I'm Out

Last night, I had half-volunteered (and had half been drafted) to run onscreen lyrics for my church's annual Youth Rally. People who've read my earliest blogs here know that I was a Youth Worker with the Youth Ministry (DYM - Dayspring Youth Ministry) until March 2008, when I was asked to leave when one of the Youth girls visited me while I was alone.

I just want to say that I took full blame for that. I was the adult in the situation, and although nothing inappropriate happened, the appearance of the occurrence (young girl, single man alone) wasn't appreciated by Dayspring's leadership. I can understand this, given that not too long before that there had been a scandal with another local church where the pastor's wife had an affair with a Youth Group boy. Really, I took a hit for the church's image, but I had been alerted about this, so I took full responsibility.

Anyways... Seeing the youth in action after almost a year made me realize how much they'd done without me. Really, the only things I could criticize them for was:

• Some of the singers on the Youth Worship team were singing songs that were out of their range.

• The drama between worship and the message had a bit too wide of a range and it was difficult to follow. Either it needed to have a smaller group, or there should be one person in each section performing the "solo" lip-synchs.

I had fancied the idea of someday returning to work with DYM, but last night made me realize that my work with them is now a closed chapter in my life. Maybe someday I'll return full-duty, but not in my foreseeable future.

It doesn't mean that I've completely turned my back on the kids there, though. A lot of them are still my friends.

But DYM is closed for me. Even if they asked me to return, I'd turn them down. I wouldn't want to just do it without my heart being in it.