Leah and I have been rethinking our ideas about youth ministry here in the past few weeks. Its not so much that we are realizing new things, but that we are trying to implement things that we’ve known all along. I have about 47 books on youth ministry. I haven’t read all of most of them, but I’ve read at least a little of all of them… and they all talk about the same thing: building attractional programming and building positive relationships.
The relationship stuff can be helpful.
However, most of them are filled with statistics and psychological stuff. All of that can be helpful, but rarely do these guys actually talk about teaching kids the word of God.
When youth ministry becomes primarily about programming, the goal is no longer to see kids know and treasure Christ, but for them to be assimilated into the programs: teenagers start leading the worship band or take charge of the children’s sunday school classes, and the youth pastor is convinced that they are “saved.”
When youth ministry becomes primarily about relationships, the goal can move from knowing and treasuring Christ to making positive decisions and doing good. A teenager volunteers at the soup kitchen or collects canned food for needy families and we think they’re “saved.”
Pause for a second. Those are great things. I wish every teenager in my youth group would be a leader in church life or volunteer their own time to helping others. I’m not opposed to that at all. But it needs to be the result of their knowledge of and love for God.
The goal is to see them know and treasure Christ above all else. Period.
How are they going to do that if I water down his word?
How are they going to do that if I talk about funny stuff or “relevant” stuff more than I teach them about who Christ is and how worthy of treasuring He is?
Their math teachers don’t water down Trigonometry for them. Their English teachers don’t make them read the abridged version of Hamlet. Why should I water down God’s word? If they can understand Calculus and Chaucer, then they can understand justification.
We’re still building relationships with them. We’re still having fun with them. But we’re through watering Truth down. Period.
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On a lighter note, Leah and I were trying to write a real song and this is what came out:
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Over at Internetmonk.com, there is a really cool thing call the Liturgical Gangstas. He asks a question and has someone from a number of different denominations answer it. Check it out if you haven’t already. The second one is about the meanings of Sacramental, Attractional, and Missional. Interesting stuff. Be sure to read the first one about Spiritual Growth, as well.
People say teenagers should get jobs in order to learn about life in the “real world.” That’s a load, because every teenager I know with a job, has about 20 times more money to blow on iPods and xBoxes than anyone I know who is actually in the “real world.”
Leah and I have been reading and studying through the gospel of mark. We haven’t gotten very far, but we have learned quite a few things. We drove to Winnipeg last Tuesday, stayed in a hotel, got our car cleared from the steering column recall, and drove back to Thompson. Thats an eight hour trip both ways. Once you get out of Winnipeg, there are about 2 1/2 hours of very small farm towns, then 5 1/2 hours of trees. Needless to say, its a long drive. But Leah and I got to talking about Mark chapter two on the way back and Leah had some really good insights.
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
Now for a while, I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about with the old cloth and new wine and all that stuff. But after thinking about it and talking it over with Leah, I think we figured it out. Of course we could be a million miles off, but I don’t think so.
See the Pharisees ask why Jesus’ disciples aren’t doing what they thought was an important part of their religion. Fasting. The Pharisees thought it was of great importance that everyone fasts. It was beyond their comprehension that a group of people who are supposedly serving God would not partake in this really important task.
This isn’t unlike Christians questioning why some churches don’t do an altar call every Sunday, why some churches don’t expect their members to wear suits and dresses on Sundays, or why we get rid of some traditions and/or change the way we do certain things.
Jesus’ answer wasn’t that fasting was outdated and irrelevant, it was that fasting wasn’t appropriate for the disciples at that time. You don’t fast when your celebrating with the groom, do you?? Sometimes what others expect is the norm is inappropriate for the people to whom we are ministering.
One time I attached an iron on patch to a pair of jeans I had. This iron on patch did really well until i washed the jeans. Then it was all shriveled up and didn’t do a very good job of covering the hole.
I think that this idea applies to ministry. Sometimes what other groups of people deem as appropriate, even necessary, is completely inappropriate when ministering to certain groups of people. In youth ministry, what worked ten years ago doesn’t necessarily work anymore.
If I were to take a first nation teenage boy who is into hip-hop culture and probably interested in joining a gang and force him into our old wineskin (aka our white, very much non-hip-hop church), what does Jesus say will happen??
We’ll explode (burst is the word the ESV uses, but I like explode better). And destroy the kid in the process.
Maybe we won’t explode, but its clear that it won’t do much help for the kid. Just like fasting wouldn’t do much good for Jesus and his disciples and the people who he was ministering to: the poor, orphans, widows, sinners, tax collectors. The disciples would fast at some point or another when it would be appropriate, but it wasn’t at that point.
That first nation kid may be able to walk into a mostly white church one day and be fine. He may even fast and pray on his own one day. But not today. And I won’t be the one to force him. I’ll be the one to lovingly point him to the Bridegroom, without placing unreal expectations on him. At least I’ll try.
Filed under: Politics, Theology, culture, people, etc., youth ministry | Tags: enemies, jesus, John Piper, love
This has become a common theme, I know, but John Piper talks about the contradiction many of us have in those to whom we have compassion.
This is why aligning with a political party is seldom consistent with Jesus’ message, regardless of what most people think. We are all guilty of treating compassion towards one group as more important than compassion towards another group. The sanctity of life includes far more than just the unborn. It also includes the poor. It also includes the unwed mothers who decided against abortion. It includes the homosexuals in your community. It includes your boss. It includes the guy who cut you off this morning on your way to work. It includes the inconsiderate jerk who lives next door.
Love your neighbor as yourself. I think that in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made it clear that our “neighbor” should be anyone and everyone we come across, regardless of differences. I asked my youth the other night how we could better love our enemies, and one of them said, “Don’t have any.” Don’t have any enemies. View them all as your neighbor, no matter how different they are, no matter how much they disagree with you, no matter how much they abhor you. Love them as you love yourself. This is way that Jesus would have us follow.
Its a hard way to walk, but its what we are called to.
Filed under: youth ministry
I don’t agree with everything that John Piper has written, but it seems as if every time he speaks amazing things come out of his mouth…
This sermon, Imparting a Passion: A Challenge to Youth Workers, is extremely challenging. I’ve been reading “Speaking to Teenagers” by Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins, which has been helpful, but at the moment, I’m only halfway through with Piper’s sermon and have learned about 7 times as much as I have from that book. No offense to those guys, but everything they suggest means absolutely nothing if scripture is not at your heart and the heart of your ministry and the heart of what you say to your teenagers and the heart of everything that you do.
He talks about Luke 9:57-62
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
And his comments are “This is not boring, this is crazy!”
The message of the kingdom of heaven is crazy. It’s foolishness. It’s dangerous. It’s life-risking. It’s incredibly different than any way that we would choose to follow on our own. It’s most definitely not boring. Thats the message that I want the youth at Thompson First Baptist to get from everything that we do.
Filed under: youth ministry
I recently took a youth ministry position at a small church in Waynesville, NC. At this point, there are only about six or eight youth that are consistently involved. They’re all middle schoolers, 6th-7th graders. They’re all pretty good kids, with the exception of one or two that just want to cause problems. But they don’t want to hear God’s word or read it or think about it. They just want to play dodgeball. Maybe its their age, I don’t know. But its frustrating–really frustrating.
I don’t know what to do. I know that they won’t care unless the Spirit changes their hearts. But I also know that God uses his word to change people’s hearts–but what do I do if they won’t listen to his word being preached?? Some would have me get rid of any sort of fellowship or fun and only preach the word at them. But they have trouble paying attention for ten minutes, much less any more than that. Some would have me get rid of any sort of preaching or teaching of the word and only have fun and build relationships with them. But if they don’t have a preacher, how will they hear?? Maybe there is some middle ground, where you build relationships with the youth and encourage them to build relationships with each other and to have fun in a (mostly) safe, wholesome environment. But I haven’t found it yet. And by the looks of it, I don’t think many youth pastors have.
As far as I can tell, the youth already are starting to think that Christianity is just a show. When they’re at church, they’re supposed to be “good, little Christians.” They’re supposed to bring they’re Bibles, or else they don’t get donuts; but they leave them in the car for the rest of the week. They’re supposed to answer all the questions with answers like: “jesus” or “being holy” or “witnessing” or something “Christian” like that. You’re not supposed to lie or say bad words when you’re at church. You’re not supposed to give any hint of how much your family life sucks when you’re at church. You’re supposed to pretend that you’re perfect and your life is perfect and everything is perfect when you’re at church. You don’t have any problems, other than the fact that you’re too bored to listen to anything that is said.
I don’t know how to fix that, other than with God’s word. I have a lot of respect for people who put their life on the line in foreign countries who are hostile to Christians. But, in most of those countries, once someone comes to know Christ, they can’t get enough of his word. They can’t hear it enough, they can’t read it enough, they can’t talk about it enough. Youth would rather make bible flowers (if you’re a guy who grew up in church, you know exactly what a bible flower is, whether you know it or not) or take pens apart or talk to their neighbors than to even think about the word of God, much less talk about it or hear someone talk about it. I just want them to hear and understand… maybe they will one day. Maybe they won’t. But I know that I can’t go wrong with preaching God’s word, no matter what the outcome.
