‘Going and ongoing, faster and faster’

In my last column, I also invited everyone to continue praying for direction, so that our ministry will be ongoing, and that we may continue helping our young people make friends with God as the root.

But what about this word, "ongoing?" Do we ever reach an end? Do we ever come to a point of leveling off, or do we continue to find newness, a new-found energy that in some way helps us continue moving forward?

It seems that I again have been drawn back to my childhood and growing up on our small farm in Eastern Colorado.

A small farm it was, roughly 280 total acres of farm ground. For the most part of this growing up and farming experience, I drove a G John Deere tractor, and every day I heard the pop, pop, pop, of the engine, and knew that if I had a good day, I could cover about 40 acres. Yes, I do suffer from hearing loss because of this pop, pop, pop constantly ringing in my ears, but I would not trade it for anything, as it truly was a time of great spiritual growth for me, as many prayers were said, and much time with God was shared.

This tractor ran on propane, and I remember on the colder days, how difficult it was to start. Many times we even had to pull it to start it. Now, for anyone who has been or is in farming, you can probably relate to what I am saying.

The tractor’s flywheel was in plain sight. As you hit the starter, you could see it beginning to turn, slowly but surely. Oh, did it take a lot of energy to get it going. You could almost sense it; if it would turn over and begin to turn, you knew if the tractor was going to start. But wow, once that energy got to moving, what a beautiful sight it was to see the flywheel turning, faster and faster, with this energy, but with the consistency needed for making everything run smoothly.

In a sense isn’t this what youth ministry is like? At least, I feel this way regarding our diocesan youth ministry. I think back to July of 1994, when I began in this ministry, and remember one of my co-workers asking, "are there a few gray spots?" In 1994, there were a lot of gray spots, and we used a lot of energy to get some events and youth ministry moving forward. Yes, even today, we continue to use up a lot of energy in planning and preparing events, but what has happened -- like the flywheel -- is that through this energy we have found some consistency. We have many programs that are running smoothly, and the energy from our efforts is a primary source for this.

But like the John Deere tractor, we continue to have to feed fuel to it, to keep this energy level up, to maintain the consistency, and most importantly, to keep us moving forward, growing stronger and stronger.

Having recently celebrated the joy of Christ’s resurrection at Easter, think about the number of baptisms that took place. Think of the number of new members welcomed into the Body of Christ. Considering this number, is youth ministry going to go away or die? Is any ministry going to die? Of course not. So together we must continue providing the energy to keep our flywheel (our ministry) moving forward.