Guest Post by Stephanie Caro
I hate rodents. I hate mice. I hate rats. I hate how my carefully coiffed sense of character goes straight out the window upon sight of those loathsome creatures. I hate the catching process. I hate stepping “on egg shells” in my own home until the hunt is over. I hate going to sleep at night knowing “its out there in the kitchen.” I hate the loss of my internal freedom.
(For inquiring minds, I do not like gerbils or hamsters. I sorta like squirrels – if they’re not in my house. I love my pest control guy.)
I’m not any happier when irritating problems run amuck in my youth ministry, either. I don’t mean the normal every day stuff of living life in church ministry and on church staff. Its the ones that sneak in under the cover of darkness (evil innuendo intended) that really get to me and causing lost sleep. Those ugly times in your ministry you didn’t see coming, a surprise attack on your sense of peaceful well-being. For example: A parent who calls after youth group saying, “Did you know that such and such happened tonight?” Or the email from the pastor saying, “Meet me tomorrow at 9am – my office.” A volunteer who says, “Maybe we shouldn’t have done (insert questionable act here).”
My advice? Kill the problem and kill it quick because when one rears its ugly head, more are sure to come if let loose to run around. Find out how and where the problem got in, close up the holes, making sure it doesn’t happen easily again. Solve it quickly and hopefully for good, letting everyone know the situation is back under pest-free control.
Where catching a mouse and catching a problem in your ministry differs? One calls for poison, the other doesn’t. One requires setting traps, the other doesn’t. Murder is an appropriate option in one case. You decide.
Stephanie
Stephanie has been involved in ministry to youth and youth workers in the local church since…a long time. Her humorous, straightforward style keeps her busy presenting and coaching at conferences, training events, camps, mission trips, retreats, churches, etc. She is a contributing author to several youth ministry resources in addition to her regular “Smaller Church Youth Ministry” column in Group Magazine. Stephanie is still hands-on involved in the “youth ministry trenches” serving at a church in Tampa Bay, FL, where she and her husband, Steve, live only 20 minutes from the airport!
