That Was Worth It
It’s a Thursday afternoon, and I finally feel as though I’ve recovered from a retreat last weekend. Maybe I’m getting older, maybe I’m getting smarter, or maybe it’s because I knew I had to write this article; but the “Was it worth it?” question has been weighing heavily on me.
Asking a question like that takes me back to when I first started in ministry. I was a 22-year-old pastor of a small church of about 40 people whose average age was 70. Because the church gave absolutely no financial or physical support for youth ministry, my wife and I led and funded the entire youth program. I mean, this church was so ridiculous that in one trustee meeting they actually discussed and voted on whether to reimburse me $32.00 for an ink cartridge for my printer. (By the way they voted NOT to!) When we needed to do pizza parties or retreats, once again, “The no’s have it.” So we scrimped and saved and tried our best to provide a quality youth ministry for our rag-tag group. I never really asked the question out loud, but to this day I believe every penny we spent was worth it. We saw kids’ lives changed, and God did some very cool things.
Today I’m on staff in a bigger church. I have a bigger budget, more students, more events, and more responsibility. Yeah, we still do pizza parties and retreats, but I feel a greater urgency to ask the “Was it worth it?” questions. Not because I have parents and trustees asking, but because my heart’s desire is that at every event, every activity, every time we meet, kids’ lives are changed and God does some of those very cool things. So now I find myself asking that question every time I make a decision. Is it worth spending that much on a speaker? Is a band worth that much? Should we rent some of those inflatable games? Is it worth putting that much work into a one-hour event? Is it worth the time we take to pray?
Well, the retreat is over. This year we had Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning DecembeRadio as our worship band, and Sacramento’s Matt Furby as our speaker. We gave away two digital camcorders, rented two buses – and every kid got a t-shirt, a Frisbee, a lanyard, and a bunch more. I spent countless hours praying, dreaming, recruiting, leading, and planning. I got an average of four hours of sleep a night for the two weeks leading up to the retreat, and even less during the weekend.
So was it worth it? I’m going to say, “Yes, this time it was.”
Last night half the group showed up at the youth meeting wearing their retreat t-shirts. Most of the conversations were reliving the weekend, and several students shared a testimony during the service about something that the speaker said. A couple of students who attended the retreat as guests showed up for youth group. So when others ask, I feel I can answer, “Yes, it was worth it.”
No matter how big or small our church is, or how big or small our budget is, or how big or small our event is, we need to ask the “Is it worth it?” questions before, during, and after our events.