Ministering to Armadillos

Continuing on my journey across the Midwest going from church camp to to church camp I am learning a lot about ministry. I have had the amazing opportunity at a few of these camps to be the evangelist. At others I am a cabin counselor and at others I just represent the Bible College. No matter what I am doing I get the chance to invest into the lives of these young people. It is greatest thing in the world!

The issue I wanted to discuss in this short blog is youth ministry. Now I by no means am a expert on this subject. I've never taken a class at college that pertains to it and I have only a mild amount of experience in the field. But I have realized one thing: ministering to teenagers is like ministering to armadillos. I have to admit, I stole this saying from a friend who directed this last camp, but he was right. It is exactly like ministering to armadillos. Just like armadillos, teenagers have a very thick outer coating by which they guard themselves with. They don't like to let people in and they are quick to put up their walls to protect themselves. But just like a armadillo they have a soft inside. It may be hard to break through that tough exterior of a teenager, but I am convinced by what I have seen the past few weeks that every teenager has a tender interior.

This gives me hope for the future of the church. These young people in our churches today are going to leading our churches tomorrow (if they aren't already doing it now). They may be hard to crack, but once they are, I am convinced that each and everyone of them has a heart to do what is right and pure.