{"id":3649,"date":"2011-08-29T10:11:36","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T15:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=3649"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:57:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:57:08","slug":"the-confession-of-a-former-youth-pastor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/08\/29\/the-confession-of-a-former-youth-pastor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Confession of a Former Youth Pastor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nAs I was biking to and from work last Friday, I listened to an excellent edition of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisamericanlife.org\/radio-archives\/episode\/443\/amusement-park\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">This American Life<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0The subject was amusement parks, and it was hilarious (and even a little inspiring).<\/p>\nOne of the segments played voicemails that listeners had left about their most poignant amusement park memories, many of which had to do with being vomited on.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t like amusement parks. \u00a0Never have. \u00a0They\u2019re hot, sticky, plastic places, \u201c<a title=\"Baudrillard on Disneyland\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2006\/09\/13\/baudrillard-on-disneyland\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\">the first toxic great excrement of a hyperreal civilization<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nBut, as a youth pastor, I had to spend at least one day every summer at an amusement park. \u00a0So, I had a secret plan, that I will now confess to the world:<\/p>\nI would be sure to place myself in the group with the kid that I thought had the weakest stomach. \u00a0Then, as the morning progressed, I would heartily encourage both the eating of much gross food and the riding of the most hair-raising roller coasters.<\/p>\nInevitably, that kid (or another) would puke, and I would find myself sitting comfortably for the rest of the day in the air conditioned First Aid building<\/strong>. \u00a0(If you haven\u2019t been in the First Aid building of an amusement park, it\u2019s like a little Garden of Eden in the center of Hell.)<\/p>\nMy apologies to all of the kids who puked on my behalf. \u00a0But, I admit, I don\u2019t regret what I did.<\/p>\nWhat are your youth ministry confessions?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As I was biking to and from work last Friday, I listened to an excellent edition of This American Life. \u00a0The subject was amusement parks, and it was hilarious (and even a little inspiring). One of the segments played voicemails that listeners had left about their most poignant amusement park memories, many of which had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[326,774],"class_list":["post-3649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-youth-ministry","tag-jean-baudrillard","tag-this-american-life"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>The Confession of a Former Youth Pastor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I was biking to and from work last Friday, I listened to an excellent edition of This American Life. \u00a0The subject was amusement parks, and it was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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