Susan Boyle and Lessons for Ministry

If you haven’t seen this yet, please run to YouTube (do not walk or click slowly because you need to see this lady)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Read on if you’ve seen the clip from Britain’s Got Talent 2009.

I’m not gonna lie.  This clip seriously brought tears to my eyes (don’t worry, they were manly tears).  There is a huge lesson for us in ministry in this clip.

It’s easy to judge people based on how they look and how they act.  If I’m honest with myself, I know that I do this sometimes with youth that I encounter in church or beyond.  It’s easy after being in minstry for 10 years to start making assumptions about people and limit the list of people for whom we have great hopes. 

I think, however, that every child of God has a beauty as immense as Susan Boyle’s.  It may lie in a talent (like singing or art) or it may lie in capacity to love or conviction to care for others.  Wherever it lies, it’s our duty as youth ministers and as Christians to dig up that beauty.  When we do so, we see our students as God sees them and THAT makes all the difference.  The people who have impacted my lives the most are the ones who have seen me the way that God sees me. 

I pray that all of us in youth ministry and all of us in the church can remember that our youth groups, churches and neighborhoods are filled with Susan Boyles.  Our task and calling is to see their beauty and look upon them as God would. 

When I write, the clip has amassed 11,000,000 views in 4 days.  Spectacular!