Duoh!

Tonight was one of those youth ministry nights that will live on in the queasy pit of my stomach–for a long time.

Here’s the back story. I contacted a pregnancy center to help me with some abstinence training I planned on providing for our students and parents who voluntarily would participate. Everything has gone really great. The program has a great presentation and will allow me to weave in my own stuff during the process. So we picked a date for the training and have separate middle school, high school, and parent presentations lined up.

A few weeks ago I got the bright idea to have the teen drama crew from the center come to a Wednesday night service (tonight) to do a preview of the skits they would be performing during the future training event–my intention was to peak the students’ interest and get them to sign up for the program.

The skit crew was comprised of awesome high school students, all who were Christians, diverse and charismatic. They were sweet, talented, and outgoing. However, I wasn’t ready for the content that they brought to our mixed audience of 6-12th graders.

Things didn’t start off as planned when I found out that the team couldn’t arrive early for me to preview the skits. Whiff number one. Then, not knowing excatly how graphic the skits would be in describing bodily fluids, I sat with fresh 6th graders, parents, and high school students in the same room for thirty minutes of uncomfortable wondering….will I have a job tomorrow?

All of this probably isn’t as bad as I’m making it seem. Considering the fact that most fourth graders get “the class” now in school. However, I’m not sure who was there tonight. There were a few new students, some ten year olds, and some visiting parents. I hope they know that it wasn’t our intention to inform their kids about SDI’s–not yet anyway.

Lesson learned: preview EVERYTHING!!!

There’s a ton of really great stuff out there to help us, but make sure you want the help you’re going to get!

Mood descriptor for the night: awkward.