Yay, God!

Our youth group led all three services at church this weekend. It went really well. Except for the part in the kid's time when I asked a little girl for an answer--and then realized she was probably too young to talk. And so, I just pretended like she said the right answer.

But besides my mucking it up, all was well. The kids did great sermonettes and we unleashed our youth band onto the congregation for the first time. It's really a great story. We won a drum set, bass guitar and speakers at a youth ministry conference two years ago. Since then, kids who never played bass or drums have taught themselves how. This weekend they rocked the sanctuary with Switchfoot and Blink 182 tunes.

Yah, Blink 182. I am fairly confident we were the only church in America that had Blink played in their worship time yesterday. I introduced the song for the services as the band got ready because I thought some people may see the name Blink 182 and be like, "Whaaa?"

I explained that I had actually questioned why our youth band would be playing a Blink song in church. I don't work closely with the band and so when I found out they been practicing a Blink 182 song, I told the band members I thought it was inappropriate. I figured they just wanted to play it because they like Blink and it sounds cool. But Steve, the singer, told me I needed to read the lyrics before I jumped to conclusions. He was right. No, it's not a song from a Christian band, but it reads as a desperate plea from someone who believes in God and his plan--but is lost and forlorn. It's almost like a psalm. With its honesty and searching, its vulnerability and longing, I realized that this song connected with the guys and did indeed have a spot in their worship. It reminded me that "all truth is God's truth."

Isn't it cool how God can work in you when you think he's just working through you?

After the first of the three youth-led services, one high schooler's dad told The Intended a story of when he first started to know me. I'd never heard this story before.

He said he was reminded of the story because of the final praise song we sang in the service. Apparently way back when I first started working with the youth, the congregation was singing this same song. As our older, calm congregation sweetly sang the song, they reached the line, "I'll shout it from the mountaintop." At that point, this father heard a loud yell from the balcony of , "YAY, GOD!"

That was me. And this father told us us that all of a sudden he 1) was happy there was some youthful excitement injected into our church and 2) afraid of who was influencing his children.

Flash forward to yesterday: During the last service, the kids thought it would be fun if we all yelled, "Yay God!" at that spot in the song--something we picked up at a youth rally. When the time came, I yelled. And maybe too loudly. The guy next to me said, "I couldn't hear myself yell over Todd." The youth in front of me said, "Todd was so loud that I got scared and forgot what to yell."