The main thing I appreciate about my (our) church is that the law is preached not to make us better, but to expose our sinfulness, and the gospel is handed over freely with NO strings attached.

I hope things work out well for you and your family. Lest anyone else thinks that I do this on a regular basis, I only offered up suggestions in your case, because I felt I had a fairly good grasp of your situation. You are a prodigal daughter returning home, and like the bible story, reaction may be varied. Tread carefully and slowly.

God bless as you take this step back to your old church.

As a somewhat humorous aside, I first interacted with you through my friend’s blog, as you were deciding to leave. Seems like things have now come full circle.

I wanted to let you know that your words rang true to me and as I prayed I felt your advice was solid. I took your advice and feel very much that God is pleased! Thank you for your ministering heart toward me..

While I think this is off topic, I agree up to a point.

The model that I have liked the best was my College and career group in Ottawa. We met on Friday night and had one big social event a month, two bible studies a month, and one semi-social with a devotional. The social helped to draw people in and to get to know us and each other. The semi-social was used as a transition, and then we had some pretty good Bible study groups. We were all young adults at the time, so there were no parents involved, but this is a model that I think can work well at a youth group level as well.

No one forced you to sign up for everything , but they allowed it. This is something that you need to address with them, as your burnout contributed to you leaving.

A former church of mine had a policy of a maximum of one major responsibility and one minor one for each person. That way, no one got overloaded, and everyone had a chance to participate. When I was elected as an elder at the ripe old age of 26, I had to give up my responsibilites of leading the college and career group. Having this kind of balance I think is very good for the health of the church. If there is no one to do a ministry, then either that ministry ends, or priority is switched from other ministries.

Be sure to communicate clearly with the leadership (preferably in writing) why you are back. That way, there can be no second guessing. I would recommend taking a year off ministry and then look to take things on slowly. Consider starting a small group bible study. That might help alleviate some of the other things that got you leave in the first place.

Mike