Catalyst 2013 in Atlanta included some fantastic speakers, around 13,000 attendees and one incredibly well staffed YouthWorks booth.

 

It’s true: I might be a bit bias about the YouthWorks booth thing. But my first trip to Catalyst in Atlanta – along with Jill, Jordan and Ryan from the YouthWorks Service Center – was excellent. To give you just a peak, here are a few of my favorite interactions with the folks I met at Catalyst 2013. (And if you’re hoping to buzz through this blog post, #1 and #5 are my favorite favorites.)

 

#1

Pastor Jim looked over the map of North America and, without too much hesitation, thumped his finger down on Wetumpka, Alabama. “What do you do in this community?” he asked. Wetumka is one of  YouthWorks’ brand new sites in 2014, and I told Jim as much. It didn’t take me long to learn that his interest hinged on the fact that he is the pastor of a church in the neighboring community. It was a great opportunity to talk with him about our desire to partner with the initiatives God is already empowering in communities across the country. I didn’t miss the opportunity to get Jim’s contact info and pass it along to our Southeast Region team who is setting up Wetumpka for Summer 2014.

 

#2

Matt, Omar and two other college-age guys in matching “Catalyst” T-shirts stopped by our booth, excited to tell us about their volunteering experience at the convention. They were part of a discipleship program out of Texas and had been told days before they would be heading to Atlanta. Only upon arrival did they discover they were to provide the vital volunteer support a convention of this size requires. Their flexibility and service reminded me of so many college students like them who accept paid positions with YouthWorks and spend the summer serving communities, loving teenagers and, yes, being flexible in order to lead well in ministry. I’m hoping Matt, Omar, Reagan and other students I met will apply for summer staff positions and add a few YouthWorks 2014 Staff T-shirt to their collection.

 

#3

Wandering around the Gwinnett Center hallways, I saw some familiar friends in ministry present. It was fun to chat with the folks from Radiant, who recently helped YouthWorks build a new look, logo and website. They do some great work! Even more exciting was spending some time with our friends from BigStuf camps, who every summer put on incredible summer camp experiences for teenagers. (If you haven’t heard of them, check them out!) They are in the same family of Real Resources ministries that YouthWorks is a part of. On Thursday night they not only gave us a tour of their house-office, they let us join them for some great food just down the street. (I had the 50/50 Burger – half ground beef, half ground bacon. Probably not something anybody should eat on a regular basis!)

 

#4

We saw a few familiar faces, including some past staff who were doing awesome ministry on their own. Katie stopped by to tell us about the exciting work she is doing creating experiences similar to YouthWorks mission trips, but with an emphasis on disaster relief. She was most excited that YouthWorks had uniquely prepared her to know how to feed 70+ people at once. Not your typical work experience!

 

#5

And there were a ton of excellent conversations we had with pastors and church leaders at our booth. It is those conversations that I always enjoy most. One of the interactions centered on why we do what we do, especially in communities where struggles seem to outweigh strengths and where hurt dominates the history of the place. What changes can we possibly create through short-term missions?

 

I think there are real, tangible answers to this question: On top of the altered perspectives, passion and pursuits of teenagers, I can see the love that kids feel at Kids Club, the relief teenagers give to a fulltime food shelf operator, the hope a homeowner has at the sight of students working away at an overgrown garden. And while I see these tangible expressions of change happening, I think, as Reggie Joiner spoke to the Catalyst crowd, he best answered this question of how we are to bring change:

 

“The Bible doesn’t say change your neighbor as yourself. It says to love them.”

 

And, yes, we will be strategic and intentional and tenacious in our methods, but at its most basic level why we do what we do is not to change people or communities. It is to love them well… and to trust God with the change.

 

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Sam Townsend helps write training, programming and marketing materials for YouthWorks mission trips. When he isn’t hanging around teenagers at church or digging into seminary homework, he is generally looking for a good conversation and a hole-in-the-wall restaurant to have it in. Sam still considers his first couple summers working for YouthWorks in Virginia and Pennsylvania communities some of the most transformative times of his life.