Youth Group.

Tonight is youth group. Every Wednesday night, I unlock the door to the Arlington Free Methodist Youth Center and try to maintain some level of control over the 70-80 kids who walk in the door. Many of the ones I interact with every week are Junior High Skateboarders--mostly because the entrance to the indoor Skate Park is right next to my seat at the check-in table.

This means, that while I'm calling out "Austin, Thanks! Brian, Thanks! Ryan, Thanks!" as students file through the door and check in (more like pile through the door), I'm also talking to new kids about paperwork and waivers while simultaneously eyeballing our current skateboarders to say, "Kevin! Buckle your helmet! Chelsea! You aren't allowed in the skate park without a skateboard!"

It's a rather demanding job, but I do enjoy that nearly 300 kids have walked through the door, and I've gotten to know most of their names.

A few weeks ago, one student was acting up during the sermon, and I turned and said, "Dylan! Wesley! Be quiet!" Dylan looked back at me wide-eyed: "How do you know my name?" Ummm...because I've been letting you in the door at 5:30pm every Wednesday for the last six months. Do you know my name?

We have 11 adults there every week to lead/chaperone/corral, which is great, compared to other youth ministries in our town who have twice as many kids and half as many adults. Mostly--though--I still get overwhelmed with how many kids we have in the building every week compared to how many adults we have in the building--because, on average, I have about 30 seconds for conversations every week. The crazy part is, our average Sunday attendance at church is around 300 people, meaning that based on trends, our youth group should have 30 kids in it. So. We're maxed out.

Because working with teens is what I do--it's obvious that I think it's important for adults to get involved. But--I specifically know that it's 100% true that every person in the body of Christ has the responsibility of mentoring and discipling kids, whether they're 2 or 22. And it's also 100% true that there will never be enough adult leaders for kids until the entire body of Christ is engaged with young people. And. To make it more complicated, most of the kids that are out there don't have any adults in their life who care at all.

The moral of the story is--if you are a Christian adult and you do not have a kid who's not yours in your life right now, go find one immediately! They need you! If you can't find one a kid, please come to AFMC at 5:30, and I'll introduce you to Dylan and Chelsea when they walk by my table.