What do you do on Thursdays?

I had a student ask me last night, "What do you do on Thursdays?" This was a much better question than two weeks ago, when a student who is here every week asked me where I work! The Thursday question did seem a little random, but I've had kids do job shadows with me before, so I wasn't completely taken by surprise. It turns out, that's exactly what he had in mind, and he'll be hanging out with me in a couple weeks to find out what a youth minister does. My answer to him was that it really depends on what's going on that week. One of the things I like about ministry is the variety within any given day.

Today was a great example. I wish he could have done the shadowing today. After a little bit of follow up to last night's service, I met with a family to plan tomorrow's memorial service. This morning's time together was great getting to know the family a little bit (at least a couple daughters and a granddaughter). I've never had a funeral preparing conversation more encouraging than this morning's was.

After that, we finished up a re-wiring job here in the sanctuary for a projector that's been on the injured reserve list for enough time now. Back in the game, projector. I commented about how nice it was to have the lift we've been using to make jobs like this possible. After a lunch meeting with some people who are coming together to reshape our student ministry, I went back to my office to work on the funeral and Willie leaned in to mention taking down a speaker that's causing problems. I took a break from the funeral preparation and talked Joe into another adventure with the lift.

The speaker is a little higher than the projector and it hangs right above some steps, so I wanted to make sure someone else was around... just in case. Joe and I got it set up right against the steps and up I went. I'll just say that the lift was not nearly as comforting with the extra few feet of extension and the bulk of the speaker... But the speaker is down, and Shane and I are going to drop it off to be fixed later. That's all I have to say about that.

Now it's back to praying for and planning for the memorial service.

Yeah, it would've been a good day to job shadow. Too bad you missed it. We'll see what your day will bring...

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Quick question for other youth ministers who read this: Do you have students job shadow with you for school assignments? Do you 'save work' for the day they'll be there?