Chase the Setting Sun...

As I pray over the opportunity to go into youth ministry this verse comes to mind as what it means to be a youth pastor.

By the GRACE God has given me, I laid the foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building on it. 1 Corinthians 3:10

In this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is calling out the Corinthians for being prideful about who they are following, who they are a disciples of. Paul condemns this thought noting that no one, not himself nor Apollo are anything apart from Christ. They each have different jobs to do in building the kingdom and ministering to God's people. One may lay the foundation, but the other will build on it.

Paul makes it a point to say that there is no foundation other than Christ. He can only lay the foundation that Christ already laid in Himself. It is by God's grace that He allows Paul to lay the foundation of Christ in the lives of the people he encounters in his ministry.

This is what I see myself doing in ministry, especially in regard to youth ministry. Many of these kids will not have a solid foundational faith built when they enter into a youth group setting. It is my job and privilege, by the grace of God, to lay the foundation of Christ in their lives. They will only be with me for a short period of time. Once they leave the youth program and head to college they will have to rely on someone else to build on their foundation. By Christ working in me, and through me, I can have the chance to lay that solid foundation in them that they will always have the rest of their lives. I can help them come to Christ and show them what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of their lives. Only through Christ can I be used as an "expert builder." Apart from Him I have no expertise.

I pray that I always acknowledge that it is Christ building the foundation, and Christ that is the foundation. It is nothing that I can do apart from Christ. I pray that I am always able to be an example of what it means to have Christ as the foundation and center of life.