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Confession: I struggle with youth ministry sometimes. In part because I’m not a trained youth pastor, and in part because I’ve always been kind of a shy awkward person. I was awkward around other teenagers when I was a teenager myself, and sometimes, I feel like I never quite grew out of that. Yet as much as I may not always feel completely at ease doing youth ministry, and as much as I feel like I often don’t have a clue what I’m doing, I know it’s important, and so I keep on trying.
This past week, at our most recent youth group gathering while trying to get an icebreaker going, one student observed, “well this is awkward”, as most of the kids were still feeling a bit shy, and admittedly, the icebreaker turned out to be kind of a dud. In the moment, I felt deflated by the comment. Oh no! Anything by awkward! But upon further reflection, I thought to myself that maybe being awkward in youth group isn’t so bad. Maybe being uncool isn’t so bad. After all, in most other areas of their lives, kids are constantly having to measure up to a standard of coolness. Awkwardness in high school is one of the greatest sins. So maybe it’s not so bad to have a place where being awkward is, well, just fine. A place where kids know they don’t have to work hard to be cool, because we’re accepted just as we are. Seriously.
So come to youth group, where yes, things are awkward sometimes. But hey, so is real life. And I bet Jesus had more than a few awkward moments with his disciples as well. So embrace your inner “awkward turtle,” have fun, and better yet, let your guard down and relax. We’re all a bit awkward around here.
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