MY YOUTH PASTOR EVENT TOP 10 OBSERVATIONS

Ok... so we are doing this big ol massive community service thingy on Saturday at Journey. This is the 3rd year. this year there is a slight twist from previous years. Here's what this one should be:

• 14 homes of yard work all over the county by 4 teams of guys.
  
• 8 hours of car washing on campus from 7-3.
  
• 1500000000 million things to be sold in a Swap Meet from 7-3 on campus.

But... planning and doing this thing has reminded me of some stuff when it comes to youth ministry:

1. Every event I do means that I become some crazy mix of administrator/ accountant/ facility coordinator/ travel agent/ phone caller/ taxi man/ insurance agent/ prayer warrior.
2. If the event is 8 hours long, it will take 80 hours of prep to do it right.
3. Phone calls, phone calls, texts, reminders, more texts, e-mails, phone calls, and more texts, and a plane writing in the sky is what it will take to get students and staff there.
4. Someone will cancel at some ridiculous hour.
5. Someone will likely just randomly show up and say they have always been on the list.
6. For every 3 who sign up, 1 won't be able to go- for one of 14.3 reasons. I could list them all, but I've got more of #3 to do.
7. The event can easily take the place of the people. It is totally possible to complete- even a "succesful details event"- that was relationally a total wash if I don't force the details to the back burner and remember that in the end, that stuff is only worth it if it prepares for relationship.
8. I secretly day dream of what an event would be like with a full time admin. I've never had one of those. If you have, I might kill you in your sleep and take your job.
   
9. Without the help of others, everything I do would end up stupid.
10. I will say, "Man I can't wait for this to be over... all the way up to the event start." 2 days after the event, I'll forget #1-9 and think of all the good stuff that happened and decide to tweak it a little and then do it again.

SIDE NOTE REMINDER TO MYSELF IF I READ THIS POST AGAIN SOMEDAY:

Oh my... this church used junk swap meet thing might be worse than the church over nighter. I have 2 friends who do it and gave me the low down and well, yeah... they make LOTS of money. So I got their learnings and planned it out and stuff based on their experience and mine. BUT, after this is over... I might consider surgery with a blunt rusty object before doing this one again if it doesn't make TONS of money.