I never understood more the phrase, “Don’t Meet Your Heroes” until I was in high school, and I met one of my biggest preaching idols at church camp. Yes, you read that right…a high school boy can have preaching idols!
I suppose I need to set the scene a little bit. When I was in the 8th grade, I started going to church. And sometime in that year, we went to a youth conference and I heard a fantastic preacher, Jayson, share the Word of God in a way unlike any other way I had ever heard. He was so cool, so captivating, and his words moved through an entire auditorium and he had EVERYONE on their edge of their seats in full attention, especially me. He didn’t give us the guilt and fear to try to “turn us to Jesus”. He was real, made cool references, and spoke in a way that made everyone want to learn more about God, whether they believed in Him or not. In 8th grade, the first time I heard Jayson, it was at a little church camp. As the years went on, our church would go to the bigger events, and I’d watch as Jayson also went to these bigger events because his preaching career was taking off, and he was THAT good.
I preached my first sermon when I was sixteen, and it was there that I discovered my love for public speaking, and that I was really good at it. This was a big moment in my life because up until that point, I had never found anything that I was *really* good at. I was okay at playing piano, and basically terrible at everything else, but preaching was the first time I did something where the rest of the room would stop and think, “Dang, he’s really good!” For a high schooler with very low self esteem, that was a big game changer for me!
Thanks to my youth pastor that knew how and where to empower me, I was able to speak and preach more church, youth group, and even other churches. And it was at this point that a little thought crept inside my head.
I could be the next Jayson.
So junior year, we were at a summer church camp. It was one of those big conferences that take place on a college campus with hundreds of kids and tons of churches. In high school I couldn’t get enough of these events. I loved going to them with my youth group, and they were frequently the best part of my summer.
Of course, it’s hot in summer, so there was a lot of sweating during the afternoon outside activities that took place during free time. As an Italian boy, I was always a lot hairier then the other guys. Also, as kid that spent all of his free time playing Diablo II and Final Fantasy VII and never exercised; I was a lot fatter then the other guys. So when I say “there’s a lot of sweating during the afternoon activities”, I mostly mean….I sweat two pools worth by just being outside for 10 minutes.
As a sweaty high school guy in the early 2000’s when you are outside playing hacky sack with the dudes, what do you do? Obviously you take your shirt off and keep “hacking the sack”. (Is that what they called playing hacky sack? I was never good enough at it to be bothered with the terminology.)
Or that was just what I did…everyone else at church camp kept their shirts on, like normal civilized people, and I was the only savage. But my friends laughed and we kept playing, so I thought everybody was cool with it.
We were two days in to church camp, which means there was a lot of free time of shirtless Drew playing hacky sack with his youth group friends. And then on Tuesday afternoon, out of the corner of my eye I see something that stops our gameplay in mid sack. Jayson *the world famous preacher* was walking over to our youth group!
That’s right, THE Jayson. My preaching idol. The man I wanted to grow up to be! And he looks at me specifically, and says (In typical early 2000’s youth pastor style) “Sup Bro! Can you come over here for a sec?”
Jayson wanted to talk to ME! I was so ecstatic. My friends had always teased me that I had a “preacher crush” and it wasn’t until this moment that I thought, “Maybe they’re right.” As I walk over there I am wondering what could he want to say to me. Maybe he had heard about my preaching and wanted me to share a testimony on main stage tonight? Or maybe he was going on a preaching tour and needed a padawan. I would have signed up for that job without any thought! So the conversation started off as any other would.
“What’s your name?” Jayson asked me.
“A-Andrew.” I stammered, partly because I was in shock that the Jayson was talking to me…and partly because I was out of breath from 10 minutes of outside activity.
“Awesome, nice to meet you Andrew.” Jayson said as he Shook My Hand. The thrill of having my hero shaking my hand was quickly deflated though, when he spoke next.
“Listen, so I’m going to have to ask you to keep your shirt on during free time. There’s been some complaints and issues, and we just want to make sure everyone is having a good time and feel safe and comfortable hanging outside during free time.”
I was stunned…and embarrassed…and wanted to die…THIS was what my preaching idol came over to talk to me about….to remind me to keep my shirt on at all times during church camp? He wasn’t impressed with me at all…he was mildly grossed out by me.
Also let me take a moment and evaluate this moment with hindsight and 15 years of experience doing the exact same job that Jayson was doing there, youth ministry. First of all…who starts off this conversation with “There’s been some complaints.” Secondly, “we want to make sure everyone feels safe?” I was a shirtless pudgy kid, not a sex offender! In hindsight, he could of handled that conversation a lot better. (Instead of shaming the fat kid, maybe use it as a teaching moment?)
But it got worse!
Later that night at the beginning of the worship session where we were all together. Jayson gets on the big main stage at the beginning of the service and addresses the whole crowd.
“I just want everyone to know that the issue many of you were talking about with kids hacky sacking shirtless has been addresses, and we won’t have any more problems. Let your girls know they can hang outside in peace during free time if they want!”
Of course when Jayson spoke about this, everyone in my youth group looked back at me like “You were the only one of us shirtless! He’s talking about you!”
It’s a special feeling to know that there were enough girls in enough youth groups that felt the need to complain to their leaders, who then felt the need to complain to the lead preacher at church camp in a way where HE felt the need to address you specifically, and then again address the whole group about you. If you are thinking “Man, you must have felt so awkward!” You are 100% right!
And that’s the story about the time I met one of my biggest heroes!
Do you have a story about a time you met one of your heroes? It can be an awesome story, or an embarrassing one like my own! Please share below, and thank you for reading!
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