At my age, it's not very often anymore, that I sleep on the floor at a weekend with kids.
It's Legacy Youth Conference at Ambrose University College (where I teach). As director of this weekend, I've got 700 kids, pastors, sponsors and and 280 Ambrose student volunteers on campus
and I'm sitting in my office at 7am on a Saturday morning thinking through the day.
The anticipation of God doing something significant is in the air. The excitement and energy last evening was fantastic.... everybody is cranked about today, and what God is going to do in the lives of kids.
BUT, somehow, my anticipation is tempered with the stress and worry that things will actually work and plans will not fall flat. We are counting on almost 300 volunteers to show up and step up. We are counting on the weeks of organizing to pay off resulting in the day's schedule unfolding flawlessly. We are ready; but desperate for God to carry it.
As leaders, we've all been in that place to some degree or another. We create and lead big events all the time. We have lots of stories of success and just as many stories of disaster.
Here are some of the things that I have learned after living through this kind of ministry for 30 years:
- exhaustive advanced planning is crucial
- communicate, communicate, communicate... every volunteer and every chaperone needs to have the same picture in their head as I do
- bathe in prayer from start to finish
- stick to the plan - have confidence in your plans
- be prepared for anything - expect the enemy to show up
- rely on your team - if they are prepared, trained and understand well, LET THEM DO IT
- support, encourage and gush on your team of leaders the whole way through
- troubleshoot and creatively correct quickly
- slow down and enjoy it - like a bride at her wedding, stressed and anxious, she needs to step back, slow down and really enjoy her big day
- remain in a position of absolute dependance on God
- like a surfer, watch for the perfect waves from the Holy Spirit and be prepared to "catch the right waves" (not every wave that comes in), allowing God to usurp my plan.
- don't manipulate people towards responding to God
- debrief with volunteers to troubleshoot, but more importantly, to celebrate what God IS doing
Today is a big day for me and the 1000 people here. I go into it with a ton of anticipation and asking God to be aggressive in doing his work in hearts.
We are ready.
I am desperate for God to do His thing... but I'm still afraid of relying on so many volunteering people..... and I'm tired and sore from sleeping on the floor....
Dave Brotherton was a youth pastor from 1984-2006 and now teaches youth ministry at Ambrose University College in Calgary. Dave is also the National Youth Guy for the Alliance churches in Canada, the director of Legacy Youth Conference,
and a junior high volunteer in his church. Dave is married to Lisa
and they share 2 of the greatest kids in the world. Fishing,
camping, and cheering on the Leafs are some of his favorite things.
twitter: @oldbrotherdave
