Are We Playing It Safe In Youth Ministry?
This post is from the Rethinking Youth Ministry blog. Written by Brian Kirk, I found his insights to be interesting and challenging for us today.
Mark
My old ritual, as youth group would wrap-up on Sunday evenings and the young’ns were heading home, was to say to them “Be Safe.” Isn’t that a strange way to say goodbye? Of course, all I meant was “Have a good week and come back in one piece” but is that really the best advice we have to give to our youth? They live in a world of school violence, AIDS, drugs, computer predators, terrorism. Is being safe all it’s cracked up to be? What about when it comes to our faith? Is teaching our youth to “play it safe” our best option? Probably not, but are we willing to lead youth ministries that encourage real risk?
One of my favorite passages in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe finds the young protagonists chatting with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. The Beavers are trying to describe Aslan, the Lion (a metaphorical stand-in for Christ in the story). Lucy, taken aback by the notion of meeting a lion, asks, “But is he safe?” Mr. Beaver replies. “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t. But he’s good.”
Do our youth ministries too often offer a Jesus who is “safe?” A Jesus who asks little of us beyond giving intellectual assent to a list of religious beliefs? A Jesus who says, “Just agree that I’m your Lord and Savior and then I’ll leave you alone to your video game nights and your road trips and your skateboard parks?” We know that for the early church, following Jesus was not just about committing to a list of do’s and don’ts or pledging allegiance to religious dogma. For them following Jesus meant walking through life the way he walked, living and loving as he lived and loved. Theologian Paul Tillich describes this as making the spirit of Christ a reality by “participating in his very being.” In other words, following Christ is not primarily about abstract belief but about a way of being in the world.
And if we dared to do this in our youth ministry, we’d better be prepared for trouble. Because following Jesus with our youth — really following Jesus — will be anything but safe. Because here is what it would look like:
- Radically re-visioning the world in which we live — even though it’s a world in which we are pretty comfortable (Do our youth rooms really need a mini-fridge and an Xbox or should our priorities be elsewhere?).
- Letting go of all our old distinctions of rich/poor, male/female, gay/straight, young/old, powerful/powerless, respected/shamed, cool/uncool, popular/unpopular (Who is not in your youth group because they don’t think they’d be welcome in the church? What are you doing to extend to them the hand of Christian hospitality?)
- Opposing violence and working for peace (Is it time for a protest march?)
- Deciding that sharing our faith means more than convincing other people of our religious point of view or showing publicly that we are more pious than the next person. It’s about how we live and love in this world. (“Preach the Gospel always and, if necessary, use words.”)
- Speaking out against intolerance and injustice and calling on the Church to do the same. (How do your youth see the intersection of their faith and their attitudes about healthcare, poverty, AIDS, abortion, the death penalty, racism, etc.?)
- Leaving the comfort of our youth rooms to go out and literally feed the poor, clothe the naked, care for the lonely, heal the sick. (Can we do this every Sunday and not just on the yearly mission trip?)
Of course, none of this stuff is safe. Some of it may even be dangerous. Some of your teens will jump at the chance to be world-changers. Some will leave and find a youth group that is more entertaining and less challenging. And know that when you start messing with the present order of things, those who benefit from that order will always see what you are doing as a threat. Perhaps this is why churches work so hard to keep youth pacified with video games and big screen TVs and trips to Six Flags and their own rooms far, far away from everyone else. We figure if we keep them distracted enough, they might not notice that this Jesus guy really is a radical, dangerous troublemaker calling us to overturn the tables of the world and work for something completely different.
So, how do you know if your group is following the radical Jesus or just playing it safe? Ask yourself: Is our ministry meeting any resistance from those, youth and adults alike, who are happy with the cultural status quo? Have we confused the gospel with our culture’s recipe for respectability, comfortableness, safety? Does the Jesus we follow demand anything of our youth other than being members in the “nice people” club? Is the Jesus we share with our youth more like a kitty cat or Aslan the Lion?
I know many of you out there are leading “dangerous” youth ministries. We’d like to hear from you and know what you’re doing. You may just inspire the rest of us to stop playing it safe.
–Brian
Legalistic or Healthy Conversation?
Over time I’ve developed a habit. This habit isn’t a bad thing like smoking or watching too much TV. My habit is to read from the Bible each day. In fact, some would call this habit a spiritual discipline. But this isn’t about my having discipline or not, but rather if having a discipline like reading the Bible is a legalism, or a humanistic spiritual effort. As I work with the students I’m finding that it is the rare guy or girl who actually reads the Bible outside of regular church programs. No wonder we have to make such a big deal about helping everyone find where we read in the Bible at church. Most people don’t read and thus the Bible is a foreign book to them. And that is an absolute shame.
When I read the Bible in the mornings, I try hard to hear from God, but often it is just plain, hard work to even find one nugget of truth from the Lord. I’m sure others feel this way too. To find insights and convicting challenges and just plain hearing from the Lord takes time to immerse in the Word and allow the message to penetrate our lives. In this sense, our reading the Word is God’s way of talking to us. Just like I often will have conversations with my wife while watching TV, I can miss whole thoughts and non-verbal messages she gives me because I’m not focused on the conversation. I think the Lord sees us the same way.
We can read a passage but we forget God will often bring those truths to mind in the future when we are in a conversation or thinking through a big life challenge. This is the healthy conversation that God gives us when we need that truth the most. By daily getting into the Word, the storehouse of conversations grows and the true payoff is in the days and months to come. By staying faithful to daily immersing in God’s truth, I find that the Holy Spirit brings ideas to mind when I least expect them and often these ideas are based on what I recently read.
So what is the bottom line? Do we legalistically read or do we change our mindset and see anytime that we read, we are actually conversing with God? As a Dad and a model to hundreds of students, my hope is that my daily conversations with God will transform me. Who knows, maybe that’s why God wanted us to seek Him with all our heart. Because it’s in the seeking that we find more than we ever bargained for.
Pastor Mark
Parent Meeting Announcement!
Coming up on Sunday morning the 20th of September at 9am in the Courtyard Room will be a parent meeting. These meetings are very important for understanding the way the Junior High ministry works, getting up-to-date on what is new or different this year and finding the ways that you can pray for us this year and engage in the spiritual development of your kids. Please spread the word as we know word of mouth is the best way to let all our parents know about this one-time meeting.
Thanks,
Pastor Mark
Can You Feel It?
Yesterday I felt it. The onslaught of the fall and all the new beginnings again. I took care to slow down in school zones. I noticed the roads were more crowded in the morning. I attended a parent meeting for the water polo team. Yes, fall is here and it is just the beginning.
As I looked back to last year, I was encouraged by the ground we took as a ministry to help connect parents and the importance of discipling their students. Remember that the only way to impart faith to your kids is to personally take responsibility for it. We will always be a resource, but you are the ones who see them each day. You have the vast majority of opportunities to take ground in this area, far more than our efforts amount to at Fusion and Elevation.
My hope this year is that we will be able to personally disciple each student during the course of the school year. This discipleship will include building a relationship with a student, helping get them grounded in the Bible and spiritual disciplines, using flexible methods to help them grow and with the desire that each student will be able to disciple another student after they are done. In fact, this vision to disciple comes out of our camp this year as numerous students were called by the Holy Spirit to invest their life into another life.
Get ready for a great ride this year. I can feel the excitement. I can feel the anticipation. Can you feel it too?
Pastor Mark
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