So I got to be at National Youth Workers Convention (NYWC) with DYM and it was so much fun. Although I was at our booth a majority of the time and was exhausted by the end of it all, I walked away extremely filled up. Listening to the general sessions, going to break outs, talking with people, I walk away from it all with a full head and a full heart. Then the process begins of… now what?

It’s easy to walk away from a great conference like NYWC with all of these ideas and plans and have a ton of intentions to implement what you learned, but then you actually have to do it. What do you do when you get back?

Pray. Be in prayer about all of the ideas that God has exposed you to during the sessions. Allow him to illuminate ideas in which would work in you context. What is the one thing you can do this week to move forward in your ministry?

Know everything you learned cannot be done in your context. Almost everything taught is what worked in the person who taught the workshop’s ministry. Not everything they say you will be able to do in your ministry. Pick and choose the things that you can do right now. Your ministry is not their ministry. It won’t work in the saem way. We don’t want to be lazy and copy someone else, but we get these ideas to spark something else in our ministry.

Have people to talk with and bounce ideas off of. One of the best parts of NYWC is the ability to have thousands of youth workers to talk with and share ideas. When you go back home, if you have people to chat with, do it. If you don’t find people from whom you talked with at the conference to chat. This is the only time where Facebook stalking is okay.

Pick one thing and move on it. There is a ton of things you learned and were taught. It’s impossible to do everything you want to do, but pick one thing you know you can do now, change now, get rid of now, meet now and implement it and see how God moves and the ministry moves forward. 

Come back next year. If you are anything like me, these things fill me up and get me ready to keep on doing ministry. It is a great reminder that I am not in this alone. There are thousands of others doing what I am doing, wondering what I am wondering, praying what I am praying. It’s really encouraging. I can’t wait for the next NYWC in Atlanta.