Youth Force Wrap Up

I think I'm almost completely rested from Youth Force Clermont.  I think a lack of sleep and an abundance of good stress has brought my motivation to a standstill, but nonetheless I do believe I am almost recovered.  This year was quite possibly the best Youth Force since I've been at FUMC.  I think there were a number of factors that contributed to the week being a huge success.  First of all the leadership.  When you bring together the Youth Pastor Mafia aka Tom, Seth, BJ, and Brad, success is bound to happen.  Along with the four of us comes the support and love of our churches.  This year students form FUMC, the Church at South Lake, and First Baptist Clermont participated.  In years past about 85 - 100 students participated in Youth Force Clermont.  This year we had about 55.  Some have commented on the low attendance numbers in the negative, but I believe them to be a blessing.  Over the last few years we have raised the bar on Youth Force, consequently only the students who really want to serve have signed up.  Youth Force is not the type of event in which you desire every student to participate.  The wrong attitude can destroy the week.  55 students who really want to be there are better then 1000 who are there to "have fun".

Along with the students who participated, we had a number of great adult volunteers who worked above and beyond to make this week a success.  From contractors, parents, and college students, we had the best volunteers we could ever hope for.  By the end of the week our 7 Crews built two porches, painted one house, replaced a ton of siding, linoleum, put a new laminate floor in, painted two metal roofs, prayer walked in three communities, ripped out what seemed like a million invasive Lantana plants out of Lake Louisa State park, and they brought joy to the lives of local seniors.

Finally all of this work  was accompanied by some amazing worship and speaking.  This year we stepped out of the box and we didn't bring in a "worship band" in the traditional sense.  We contacted our good friend Jason Harwell and he brought a number of the artists on his record label, Rebuilt Records.  All of these are typically solo artists,  but for this week they came together and produced an amazingly eclectic ever changing worship band.  Each night Micah Dalton, John Rich, Paul Reeves, Natalie Moon, and Jason Harwell would lead in a slightly different arrangement and then each late night we had them perform their own solo music for us.  It was truly powerful.  To add to this, we brought in David Herndon, who also happens to be on the rebuilt label, to share with us.  His messages were simple, deep, and challenging all at the same time.  I would challenge any one who reads this blog to buy an album or two from Rebuilt.  You won't regret it and you will truly be supporting an amazing mission. 

Finally I must mention our good friend Parks, whom we hired to do all the sound and video production.  Parks runs Rec Tec Live and our meeting a fews years back at a house show was arranged by God.  He has been a huge blessing to our ministry and I can't thank him enough.  Youth Pastors sometimes are forced to be sound and video guys, but we do it half way and with much distraction.  To have Parks jump in and fill this need is a gift from God.

So in a nut shell that was Youth Force 08.  Now it's time to regroup and prepare for Youth Force 09.  If you read this blog and you are part of a church, I would challenge you to start your own Youth Force.   I would love to walk you through the process and give you all the support I can.