Super Glue

One person, however, was a little more concerned about my leaving, and during one of the conversations made a comment. "When you have all of the youth programs up and running in the diocese, won’t you run out of things to do?" I gave this a lot of thought and realized that this was a possibility, but then I thought, "Wow, what a wonderful thing to have happen!"

For anyone who has worked with me, you know that this will never be the case. For some reason there is a driving force in me that will never be satisfied. I have a personality that always looks at something and believes that it can be better. I also continue to ask, are there events that can be provided, that will help our young people grow closer to Christ?

Again, I want to extend a big "Thank You" to everyone who has given so much over these past 11 years to help develop our youth ministry to this level.

Thanks to everyone who shares this same driving force, continually making things richer and stronger, so our youth can celebrate their faith in ways that only deepens their personal relationship with Christ. Youth Ministry would not be where it is without all you have done.

Now you may be asking, what has this to do with "Super Glue"?

Super Glue of course is a very good thing. It will hold just about anything together. But Super Glue can be a little annoying, especially when you get a little on your fingers. You really have to work to get it off. But to me this is a prime example of how strong Super Glue really is. We easily can place a lot of confidence in it.

Now, what about the youth ministry in our diocese. What is the glue that is holding it together? Is it only me, sitting here in the diocesan office? Is it the youth? Is it all of the people I previously mentioned who continue to give so much to our young people? Is it you, the lay person reading this column? Is it our pastors, Bishop Gilmore, etc.? Quite frankly, we know that it is "all of the above." But, how strong is the bond holding it together?

I began this column sharing about my discernment to accept this position with the diocese. I recently completed a second deep discernment. I was offered the position to serve as Director of Spirituality and Training for the TEC Conference, which would have meant a move to Des Moines, Iowa at the end of the summer. The timing for this was not right so the TEC Conference and I came to a mutual agreement to terminate the discussion on this position.

However, during my discerning, someone in the diocese said to me, that if I left, TEC movement would die. My response was quick and simple, "If my leaving means that TEC will die, then it was not alive in the first place." In other words, as I mentioned before, youth ministry in the Diocese of Dodge City is held together by everyone. We are the Super Glue that forms this bond. As the phrase goes, "None of us is as strong as all of us."