Fridays with the Fitzpatricks

"Who let the turkey in the bathroom?!"

The Youth-Workers New Groove

A few years ago I was floundering. I had been working in one place for about 3 years and felt like nothing had any meaning anymore. Sure, kids were coming to events and on the outside the groups looked like they were flourishing, but from my vantage point I knew that we were stalled. I was running groups for the sake of running them, with no idea of where we were going, no vision of why I was running these groups in the first place. 

I felt a bit like a Captain of a ship at sea, giving orders, making sure everyone felt like they had purpose and a job on my ship, no one would have imagined that I wasn’t completely in control. And yet, all along, unbeknownst to them, I had no idea where our ship was heading. We were just wandering around the ocean under a guise of direction because from inside our ministry it seemed organised and together.

At the height of these feelings, I sat down with a guy I used to work with, and poured all this out on him. I confessed that I felt like I was in a rut. 

He thought about it for a moment, and then asked me what was making me feel stuck. Was it the repetition of the programmes themselves or a lack of vision in the running of them?

Because, he said, there’s a difference between a rut and a groove. They may look the same from the outside, you’re doing the same things. With a rut, you’re stuck, but with a groove, there’s purpose and direction.

These few words changed the way I see what I do. I was challenged to take weekly or regular programmes and see them not as an obstacle to be conquered or endured, but an opportunity to be grasped. If I could become cohesive about how I do ministry, focused and purposeful, then I could find that groove. 

I haven’t mastered this. Not even close. In my new job, I’m yet to find this grand direction, vision and strategy. I suppose this series of blog posts is an attempt to push me to do so. 

Strategy. It’s the secret that turns a rut into a groove.

Going Through the Motions

“Ecclectic” is how you might describe my interests. Not only do I love a good musical, but I’m a life long devotee of the work of Mr Joss Whedon (I hereby declare myself a ‘sci-fipster’...liking him before Marvel got their clutches in) so imagine my delight when in the Autumn of 2001, the man himself brought an episode of Buffy to our screens in the genre of musical theatre. 

They sang, they danced, they slayed vampires. Life was good.

What I like about musicals is the stories they tell and the emotions that they manage to get across in those few bars, and the song that most struck a chord in my during  this episode was the opener “Going through the motions”, performed by (the not-especially-musically-gifted) Sarah Michelle Gellar. 

Buffy [S.M.G.] is a vampire slayer, but having recently returned from taking a 'break' from it (she was dead...now she’s not, move past it) she picks back up her old life, patrolling and hanging with the Scoobs, where she left off. 

If you have a few minutes to watch, take a look below (I could only find a Spanish subtitle version. Fun fact: Vampire Slayer is “Cazavampiros” in Spanish. Tell your friends.)

It struck a chord in me because this concept of going through the motions can so easily become my natural leaning. Just keep going. Keep at it. Just get it done.

It's such an easy to trap to fall into in youth ministry, where September can feel like you step on the hamster wheel of youth groups, kids clubs and Bible studies and don't step off until the following June. It can be hard to stay fresh, to really mean what I do and be purposeful and deliberate about the activities and groups I run.

To go through the motions is to stagnate and forget the reason behind why I do what I do.

The next few posts will be looking at figuring out how to be intentional with what we do. How we can avoid feeling like we’re just doing the same old same old. 

May these words be a prayer, for vision, drive and determination to persevere through the temptation to go on cruise control.

“I don’t want to be going through the motions, 

losing all my drive. I can’t even see, if this is really me, 

and I just want to be, alive.”

(Or in the words of Buffy la cazavampiros...

“Atravieso emociones, pierdo mi illusion,

Ni siquiera puedo ver, si esta realmente soy yo,

Yo lo unico que quiero es sentirme....viva!”)

Fridays with the Fitzpatricks

While Seamus & Molly catch up on Sherlock, Michael and Siobhan sneak out to see the world. 

Once a week, I help set up for Mothers & Toddlers (10:30am in Dun Laoghaire Presbyterian). 
These are the continuing adventures of the Ftizpatricks.