Deeper thoughts

I had a fabulous discussion with a young person on MSN on Saturday evening. I should have been on my way home but as ever I logged in just to have a quick look and got caught in a discussion about youthwork and the role of Christianity in our relationships with young people. It was just incredible to be getting into this kind of debate with someone whose parents (oh I feel old) I remember getting married a few years before was born. This young chap is now coming up to 15 and is going to be a young leader as of the next time our big youth club meets. We even got as far as discussing the possibility of him becoming a full time youthworker one day. It is an amazing feeling to think that you might have encouraged someone by your example to follow you into ministry (I KNOW it's not just my example as he is also involved with our town centre wide work but there must be some element of my influence and my only response is a stunned wooooah!). As with all young people who discuss career prospects with me I went straight online and found him some relevant links to follow up (with somewhat more ease than other professions I might add!) The strangest thing is that I argued against the prospect far more than I would with any other option for him as I thought he might be trying to please me by asking. Perhaps I am actually quite wary of the whole issue of creating young people in my own image (he really isn't like me at all in fact!) or "cloning" as some trendy youthwork texts have described it. Yet surely we spend a lot of time ensuring that we give a good example of a Christian life. How can we also want young people NOT to be like us! hmmmm. Tough one!