What's your philosophy of youth ministry?

My short answer is: I DO whatever it takes - whenever, wherever,
however. To the Greek - become Greek; to those under the law - come
under the law; to the lawless - become as if lawless. All things to
all people for the sake of the gospel.

Longer answer: Why is the weaker brother watching me? Have I brought
him along to mentor him in the ways of discipling? Then I better ease
him into it. He may not be able to come with me to a bar today; but
someday he will. Maybe he should be "back at the ranch" learning some
more basics of Scripture, or maybe he should mind his own business.

Most of the people I work with or live near or encounter in my day to
day life think very little of Christianity because they've seen,
heard, read about all the hypocrisy in the church. They see being
Christian as following a prescribed set of rules - that nobody they
know who claims to be Christian actually follows. Or they see us
fighting amongst ourselves and think we're a bunch of whackos. They
see the LEGALISM; the PRETENSE; the "do as I say not as I do." and
think most of us are a bunch of stupid, ignorant, a$$holes.

What they don't see is people that are hurting, struggling, worn down,
beaten down, mentally/physically/sexually abused, misunderstood,
neurotic, misogynistic, anorexic, bulimic, from broken homes, weary,
tired - you know - PEOPLE JUST LIKE THEM.

When the barriers of misunderstanding are broken down, and people see
us as people - yet different people; characterized by love,
understanding, compassion, willing to pitch in and help, willing t
o get dirty, willing to mess up - putting others before ourselves; not
having all the answers - but having HOPE in the ONE TRUE ANSWER - the
people I know tend to sit up and take notice.

This happened to me recently: I went to replace my lawn mower battery at a

store owned by a neighbor. A lady from our church works for this guy –

and she's been witnessing to him for years. When I walked in i said hello to

both of them. She immediately said, "Hey - I heard you smoke cigars;

Bob smokes cigars too." He said he had gotten some really fine cigars from

Florida. After some conversation we agreed that we'd get together on my

front porch sometime and enjoy a beer and a cigar.

I think I was setup - both by God and by this lady. But I'm pretty
sure she's excited that I'm going to sit down with this guy, and over
a beer and cigar maybe get to talk about some spiritual things and
reach him in a way she's never been able to get through to him before.

I think this encounter was ordained, and I intend to follow through on
this plan. I know there are people at our church that would FREAK OUT
that I'm planning on doing this - I'm not sure they would stumble
(e.g. run out and get a pack of smokes and a six-pack), but I'm pretty
sure they will be extremely offended and consider me to be in sin.

I'm willing to take that chance in order to have the chance to plant a
seed with this guy - and who knows - maybe even close the deal!

But for the weaker brother that I might cause to stumble - I want to
take that seriously. How do I avoid this? Well, I'm not going to
advertise what I am doing - but there certainly might be a story to
tell (and a lesson to learn) when this all plays out...

Whatever it takes...

Jeff