The Definition of Insanity

Pastors sometimes make mistakes. This is especially true of youth pastors. Despite all of our training and wisdom, we sometimes preach a bad sermon, make an inappropriate joke, or forget to reply to a parent's email. While heinous, these pale in comparison to the ultimate youth group faux pas. And it always happens quite innocently.

It begins on your typical youth group service. You ask for a student volunteer to read a passage. You make eye contact with the first student who raises his/her hand and you call his/her name to read Nehemiah 10:1-27 (Go ahead and read it. It is chock-full of spiritual goodness). Just after you finish saying his/her name, you realize you have just picked the slowest reader in the entire youth group to read one of the more difficult genealogies of the Old Testament. Whether simply a slow reader or someone inflicted with a speech impediment, you now have subjugated your youth group to the most awkward six minutes of Bible reading.One minute in, the student is still struggling to get through the name "Malchijah." This is not going well. You notice other students losing interest. Some begin to stare at the ceiling. Others pull out their cell phones.

Quickly, you must do something! But to interrupt this student would be an obvious affront on his/her reading ability. Your panic causes you to freeze up and you do nothing. Oh what a foolish youth pastor that you are! Why o' why would you give such a large and difficult passage to that kid. You begin to curse the public school system for not teaching students how to read! You wonder about his/her parents and why they hate literacy.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, that plucky student of yours finally navigates through the long list of Hebrew names. Before you resume teaching, you silently vow to never make that mistake again. You now know to never call upon him/her to read a long passage.

Until next week, when you do it all over again.