Last night one of my key volunteers and I had dinner with a couple who is interested in leading a small group together. This can be a dangerous situation for me because when I start talking about ministry I get pretty excited . . . so excited that I think I scare people away. A couple years ago I even put together a 30 page document explaining how simple youth ministry is–ah, the depth of my stupidity. So, I’ve decided to try and explain ministry in one sentence. Here’s what I came up with:

Basically, we need to listen to the teenagers; we’re here to be youth ministers to them, which means we’re here to serve them, and we can’t serve somebody unless we know what they need (you wouldn’t bring a ham sandwich to a guy that’s freezing to death–I didn’t actually say that last night because it’s too corny, but I was thinking it), and we can’t know what they need until we take the time to listen to them–after we know where they are, then we can help them grow. (Technically that is one sentence.)

Then I spent the rest of the dinner trying to take my own advice and listen to the couple so I can serve them and help them grow as ministers.

You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
~John 13:13-15

Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord. Following Christ and united with him, Christians can strive to be “imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love” by conforming their thoughts, words and actions to the “mind . . . which is yours in Christ Jesus,” and by following his example.
~CCC1694