SYMC Day 1 - Pre-Conference Track

Each year that I do the SYMC conference, I participate in a pre-conference track on Friday. I did Small Groups with Doug Fields the first year. Last year, I took the Jr High Ministry with Kurt Johnston. Each has been valuable training for me. This year, I did Helping Hurting Kids by Marv Penner and Rich Van Pelt. I wanted to do this because I will be teaching a series on the subject in April and May.


Let me first say, my mind was blown. I have dealt with students who have struggled with all kinds of issues but the stories that Marv and Rich talked about during the session blew my mind. I can't imagine the hurt that our students feel today and most of it is at the hands of family.


The concept that stuck out in my mind was that within all of us, God has planted a thirst for community, purpose and unconditional love. In a perfect world, God would fill us full of all three. Unfortunately in our broken world, we try to fill the void with anything we can think of. As Marv unpacked what this meant in the lives of our students, I was amazed. As a parent, it was hard to sit and listen and to realize the things I wasn't doing with my children. As a youth pastor, I thought through all the lives in our ministry and where each of them might be.


Our students lives are changing so fast and the adults in the lives are not helping them make the transition. Adults are constantly letting the next generation down, and that generation is beginning to show us the damage we are doing. We have become a shallow society that doesn't know how to have real conversations and then we wonder why we have no idea our students are hurting themselves behind closed doors. We have taught them to hide.


I look forward to studying about this more and learning how I can help students struggling with this enormous pain in their lives.


The good part of the day was that it ended on a great night. The first General Session of SYMC was incredible, as always. The worship was led by Shane & Shane and then completed with a short concert by Matt Maher. The Skit Guys and Josh & Jake were funny as anything. I laughed hard. Doug brought us a message reflecting on his mothers voice in his life and the complexities of being in youth ministry.


Overall, it was a great start to what I know is going to be a great conference.