You’ve only got a couple hours until youth group starts and you realize you forgot to buy food. With only $20 left in your budget and the need to feed 200 teens, as a youth minister, you know there’s only one item that can save you now: Red Vines.
What is it about Red Vines that we as youth ministers love so much?
The word supper often evokes images of Jesus breaking bread with the Apostles (especially when you put the word “last” in front of it), but today I’d like to reframe “supper” in a new context.
A few days ago the mother of a teen at my parish invited me to have dinner with their family. Being a single young man from a big family, I miss shared mealtime, so I accepted. When Wednesday evening came, I was exhausted from a long workday, but I went anyway.
It was wonderful.
Youth Ministry necessitates some really odd hours. Long after the Parish secretary has rolled the phones to voice mail, you’re trying to track down 50 pens that actually write or 20 Bibles that never made their way back to the bookcase. By the time the last teen is picked up, the last door gets locked and the last parking lot conversation ends, your last brain cell is running on overdrive.