth groups if they met on a different night from their
own. These students connected with the
other youth pastors, too, and the more role models for students, the better.
It's really beautiful to
me. Servanthood is a beautiful
mess. I cannot help but smile. It's what the church is to be about in
reality - walking together in unity across denominational lines. These guys do that beautifully. I've never experienced anything like it. It's better than a para-church organization
which takes the whole thing outside the local churches. These guys each serve in their own churches
and partner with other churches in the area to weave unity among the
believers. If the middle school students
can learn this and live it, it gives a little more hope for Christians to be
known by their love, rather than their divisions as they walk on with God. It would be even more exciting to me if the
other pastors catch the vision of what is happening here and walk together in
the same way. They could each work in
their sphere of influence and use the gifts God has given each of them to
minister to their own congregations, but also to walk hand in hand with other
congregations.
I've walked through some church
yuck in my lifetime. I've been
discouraged to see believers and church leaders act like they (we) do. However, in this experience the past two
years, I see the beauty of the church moving and working together through some
often un-organized but amazingly gifted young men who love Jesus and love the
students they serve. They pick on each
other about which cell phone is the best and poke fun at each other. They complain about goofy middle school
students and picky parents. Over and
above all of this, they love Jesus and they love these students and they love
each other. They support one another
well and their example is one that needs to be followed throughout the church.
The outcome is the favor of God
and the work of the Holy Spirit as He touches the lives of middle school
students who are changed forever into lovers of God. Young students who don't know for sure if
this faith of their parents is for them or not often take this opportunity to
own it for themselves. Others are
reminded of what life is about. They
learn that they can make a difference and it's not just cause the guy the
church pays to do this is telling them.
They are part of something much bigger.
This makes all of it worthwhile.
I want to be part of this kind
of thing forever. It's like a taste of
heaven.
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