MYM Blog

Being Out and Away

Written by Christopher Wesley | Apr 22, 2010 9:33:00 AM

I’m at one of those transitions in a season, I have a mental and emotional countdown to May 2nd.  It’s like once I hit that, then BOOM! I’m in summer season…not summer mode…summer season.  That’s the end of Faith Underground, the beginning of Birds and the Bees (Sex and Dating series), Elevate, Church at Chipotle, Habits 10/11 and S*Mile Work Camp.  Those are probably the big projects and events happening in student ministry, but while that all goes down I have a few side projects that I’m working on.  One being the formation of an internship program, the other speaking in our summer series for big church and lastly evaluations of our ministry from our ministers, parents and teens.  Sounds like a lot, in fact listing this all out makes me feel like maybe there is too much on my plate; however, I know these projects are laid out over the next 5 months and I’m not working on these things alone. 
I know I’ve talked about this transition time many times, I’ve spoken about summer and how not to be lethargic and mundane, but one of the things to take advantage of this time is the weather.  It’s good to focus on the fact that a happy/healthy body can make a happy/healthy mind.  So this is what I try to do:

  1. Write messages outside.
  2. Meet with ministers outside of my office.
  3. Spend less time with family in front of tv and more time with family away from tv.
  4. Eat fresher foods (wish I had done that last night)

I know this might all sound weird coming from a youth pastor, but really it works.  If you let the exhaustion of one season take you down, transitioning into the next seems like a pile of…work.  No one wants to be burnt out before things get going.