Resolution

Mercifully, grace-full-y, the meeting went well. It was not punitive or accusatory - they simply addressed what some parents said while admitting that some things were probably taken out of context and that they were taking it all with a grain of salt. Some of the things were really isignificant - on the first camping trip I planned, the person who said they knew how to get to the campground (30 minutes away) showed up and said they didn't remember how to get there, so I had to run into the church and print off directions; at a 2 day outdoor concert I didn't take a parent's advice to put all of the kids into hotels because that would have prevented about 15 kids from coming, so we camped and got rained on. There were a few things like that. Other things were, however, valid - I guess I have a tendency to try too hard to be relateable to the kids, which some parents didn't like. Everyone in the meeting, though, admitted it is a hard line to walk between mentor/friend when working with high school kids. Too much in one direction will cause problems, and though I really didn't think I was crossing that line, that's the perception and Ijust have to accept that I did.

A good thing to come out of this - a big youth-ministry guru has offered to mentor me. I'm honestly a little leary about it, if only because I'm a pretty independent person, but I'm holding out hope that this will benefit me in this and future ministry positions - wherever they may be. Another good thing - the SP apologized for the way he acted in the meaning. I told him how I felt things went down and he said the main reason he didn't say anything was because he didn't want them to get the idea that this ministry's philosophy is up for public debate. So he apologized for not supporting me and I think his reason for not doing so was pretty good - would have been nice to have been told this immediately after the meeting, but oh well. He also said that he recognized this woman was causing most of this trouble - stirring her problems up with other people and that he told them in no uncertain terms to stop talking about this to other people. A very welcome directive in my book!

So thank you all for your prayers & support. God has definitely used this in a positive way for me personally, and I think for this staff. I think the SP realized that as a staff we are too uninvolved or unaware of what is happening in each other's ministries, so hopefully this will be a spur to greater unity.