Charity and Jordan Johnson!!!!
Before moving to Utah in August, Jordan and Charity Johnson worked with the youth in the lovely town of Lake City, Colorado for 18 months. These two developed leadership skills with their own youth groups even before they had graduated from highschool. "There was never a certain date that I became a youth leader," both claimed. Jordan grew up in a church pastored by his father. Enjoying youth group quite a lot, Jordan's youth pastor inspired him in various ways. This inspiration led him to also work with youth because he "liked what he saw." In other words, by observing his youth pastor and youth group, he realized that God designed him for youth ministry. Charity, fairly mature, began leading in her youth group at the age of sixteen. She continued participating in this way in her home church for four years, until she traveled to Camp Redcloud in the mountains of Colorado. Here she also was in charge of teaching youth, along with kids of all ages.
"I'm really passionate about it and people tell me I do it well," she told me.
At the ages of 23, both Johnsons are quite experienced in their ministry, having worked with teenagers for over 5 years. To them youth ministry is a major part of their life. When I asked them what their definition of youth ministry was, I received two similar answers. Jordan said, "It means a way to connect to people. It's our best form of worship. Some people worship best by giving or something; we worship best by serving the youth, because we feel we can connect with the youth easily."
Charity's definition was, "Connecting with people at a crossroads in their life where they make a lot of decisions in their life. It's a very important time to share the gospel with kids."
Usually with every kind of hobby or job, there comes a love for what one does. This is also true for the Johnsons; both love the profession God has called them to do. Jordan enjoys playing around with the kids. They're looking for people with whom they can be themselves. If adults come down to their level and provide safe friendship with the kids, many teens will accept that and come running. Most kids look up to leaders who want to hang out with them. If leaders provide that, they won't go looking elsewhere, like the world. Charity's favorite part is not having to act super grown up, but being able to act like teenagers.
These were her words, " They don't care about how immature we act. The more immature we act, the more they like us and we're able to connect." Youth leaders definately should pay attention to that statement. So often kids fall away youth group or church because the leaders don't come down to a level with which the kids feel comfortable. Youth view leaders as strict or unapproachable. What teenager wants a relationship with an adult who acts that way? Maybe if the leaders showed more of an interest in the kids' lives and didn't preach to them so often, the youth would feel more comfortable listening to and talking to their leaders. A way to talk to them and instruct them simultaneously would be to share their own life experiences, consequences, and results with the kids. This would definitely show God's and your own love to them. Charity really enjoys sharing her life with kids.
Along with its joys, youth ministry also involves many difficulties. The most distressing aspect is similar for most youth leaders. This would be, in Charity's words, "Seeing kids fall away."
Because their passion is to lead kids toward their heavenly father, youth leaders' hearts become saddened when kids reject God. For Charity, it's incredibly difficult to see them "decide that the world is more important than a relationship with God".
Jordan asserted that, "It's hard seeing crap happening to a kid, particularly an unsaved kid, and seeing him all alone without God. It's not my place to save them, but to point them to God. It's one of the worst things to see a kid fall away from the Lord."
Every youth worker comes across such challenging issues as depression, teen pregnancy, low self-esteem, and other common stuggles that kids undergo.
Charity copes with these issues in this way: "With a lot of prayer and patience. And also with love and acceptance no matter what kind of decisions they make. We're still going to love them and tell them that God loves them. That's most important. And then just sharing the truth with them even if it's hard."
"By providing a safe place for them and continually pointing them to God," pronounced Jordan. The world will never offer a secure place for youth traveling through life's battles . It may put forth alternatives justifying their actions or conflicts, but no alternative can take the place of God's secure arms. A youth leader can point a teenger to this shelter through acceptance, trust, and encouragement.
Therefore, since dealing with different struggles that youth undergo can be stressful, and sometimes even depressing, do youth leaders ever want to quit? Jordan has wanted to quit.
He claimed, "Yes, cause even though anyone can do what they love for a long time, even then, they need a break and refreshment. Sometimes you just feel so exhausted that you say, 'If that kid does that one more time, I'm going to freak out and bury him in the dirt.' You want to make sure that, yes, you're fulfilling these kids lives, but you also need to look out for your own well being. Yes, not want to quit permanantly, but yes I have felt like quitting."
Charity disagreed, saying, "No, I've never wanted to quit. Cause it's one of the very few things in life that I'm passionate about. I hate seeing teenagers alone and without knowing the truth. All I want for them is to know God's love."
Considering that some youth workers do want to give up at times, what makes them continue? I asked Charity and Jordan this very question.
"This is something I love to do, something I'm good at doing, something I'm called to do," said Jordan, "I still have a desire to be in there, so even though I feel like I need refreshment and stuff like that, I just need to pray for it then get back in there and love some kids."
Charity declared her answer in this way, "Cause of my desire to see all young people know the relationship they can have with the Lord and that there's something better out there than what they see in jr. high or high school."
I believe it all comes down to God and his love for us. He doesn't give up on His children, so how can we give up on the youth that we care so much about?
Just for fun, I questioned the Johnsons about coping with teenagers who don't listen or are disruptive. Jordan objects to drawing attention to unruly kids. Teens loathe embarassment and belittlement by adults before their peers. Establishing attention elswhere is a successful way to handle the situation.
"First of all, when you come across a situation like that, you need to be prepared for it," Jordan advised."Let's say a kid's playing with a ball and it's disruptive. You don't want to yell at the kid and make a big deal about it. What you should do is take the ball and you start talking to the ball. Like, ' Ok I told you ball that you can't be distracting ...' cuz what that does is it takes the attention off the kid and focuses on you acting like an idiot."
He also suggested to be flexible. "Take some time out to play an extra game or something if kids have extra energy or are jazzed about a certain event.And just make sure they know when it's time to calm down, it's time to calm down." Charity added that while working at Camp Redcloud, Jordan had kids run laps to get their extra energy out.She, on the other hand, admitted, "I'm actually not very good with loud and noisy kids. I always want to yell at them and tell them that they need to be respectful. So I leave it up to Jordan."
Following my interview with the Johnson couple, I concluded that being engaged with adolescents is a trying, yet exhilerating calling or profession. They supplied me with much consideration about my future ministry involving youth. I also grasped various instrumental techniques to supervise obnoxious kids, how to undertake troublesome issues, and what to do when I'm exhausted with managing youth.
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