Recipe For Disaster...

Here was the recipe I concocted: 22 Jr. High teens, including boy-crazy jr. high girls and caffeinated jr. high boys; with only three adult leaders and lastly, I was talking about Jesus.

I must be totally honest when I say that I have NEVER in all of my time in ministry, (even though I am young, I've been doing Youth Ministry for 8 years) seen this much Spiritual Warfare. Our Jr. Highers are ALWAYS rowdy, but tonight was absurd. They couldn't be controlled most of the night, especially when it came time for the talk. It was like a BOLT of demonic energy was put under 80% of the teens chairs. Seriously, when I got up to speak, the heightened disobedience was incredible to witness.

After about 8 minutes of this, I stopped trying to get them to listen by yelling at them and I said: "You know, I believe there are demons in this world, and I am pretty sure they are affecting you tonight in such a way that is causing all of this craziness, because Jesus wants to speak to you." While I was talking about this, was the quietest time all evening. I prayed, then went back into the lesson on Jesus. The talking continued (though not at the same volume) and I kicked a couple kids out of the room.

The games were a blast tonight and the kids were engaged in all of that, but when it came time to talk about Jesus, there was supreme oppression, the likes of which I've never encountered. It doesn't strike me as odd though, because Satan doesn't want these teens hearing about Jesus.

However, the timing strikes me as ironic, because I am reading a book by a Pastor in Seattle and he talks of frequent demonic encounters with his people. I asked God (literally and without lying) yesterday why I haven't seen demonic attacks within the youth ministry. Asking if I were doing something wrong, or un-threatening to Satan and his minions. Tonight showed me that even though it's tough, we're on the right track.

My two other leaders really stepped up and helped me reign in the teens that needed reigning. I realized the supreme loss of one of my leaders (who is now a Youth Pastor down the street). He had a tremendous impact on our teens and was an amazing help in times similar (yet nowhere near as bad) to this evening.