We don't need to be perfect to share Jesus with those we love. In fact, our imperfection can be used as a powerful tool.
Hi, my name is Daniel, and I’m a youth leader in our local church.
I was asked by my friends in Sharing Lane if I would write about my experience as a youth leader and my journey to being able to share Jesus confidently.
I’ll be honest and raw in this article, because I believe that that’s going to help you the most.
So please don’t judge me 😇
As a younger Christian youth, I used to look at those around me in church and think, “all these people really ‘got it together’, they’re nice all the time, they say all the right things, they call each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, and are truly ‘living the Word’…”
My best buddy, Jerry and me, grew up in the same neighborhood, and our parents attended the same church.
I saw my parents bickering at home, which seemed quite different from how they were in church. But what you grow up with, you don’t really notice right? It just all seems normal.
But Jerry folks got divorced. It was ugly!
It was a crazy confusing time for me. It must have been worse for Jerry, but I was so caught up in my own thoughts and disappointments about how adults weren’t really what they seemed in church, that I probably wasn’t there very much for Jerry.
I told myself I wasn’t going to be like them. That I was going to be “proper Christian”.
So, I spent more time in church, learning to say “all the right things”.
Then our Youth Pastor noticed, and I became a Disciple and eventually a Youth Leader.
I thought I’d made it! I was a “proper Christian”, and all the “proper Christian” girls were going to like me now!
A couple of months later, I bumped into Jerry. He wasn’t in a good place.
Instead of helping him, I judged him.
I told him how he needed to “stop abusing his body because it is the Temple of the Holy Spirit”.
I told him that Jesus died for him, so he needed to be “worthy of it”.
And then one day, I noticed a kid in my youth group say exactly the same thing to his kid brother who wouldn’t share a snack with him.
That sight crushed me.
I sat down, and I cried.
All he was doing was trying to be a good Christian boy, by modelling me.
I went to our Youth Pastor, and told him that I needed to step down, that I was a fake, and I didn’t want to lead anyone else to hell, where I was sure I was headed.
What he told me changed my life, and how I see Jesus, and Christianity, forever.
He knew how I was behaving. But he said he saw in my heart, that I love Jesus, and that’s all that mattered. Anything else was for Jesus to correct. And that’s why he chose me to be a Youth Leader, knowing that Jesus would correct any imperfection there was.
The fact that I felt “unworthy”, in that moment meant that I was being corrected, and that I was growing.
That growth meant that I was becoming a more useful instrument for our Lord. The pain of that growth, and seeing myself unworthy, was another tool for me to use, in my capacity as an instrument for our Lord.
Being a Youth Leader means that I need to set a good example. You can see I didn’t do that very well.
It doesn’t mean we have to live perfect lives because only our Lord Jesus is perfect. We just need to know what He has done for us, and that encourages us to want to live a life that loves God and serving His greater purpose of sharing the Good News.
As I reflected on how the Lord showed me my imperfections for me to grow, I realized that youths are one of the greatest resources that any church can have! We have boundless energy and limitless passion that can carry out great exploits! Daniel 11: 32 states “but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
So, I told them about how I was imperfect.
I told them that it doesn’t matter that they are imperfect.
I told them how we all have gifts which we can use for God’s glory, and nothing can be more meaningful than to obey Jesus’ command for the Great Commission. We need to view the Great Commission not just in the context of mission trips, but also locally where you have the biggest ability to continually tell others of Jesus and share your personal testimony.
Setting an example here, or encouraging other like-minded youths to do the same, would create the start of something beautiful – Eternal Salvation. You may only plant the seed, someone else may water, and even then, yet another person may harvest. We need to trust that the Holy Spirit, who lives in each and every believer, will carry through once we step out in faith.
How we as a youth take that first step to blaze the trail for Jesus may be different from someone else’s, but the command for the Great Commission is for us all – it is indeed the Great Commission and not the great suggestion – our Lord Jesus wants us to go out and help others know and follow Him!
It doesn’t matter if we’re not perfect. It only matters that we are obeying His command to take the Gospel to the nations, our schools or our neighborhoods.
If we do that in our imperfection, other Christians around us will also be encouraged to do the same, and once they do that, they will themselves grow up to be models for others!
Imagine what the world will be if everyone took that step, and let the Lord correct their steps!
To bring this story to a close, I met Jerry again on the same street about a year later.
I had reached out to him, but he ignored me, and I don’t blame him. But that day, he listened. I told him I was sorry for what I said to him. I told him that I was broken when I saw what I said reflected back to me. I didn’t judge him. Afterall, who am I to?
I told him how our Pastor told me that I was accepted and loved by Jesus even though I had led so many youth astray – how much more would Jesus accept and love him, since he was only acting out of the pain of his parents divorce?
That weekend, Jerry came back to church, and our Youth Pastor led him to recommit his life to Jesus.
He told my Pastor how it was the testimony of my brokenness that brought him back to church, and NOT me having it 'all together' as the 'proper Christian'.
Jerry now runs a mission to the homeless in one of the inner cities in our state.
Once a month, the youth from our church support his mission by doing food distributions, and in the last year, we’ve seen over 40 souls saved.
I wasn’t a great example, but Jesus loved me. To think I almost walked away from God because I thought I let him down.
I’m not saying that God could not have done this without me, because if I didn’t meet Jerry again etc, this would have happened anyway, because it’s God’s will.
But God let me be a part of this, His wonderful and perfect plan.
My point is that it doesn’t matter how good or bad we are. It only matters how good God is. And all we need to do is revel in His goodness, and act from an overflow of how much He loves us.
We only live once in this life – but an eternity in the next.
Where will pre-believers choose to live next, and in perpetuity, depends on us sharing the Good News!
Be greatly encouraged with God’s words in Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Loving you from an abundance of His love,
Daniel
