I woke up today to the sound of rain - lots of it. So I guess we're staying indoors, which upon thinking isn't necessarily a bad thing (at least my knee will thank me).
The youth leader sessions continue to be both eye opening and challenging. My new friends seem to come from all over the USA (closest is from 5 miles south the most distant that I know of is from Dallas, TX). Quite a few are from huge churches with 100s of kids in their youth groups, and where they are one of several professional staff members. I'll spare you another picture of 20 adults sitting around a circle and instead, we'll look at the rain on the Hudson.
One thing I've noticed from talking to the other participants is that generally, it seems that churches don't really treat professional youth workers very well. All of them seem to have some really harrowing tales to tell... in a few cases they're working hard to deal with some pretty complex issues.
Today's session was personally challenging because we got into how do we reach out to the "unchurched" youth in our midst. These could be kids nearby that are the wrong race or class for "our" church to reach. But I think it could be expanded to include the kids who just don't come from a church background. I was thinking of the guys who use our church steps for a skateboard park. They're so well trained to scatter on the sight of an adult walking into the church, that it's hard to reach out to them. Of course, I've seen too many adults yelling at them over the years that... well they're well trained.
Still, God seems to sending these kids to the church. Should we take the hint??
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