1. Who are you?
My name is Meghan Smith. Age 26. I serve as youth director at Trinity EPC in Loganville, GA. It's so exciting to see God grow the group of kids to where we don't fit in the rooms (I sure hope we break ground on our building soon), and to see them remembering what I teach. All the glory goes to God. I am taking this class because the pastor of my church, Scott Emmons, told me about it, and I thought it would be good to keep learning as a youth pastor and maybe learn techniques that I did not learn in seminary and apply them to the kids.
2. Feed back from introduction lecture:(Any thoughts the lecture provoked) - Has youth ministry been instrumental in your Christian growth personally?
I grew up in a youth ministry in Conyers, GA. We had an active youth group, and I grew to love the Lord and to study the Bible. I do not believe I would be the Christian I am today without my parents, however. They are the ones that were involved in my spiritual upbringing, who taught me to read the Bible, taught the Lord's prayer, raised me on Christian music, and always discussed theology at dinner. If it were not for my parents, I doubt I would know a thing about Christianity from youth group alone.
It is my goal for my students to learn Scripture, learn theology, learn to love God's Sovereignty, and grow up not following the world, but following Christ.
- What has the cost of the calling been like for you?
I served at Trinity for one year, still living in my dad's house, not making enough to live on my own or meeting people. It's like, being a youth pastor pegs you, and you can't get another job because they always want you to work Sundays and weekends, which is what I devote to youth ministry. Being Presbyterian, and staunchly Reformed, it's harder for my to meet someone to date as most of the time I meet people opposed to infant Baptism, or they aren't as conservative as they should be, or I like to argue too much. I don't know. At this time I'm balancing youth and kids' ministry with going back to school to get a certificate in paralegal studies, hopefully to be dual career.
One last thing. I know this guy is a legit Christian. I noticed he mentioned some group called Youth Specialties. I sat there and pondered where I heard that name before. Then it hit me! These are the folks that publish Emergent church crap from the likes of Rob Bell. Should I address this or not? Although I did look on their website and saw more normal youth stuff. Then again, before I knew of Rob Bell well enough, I had no clue how bad he was until I really started to look more into him. Oh well, we do have to learn how to wade through heresies and speak the truth in love. Hopefully, I will have more academic thoughts in weeks to come.
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