Top 10 Things a Youth Pastor Should Never Do.

1.       Get mad with the microphone in your hand – Yes seems obvious. But when Someone comes to tell you they didn’t prepare the games they were rostered on for seconds before you lead into it your head gets all hot, and you somehow lose awareness of the black technical implement you are holding used to project your voice.  And then EVERYONE hears you loose your cool. Just for a moment anyhow.

2.       Forget to get a receipt – if you have a super efficient church accountant like mine, it doesn’t matter how much you spent on that amazing “Bad T shirt night” theme, if you don’t have the itty bitty bits of paper with numbers on it to prove it, you aint getting a cent.

3.       Eat the chocolate prizes before Friday night youth – Well it was a bad day. And I was hungry. And isn’t the satisfaction of winning “Musical Guys” enough?

4.       Wear heels – Ankles don’t take kindly to mosh pit worshipping, even if you haven’t had time to go and change after a late afternoon meeting.

5.       Rap – Just don’t.

6.       Leave your coke unattended at the Youth Christmas party – Anything and everything can be hidden in coke. Salt, Tomato sauce, soy sauce, pepper… and yes. I did vomit.

7.       Tell youth members your high school nickname – My testimony involved enduring difficult school relationships. But I wish I had of omitted the nickname. Some still call me “sausage”.

8.       Leave the cleaning to the cleaners – When jelly has been flung at walls at high speeds and the games leader didn’t hard boil the eggs it’s a good idea to clean up after. Especially the messy stuff.

9.       Admit you don’t like a song – When teenagers discover you have a weakness, including a song you don’t like, they will use it like Lex Luther uses Kryptonite. And they wil play it again, and again, and again.

10.   Underestimate a moment. – Give each kid, particularly the unpopular kids or the “rough diamonds” one more minute than you think you can. Give them your eyes, your ears, your full YOU. I am amazed at how great kids think I am when all I can think of doing for them is giving them a moment of me.