I hear MTS is good for that.

Youth group has been such a challenge for me this year. I think it's the most humbling ministry I've ever been apart of. I have been looking forward to leading for years and now that I'm here, I feel ridiculously inadequate. As though I don't have the right personality, enough patience, creativity...

It would be silly to expect that I would just fit right in and find myself in my element. Something as small as planning games stresses me out. And the kids - how to get into their worlds and show them you genuinely care without stifling them or how to join in their conversations without killing them instantaneously with cliched questions...

Most of the kids at youth group struggle with Christianity. Friday nights are a social event, or it's something that they're forced into by their parents. When your kids are hiding from you in the next room hoping not to be found when youth group starts, you know you've got trouble. Christianity to them is pathetic and irrelevant. And even to the older kids who have grown up going to church, thanking God for Jesus is an amusing afterthought. I have spent so much time telling other leaders that God will be the one to move the hearts of whom he chooses in any manner of ways but now I feel that I could end up blaming myself. What aren't I doing? What can I be doing better? Is it me? Gosh. Self-absorbed much.

Experiences like this make the idea of MTS more attractive. Best to make the mistakes and figure out ministry during a time when it's expected that you'll make mistakes and there are people there to help you figure it out.