They will question whether you're beliefs are something you hide behind or a truth that you are living. They will be wondering if this is a job you are doing to fulfill some personal need, or if you are really interested in them. They won't particularly care if you are young or old, street wise or culturally challenged.  They don't need you to know everything about their world. They need to know you love them.

They need to know that when they totally screw up you will still love them.  They need to know that regardless of whether or not they come around to your way of thinking, you'll still be there for them.  They don't want to be looked at as a potential convert, they want you treat them as a person with a name, with a valid viewpoint, with a heart and a soul.

When I left Wales to come here, I had a small Senior High youth group, six kids.. and one of those belonged to another church! At my leaving service they presented me with a handwritten book, consisting of a few embarrassing photos and animated comments recalling what to them had been the highpoints of the 5 years I'd spent as their pastor.

Invariably it was the times when they'd seen me at my worst, the times when I had my guard down, the times they'd seen me struggle with situations that came along, that they remembered.  That bible study on the finer points of Presbyterianism? The series on Christian character? Well, maybe some of it left a mark.

But the squeaky chair in the study during confirmation class, the shaving cream incident at a retreat, the time I broke down in tears after a particularly difficult funeral, and that day we ran around the beach in the wind and the rain, just because we could, those became touching points of grace.

As I think back on my own youth group leaders, Mr. Wynn and Mr. Owen. It didn't matter they were my fathers age.  It didn't matter if they thought that Led Zeppelin was a stupid name for a rock group.  It didn't matter if they made corny jokes that we didn't really understand.

Every Sunday morning they were there for us. Sometimes at weekends they'd take us trips to places, nothing special, just a walk in the countryside. We felt we could ask them anything… anything at all, and they wouldn't fall off their chairs or condemn us. For sure they knew when enough was enough. Sometimes they did get mad. But through their acceptance of us, we somehow experienced something of the acceptance of God.

We knew they were for real.  And often we weren't. We had relationships to make, zits to pop, hormones to subdue.  We were always playing let's pretend. We didn't really know what we believed or that we even needed to believe anything. But we knew that Mr. Wynn and Mr. Owen were for real. And that was impressive.

James 3:13 "Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom."

The book you're youth will read, more than other, is the one with your name on it. They want to know, "Are you for real?" They may well drive you round the bend, up the wall, across the ceiling, down the other wall and across the floor, but it's all part of being a teacher with the task of making disciples.

Finally, The benefit's we receive

One of the facts of life Christian education work with youth is that you are always sowing and very rarely harvesting. You have these kids for a few years, they move on and you may never see them again.  You may never know the influence, if any, you have had upon them. There are often no tangible results, nothing that can be measured.

Faith is what is needed and faith is what the experience produces in us. When it comes to preparing lessons and thinking topics through, you may gain far more from your lessons than some of your students will. That's not a bad thing!  You need to know more than those your teaching, or at least be just one sentence ahead of them.

As you proceed in faith you don't know where the journey will lead you. I gave this session the title YOUTH GROUP DUPE TO WILDWATER WRINKLY" subtitle "How being duped into going to youth group when I was 14 led to whitewater rafting trips at the age of 41.

As a 14 year old I was invited to hear a band play at my local church. "If I came to Sunday School" my friend told me, ""I could get in for half price'. Ah! Temptation. Greed's a good one. So I went to Sunday School. Some of the girls weren't bad looking.

So I went back the next week. I kept going back. Through the influence of some tremendous folk I've already mentioned, the growing hormonal attachment to being around females of the species and a healthy dose of the incomparable Grace of God, I not only met a girl I eventually married but I was also duped into the faith.

A couple of years later, now a confirmed church member and believer the minister invited me to consider teaching a class of younger kids. This I did. The first lesson I told them everything I knew about God. That must have lasted about 5 minutes and then we played a game. I realized right then that I had a lot more to learn than the kids did.

Circumstances change. I moved out of the area and became involved in a different church. The pastor there discovered that I'd taught elsewhere and wanted to know if I'd do some youth pastoring work on a voluntarily basis. "Sure, no problem". It was. Again I realized that I was up the creek without a paddle. Lot of enthusiasm, but little experience. James words, "Not many of you should become teachers" started to have meaning.

Well, things happen.  I feel a call to go to Bible College. Not the bible college the pastor wanted me to go to, but, one miles away from where I lived in Wales. So I go. Instant culture shock.  In that part of Wales most of the folk didn't even speak English as a first language but the Celtic Welsh language that is nothing like anything you've ever heard. When I tell you that before moving to Fayetteville, I lived in a town called Llanfairpwllgwyngygogerchwyndrodwllllantisiliogogogoch, you'll know I'm not exaggerating.

Bible college days turned into training for ministry.  More culture shocks. Start off in a suburban area. Then to the inner city. Then to a rural calling. All the time.. one thing leading to another.

Another unlikely set of events leads to accepting a call to Fayetteville, WV. Fly over for an interview. I'm sitting in the manse measuring floor space. A knock at the door. "Does it matter if those clothes get wet?" ""Why?" "You'll see". Half an hour later, I'm sitting in a raft going over some rapids. I fall out. I'm 41 years old. To old to be starting this stuff.

Wrong again. Nothing wrong in being a Whitewater Wrinkly. I share these things, because if you accept the responsibility of doing what James suggests not many of us should do, namely become a teacher, not only will you not know exactly what you are achieving, but you are also exposing yourself to not knowing where it might lead you.

All I wanted as a fourteen year old kid was to get in half price to hear a band play. Who would have thought that action, motivated as it was by juvenile greed, would lead me all the way to Ronceverte on a Saturday morning in March 2001.

"Not many of you should become teachers" counsels James.

It is an enormous responsibility.
It requires a lot more than knowledge.
To impact youth you need to have a heart for them.
To have a heart for them you need to keep in tune with the will of God.
You are the textbook your scholars will scrutinize more than any other. Be real

And more than that - be excited.
Our God is an awesome God.
If God has put the desire on your heart to teach others,
Then God can also supply the Holy Spirit resources to see the task through.
A prayer.

"Lord Jesus Christ, within your church you call us to be servants, and some of us to serve as teachers and educators. Your word cautions us that this is not an easy job. That to embark on such work, lays our lives open to the scrutiny of others and the refining of your Holy Spirit. We are not up to the task. But through our weakness your grace can shine.  Shine, Jesus, Shine. May we sow seeds in faith that others will one day reap. Above all things may we accomplish Kingdom tasks for the greater glory of your Holy Name. In the grace and merit of Jesus we pray. AMEN."