Be Yourself!!! God created you to be you, nobody else. And you will always be at your best when you are being you. I'm the best Christopher Paul Smith out there and that's all God wants me to be. I think there is this pressure youth pastors deal with, where we feel like we have to be cool and fit in with teenagers. Because of this we change the way we dress, our hairstyle ( I don't have much hair so I don't struggle with this), the way we talk and the way we act. The problem is students see right through that, they see when we are trying way to hard to be "relevant" or fit in. I believe students will respect you the most for simply being you. Or we see another person in ministry and start acting or preaching like them because they have a successful ministry (now don't get me wrong I use other guys stuff but I still preach it or teach it in my style). You may think you are doing better by imitating them but you will always be less comfortable in someone else's shoes. Be the person God wants you to be not like someone else.
I know personally I used to battle the fact that I'm not as goofy as other youth pastors and that I'm not very creative when it comes to video, drama and the arts as other youth pastors. I've come to the conclusion that those things aren't me and they probably never will be and that's ok. My wife makes up for my lack of craziness and I have awesome leaders who are good at the arts. Those aren't my strengths and there is no need to spend way too much of my time to make them my strengths because it probably won't happen anyway. I have to focus on what I am good at and that is being ME! I do this best by building on my strengths and not worrying about what I am not. Be Yourself!!!
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