Building Trust in MinistryFrom the Executive Director, Sean Atkinson Prior to COVID, I had the opportunity to minister with juvenile offenders at SCI Pine Grove for three years. To say I was uncertain about the opportunity would have been a massive understatement; I am generally not that great at working with “kids.” We were each assigned a block, and two volunteers would go into their pods as the teens could not be in the general population. Eight young men from the streets of the Philadelphia area and I met in a small common area outside their cells. The first few weeks were awkward. It was extremely difficult for anyone to be comfortable enough to share much of anything, and after the first 30 minutes or so, they would start to lose any interest they may have had. This continued over the next few weeks. Then I heard a young man named Rodney start to rap, to sing while his friend hit his hand in a rhythmic way on the small table. It wasn't loud, but it certainly was unexpected. I let it go and thought it may have been a one time thing, only to have it happen again the following week. I thought to myself, “Man, I am not connecting with these young men, what am I doing?” At the same time I didn’t want to call the corrections officer and have them removed from the callout. So I interrupted and said, ”Rodney, let’s make a deal!” He looked at me, head tilting. Before I gave him a chance to respond I said, “Teach me your rap.“ He replied with a great deal of laughter from the entire group, “WHAT? Are you serious?” ”I will memorize the rap and next week I will rap it back to you. In return I will give the group a verse to memorize, and we will discuss it the following week.”
“Are you serious?” they asked.
“Yeah. OK. Deal!” I gave them John 3:16 for the following week. I used the Message translation, “This is how much God loved the world: He gave His son, His one and only Son. And this is why, so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” As for my rapping skills, well I am certain they are not great, but I did indeed rap that verse back to them. ”Don’t mean to be rude, but you never walked a single day in my shoes. …..but thank you for trying.”
I did my best, and there was plenty of laughter, but along with that laughter trust started to form. And after that session, things changed, albeit slowly. You see each of us in that pod that day left our comfort zone, and the Holy Spirit started His work.
I ask each of you to think back on your journey with Christ. There were times when it didn’t seem to make sense, it may not have sounded right, it was uncomfortable at times, and may not have seemed as though it was in rhythm. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV The Isaiah passage reminds us to put our complete trust in God because His ways and plans are always better than our own, and we should trust that everything included in His plans is for a greater good; God will help us to build trust in our ministry.
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