I had lunch today with my colleague and friend Mike Novelli and one of his friends — a local youth pastor named Brian. Brian seems like a great guy– he really loves what he is doing and it is quite evident that he loves the students and families that he serves.

My conversations with Brian reminded me of how much I miss some of the day to day elements of church-based youth ministry. I really do miss seeing the transformation in the lives of students, the interaction with students who haven’t found Jesus yet, the conversations with students who trust you enough to ask you for help, etc. I know I can get much of my ‘fix’ volunteering and I do– but it still isn’t the same.

Don’t get me wrong… I absolutely love what I am doing with Sonlife. I really feel like we are just beginning to hit our stride. We are experiencing growth and feeling momentum and everything appears to be in the up and up… but there is just something about how I am serving the church through Sonlife that just doesn’t quite fill me up — all the way. To be honest, I hope this feeling never goes away. My friends, when I took the job at Sonlife almost three years ago, warned me that I would miss youth ministry in the church… they were right.

I am sure it wouldn’t take me long upon re-entering a church based youth ministry (if God ever called me to that again) that I would be immediately confronted with the things I don’t miss about it. I guess we all have things we love about our jobs and other things we don’t. Anyway, I am enjoying life these days as I work with my staff to lead Sonlife into a new era of serving the church through the relationships and training of youth workers throughout North America.

Since my general session in Cincinnati at the NYWC I have had a bunch of people emailing me asking about a resource that I might recommend to help encourage students to enter into the presence of God. Well, I have just finished reading my friend Mike King’s most recent book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry and I would strongly encourage that as a resource.