Choosing to be Present: Youth Worker Training
Presence is a word that defines what makes and breaks a group. If the group is continually present in the lives of its members, then presence exists as it was intended. However, if presence is not active, then the group is not existing as was intended and the group is merely a gathered group of people with no intentionality.
Job was a man who lacked present friends. When he first was tested, his friends wept with him in silence for a week. After the week was up, they blamed him for his situation. They went from presence to judgment in no time at all.
As a group, we want to embrace the principle of presence. We desire to play an active role in the ongoing lives of each member. No one person is more valuable than another within the group, nor is a single person more valuable than the identity of the group. Choose this week to be present in the lives of the students God has entrusted into your care. Model this for them, and they will follow your lead and be present in one another’s lives. You set the tone!
How can I be present in the lives of my students this week?
