Our guest blogger for this day is Matthew Fry, a youth pastor I have come to know though Twitter. Matthew serves as youth pastor to the students of Whitesville Christian Church in Crawfordsville, IN. I am so glad he volunteered to share his best day with us. You can follow him on Twitter @matthewfry1985.
Week after week I would show up early to finish the setup for our Sunday morning program. I’d arrive about 45 minutes early and every time I arrived Austin would arrive shortly after. He was an eighth grader who was fairly introverted and spent far more time playing video games than he did studying. He’d arrive early each week and would talk about the newest games he had played. Each week I tried to relate to him, but having not played video games since college, I felt like I was getting no where.
On the way home from church one day my wife and I were talking and I mentioned my situation with Austin. I desperately wanted to make a connection with him and didn’t know how to relate. My wife sympathized with me and said that I just needed to pray about it. That night I said a short prayer to make a connection with Austin and I put the situation in God’s hands.
The next day I walked into our church offices and saw Austin’s mom standing there. He must get his introvertedness (if that’s a word) from her because she’s fairly quiet as well. Today was different though. She had a huge smile on her face and said she was so glad to see me. She began sharing how she greatly appreciated all that I did with her son on Sunday mornings and that she couldn’t get him to stop talking about our services. My jaw dropped more and more as she kept talking about how much he talks about me and how he thinks I’m “pretty cool” (I love middle school students and how they don’t realize we’re really not as cool as they think).
This was my best day in ministry for several reasons. Many times in ministry we get caught up in the idea that what we’re doing isn’t having an impact. We spend hours preparing lessons and returning phone calls and text messages, but rarely see the fruits of our labor. The days that we do see these fruits are few and far between so we have to appreciate them. The few thank you cards, e-mails or voicemails that we get are a fraction of the gratitude we’ll receive on the other side of this life. When we get to heaven and see the results of years of dedication to ministry.
I use my story with Austin whenever I encounter a youth worker who feels he/she is getting no where with a student. If you’re that youth worker that needs to hear these words please know that your impact is greater than you can ever imagine. That God is using you to reach students whether you can see it or not. That many students are far too nervous to open up and share how much you mean to them. So like the 1981 Journey song preaches to us “Don’t stop believin’” when you feel you’re getting no where!
-Matthew Fry
Student Minister
Whitesville Christian Church - Crawfordsville, IN
matthewaaronfry.blogspot.com
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