I just wrapped up my first weekend on staff at Mission Community Church (launching a new website next week)!
Saturday was my fifth day on staff, but I was still facilitating a volunteer training session with our Jr High Pastor Josh Barton. Our College Pastor Jason Robinson was on vacation with his wife Kim, who is the Student Ministries Admin. It was pretty crazy to start without her there (I have so many questions!). Kim and Jason are back in action tomorrow, but Josh Barton left for camp today, so the madness will continue for at least one more week.
I spoke this weekend at our Saturday night combined youth service, and then today in our separate Jr High and High School services. The Saturday night crew is… unique. They don’t really know how to interact as a group yet. The service has only been going for about a month, so we’re going to have to create some community in there SOON!
The Sunday morning crews are amazing= tons of energy and lots of laughs today! The crowd looked like it had a good mix of students, from completely indifferent to completely on board.
I gave a good chunk of my testimony and pitched a thumbnail of my vision for the Student Ministries. I’m exhausted every time I share my story… it feels like I’m ripping my chest open for everyone to come up and take a peak. I loved the attentiveness of the crowds, and their response afterwards. Well, actually… the Saturday night service emptied IMMEDIATELY after I dismissed them! Maybe they all had to pee REAL bad? Weird…
I’ll be working on filling up an empty summer calendar this week! It doesn’t make sense for ANY youth ministry to shut down shop in the Summer, no matter how hot it is!!!
ryanguard.net 
So stoked for you bro…I wish I was a freshman all over again so you could be my youth pastor!
that’s great Ryan. and I totally agree about not shutting down for the summer.
BROOM HOCKEY BABAY BROOM HOCKEY
BABAY BROOM HOCKEY BABAY BROOM
HOCKEY BABAY BROOM HOCKEY BABAY
Thanks guys!
jaydubbs, you can come act like a high school kid any time.
mark, great job today!!! thanks for swinging by my blog.
super proud of you RG….great to see where you started and where you are now….your cousin Nicole was at my house last weekend…we were remembering you back at Hamilton back on your bike days:)….great journey!
Thanks Ro!
I was talking today about these persistent college students who kept inviting me to come and hang out with them, even though I kept saying NO!
Thanks for being persistent 🙂
Awesome job, Ryan. Good conversation with my daughter on the way home about your testimony. Yes, the Saturday night crowd is a tough one. Part of what I have noticed is that except for a small few, there have not been consistently the same group of kids attending on Saturday night. Last week was an amazing number of kids, more than double what we had the previous week. I think you have a good number of kids there that are a little upset that their parents are making them come on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. (I hear “No one I know is here” “All my friends are coming on Sunday” “It’s all highschoolers” “It’s all jr higher’s” even though it is pretty 50/50) I struggle with my own jr higher on this one, as we agreed to commit to Saturday night for at least the summer but I get a lot of grumbling every Saturday about “I have more friends that go on Sunday”. You have your work cut out for you on this one…Good luck and let me know if there is anything you need me to do 🙂
-Holli
Great job Sunday Ryan. Looking forward to getting to know more of your vision and how us leaders can help accomplish them. I agree with your comment that God is going to do some really cool things with this ministry. Can’t wait to see them unfold.
Thank you Holli and Fred!
Holli, I’m not sure if you saw me ask how many students had parents over in the main service or serving somewhere, and almost every single hand went up. There’s likely a “My parents are making me come” mentality with a handful of them. I hope that their attitude will shift when they begin to buy into what we’re doing on Saturdays. I think there’s plenty of things we can do to change the feel in that room. I’ll absolutely keep you and the other leaders in that conversation!
Fred I appreciate the encouragement 🙂 I’m looking forward to unleashing you and the rest of the volunteers!