How Are You Gonna Spend Your Summer Vacation?
(youth ministry message) Morgan Young 5.19.02
Is anyone else as shocked as I am that we're at the end of the Firewire season already??
(hands) How many of you guys have (more often than not) been here since we kicked off in Sept.? (applaud them).
I have to tell you that tonight, I and the rest of the FW staff are THRILLED to death!--- Because we made it through this season. When we sat down last August with an empty calendar of FWs that needed to be done, it looked like Mount Everest to us-----It was a "Pant-a Load" moment for us! Let me tell you why
Back in August of last summer, we had NO Firewire staffand because we couldn't find a "good" person to hire to lead Firewire, it was decided that a handful of us who had NEVER led a youth ministry in our lives took up the challenge
When we sat around a table in the church office, there was this look on everyone's face that was like, "Are we really gonna do this?!" Or, "CAN we really do this?"
Here were the facts last August: The Firewire leader & teacher: gone. FW music guy: gone. The people who made videos: gone
So take teaching, music and videos out of Firewire and what do have??
Mark McMain and I had a lot of talksquestioning our sanity!!---and trying to figure out HOW we were going to pull this deal off And we said, "We've got Zack who plays guitar, Erik Pattison who plays guitar, Derek Weed who plays drums We could talk Kyle "old man" Pattison to play bass Mandy Malin can singMAYBEMAYBE, there's a student band here!
Maybe there's enough talent here to pull off music for students, BY students?!
And I had some talks with Sarah Stoneking, because we needed a worship leader----because we had NO music person. And she was like, "Iiiiiiiiiii don't know! I like to help lead worship, but I'm not a worship leader!"
And I was like, "Look, Sarah---God is calling YOU to step up to this---He's calling McMain to lead the whole production side of it & me to grab the reins of this deal. We're it!---This is what God has provided for us to work with.
And she stepped up ----she stepped out of her comfort zone and she led us in worship from Sept. to Dec.
So we had our little staff of Sarah, Mark, Sarah & Scott Montgomery and Bob & Sue Shappell ---who helped do videos, dramas & programming---and off we went.
And when we'd get together, we'd pray our faces off(not nice sweet polite "just" prayers)
(Journal entry??)
"Thank You, Lord, thank You indeed for how You are working in FW. Thank You for directing our path that begins before the program meetings and continues through each of our servicesall 3 in fact.
God, I am so blatantly aware that You are the only reason this has worked this year. God, I lay myself down at Your feet and beg you forgive my sins, my attitudes and failures. Lord, continue to lead this ministry---thanks for choosing me---and because You chose me, I know you will provide. But I won't assume Your presence---instead, I boldly ask for Your leadership in my life---in this ministry---in the lives of Sarah, Mark and all the other adults that are a part of this ministry."
Right now I'd like to make you aware that in the fall, in a typical week, Mark McMain came to our Monday night program meetings usually until 11pm or midnight He led the band rehearsals Wed. nights was here to setup for the FW service around 2-3 and stayed until 9pmmade sure all the technical stuff (sound, lights, etc) was scheduled and doneand that was on top of running a business, being a dad and being a husband.
And it's important to me that you know that this season would not have gotten off the ground without Mark's HUGE commitment to you guys!
