Confessions of a youth minister

Bigger is always better, or so I thought. For nine years I served as the lead youth minister in a metro Atlanta area church. We called ourselves REACH and our mission was to touch as many young lives as possible in the name of Jesus. It was great fun and we had activity-laden ministry that attracted many friends and family of teens in our youth ministry. We grew quickly from having four youngsters at my first Sunday School class to consistently having 40-50 teeangers at the Wednesday night group session to having over 100 kids at our popular activities. I would proclaim the power and name of Jesus, fire the kids up, invite them into a transformative relationship with their Savior, and ask them to bring their friends to the next gathering or event. It was an exciting time, and for someone who has a full-time career in sales and strives to be a "gatherer," I celebrated the growth in numbers as a great success.

Bigger is always better, or so I thought.

So what was the issue...isn't bigger better? Is having ministry stewardship over a growing number of people something to get excited about - absolutely. Is is reasonable to celebrate having more people in the seats for our church services, camps and youth activities - of course it is. So where was the issue? The issue for me was this - we were an activity-centered ministry instead of a presence-centered ministry. I was great at showing wiz-bang videos, organizing fun group games and getting people involved with what we were doing. Not bad, but there is something better.

Whether your church, youth ministry or camp is large or small in numbers, I have come to believe that truly effective ministry can only be done by helping others see the presence of Jesus, by way of the Spirit, in their lives. That happens through life-on-life, moment-by-moment experiences that we share with young people. It's about relationship. I was a youth minister of influence...trying to leverage my personality and ability to gather people to win them for Christ. Now I want to be a youth minister of relationship...helping young people to experience the relationship and the power of the presence of Jesus already in their lives. As Andrew Root writes in his book Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, "Relational Youth ministry is about suffering with adolescents. It’s about sharing in their place with empathy, sympathy, and commonality…We must reach out to their (teens) humanity even if it means the suffering of our own humanity, for this is the way of the cross…We have offered them trips to Disneyland, silly games and cool youth rooms, not companionship in their darkest nights, their scariest of hells.” Amen.

I still play silly games and like cool youth rooms and get excited about a large crowd. However, now I have come to see that every person in that cool youth room is a cherished child of the Living God - not to be won over, but to be loved. No agenda. No strings attached.

Opening the church to young adults

Why do many young adults leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? These questions are examined in Essential Church? by Thom and Sam Ranier. To read an excerpt, click here.

The book is based on a study of one-thousand "church dropouts" who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers have less to do with "losing their religion" and more about their desire for community that isn't made stale by simply maintaining the status quo.

The book offers four ways churches can make their worship community an essential part of these young people's lives again:

• Simplify - develop a clear structure and process for making disciples
• Deepen - provide strong biblical teaching and preaching
• Expect - let members know the need for commitment to the congregation
• Multiply - emphasize evangelism, outward focus, and starting new churches

I appreciate the insights of this book, and would add concerning its conclusions that what I think we are seeing in these young adults is two things:

1. A rejection of "Churchianity." By that I mean thy no longer see church attendance as a social advantage or imperative.
2. A longing for community. I believe this longling comes from an (often unknowing) experience of the union they have with God in Jesus, who unites all humanity to the "community" of the Father, Son and Spirit. This union is the basis of the "image of God" (imago Dei) that all humans bear (an image often distorted by sin). The church has the opportunity to make such community visible and accessible by being a loving community that is centered on Jesus and has doors wide open to include young people in their cultural setting. I hope we will do so.

The hopes of a new generation

What do young people hope for? That's a huge question, and there are no simple or single answers. But listen deeply to the hopes and dreams expressed in a powerful short video titled "Lost Generation" - click here to download.

I believe that what is heard in this video is an expression of a generation that is sharing in the hopes and dreams that Jesus, through the Spirit, has for them and with them for their world and his. I pray that we will help them realize these hopes with and in Christ.

Building community after camp

In a previous post (click here), I discussed approaching camps (and other short-term ministry events such as mission trips) as opportunities to build community that continues outside the event. In, "Living More Than Mission Trip to Mission Trip," Drew Sams offers tips for using social networking media to this end (click here to read his helpful article on the FYI website).