STUDENT MINISTRY: Recovery Mode
The summer months are easily some of the busiest in youth ministry. Camps, conferences and mission trips dominate our schedules. In addition, we seek to take advantage of the extra time in our students’ lives to build relationships. It can be a lot.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. There is nothing like hopping on a church van and heading to SOAR with a great group of students. These extra moments with students during the summer months help carry the relationships through the busyness of the school year.
However, let me warn you who work with students. There is a cost for the extra time with your students. It can impact your relationship with your spouse or your children. If you have other responsibilities at your church, this extra time can also impact those areas. And, if we aren’t careful, it can impact our resolve to march forward into the school year.
During the last two decades, I have been a runner, martial artist and cyclist. I love the challenge of those physical activities. After a hard workout, there is a need for recovery. It is impossible to avoid and is needed even more as I have gotten older. The same can be said about ministry. After a season of physically, spiritually and emotionally demanding periods, we must shift to recovery mode. I know this isn’t always possible for some who work with students because of bi-vocational statuses, but we still need to figure out a way to recover from the summer months so we will be ready for the school year. If that is the case, what are some of the things we can do to recover?
• Invest in your spiritual well-being. In the busyness of the summer months, we can neglect personal time in the Word and with the Father. Those of us in student ministry are doers. We have to get our students to camp. We are even expected to come home with the same students we left with. (My pastor tells me just to make sure I come home with the same number. If it is the same students, that is even better.) We plan parties and mission opportunities. We do so much, but that can sometimes come with neglecting our most important responsibility — growing in our relationship with Jesus. Evaluate your time in the Word. Plan to go to a conference for your well-being. Ultimately, we just need to be intentional in this area.
• Plan some intentional time with your family. This may be a weekend trip, a full vacation or just a few extra days at the house with them. If you’re married, your spouse and children need your presence. They need to know they are important, especially as you gear up for the fall months of youth group and expected activity.
• Find something that recharges you. I love my family, but having a family outing with them doesn’t recharge me. I wouldn’t trade any extra time I spent and spend with them, but for me to recharge, I need some time alone. For you, it may be a hobby you enjoy or some other diversion. Whatever it takes, find that thing and give it some time.
You may have to cram all of this in just a couple of days during August, but it is still important to make that investment. Your family and ministry will be blessed by your choice to invest in yourself. Don’t think of it as selfishness, but switching to recovery mode so you can get back out there and do even more for the Kingdom.
Join the conversation in our Facebook group (facebook.com/groups/StudentMinistryMattersCommunity) and let us know what you do when you seek to recover from the hard moments of ministry.
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Dan Carson
BMA Youth Department Director Dan Carson writes a weekly column titled, Student Ministry Matters, through which he inspires, challenges, and informs BMA of Arkansas churches and church staff about all things pertaining to student ministry.
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