Youth-Owned Ministry
This post is part of a collection of articles sent as a follow-up to GYMN
trainings. You can use these posts in your youth ministry. At the end of the
article are questions for you to reflect on or for your youth leadership team to
discuss.
Several years ago I found myself tired,
discouraged and frustrated with the ministry to youth that I was involved with
in North Philadelphia (USA). I had been a youth pastor at a small urban church
for about 5 years and had tried all the things I had ever read and heard that I
was supposed to do to be an effective shepherd of young lives but it just didn’t
seem to be working. I had tried to get youth involved with many of “my great
ideas” and all the “divinely inspired” ministry strategies that I was sure would
work but there always seemed to be a lack of commitment and zeal on behalf of
the youth. The teens had little or no ownership in the ministry and no
desire to reach out to their peers.
One day as I was walking through a hallway in the
church towards my office I heard someone playing the piano. I didn’t recognize
the song or the voice so I made my way up to the sanctuary to see if someone had
gotten into the building that was not supposed to be there. What I saw and
heard has forever transformed my view of youth ministry.
At the piano sat Angel “Chico” Gonzalez. He was
singing a song he had written about the pain and despair he had experienced from
his parents divorce and the comfort he found only in the love of Jesus. Tears
welled up in my eyes as I heard him sing and when he finished I asked him if he
had ever thought about using his gift to share with others what he had
experienced in his relationship with Christ. He told me that he had never
thought about using his musical talents in Christian service because adult
church leaders had always frowned upon the music he liked.
Needless to say, I encouraged him to keep singing
and to pray about how God might want to use his talents and gifts in His
kingdom. Within a few days, several other youth got excited about music
ministry, and they started practicing at church. They soon formed a group
called One Way, based on John 14:6. They prayed, wrote music and rehearsed
together faithfully for nearly six months and then, with the guidance of some
adult youth workers and the blessing of the church leadership, began to sing in
our church, other churches, at Christian youth rallies, evangelistic events,
etc.
Our ministry began to look much different after
the formation of One Way with the primary difference being that our ministry
became a ministry done by youth as opposed to something done to youth.
The following are some time tested principles
that our young people have taught us throughout the years that have helped them
to become owners of the youth ministry in their church:
1. Be Quiet, Ask Questions and Listen. It
might sound embarrassingly simple, but you’d be surprised how many adult youth
workers never simply sit down, ask questions and really listen to young people.
A couple of summers ago a 19 year old heard me angrily criticizing the youth
selling drugs on certain street corners near where he lived. He asked me why I
thought I had the right to criticize them to which I had no answer. A few days
later he took me out to the corner late one night while the dealing was heavy
and I learned first hand why they were out there and what their impressions of
the local church were. Incidentally, nearly 70% of those I talked with had
grown up in neigh-borhood Latino churches but left when they felt the church had
become irrelevant to their lives and disinterested in their struggles.
When you look, listen and watch you’re able to allow youth to live out
the gospel from their vantage point of giftedness as opposed to being
tempted to force them into yours.2. Share Visions, Dreams and Plans. Youth leaders love to dream about ministry and sometimes do a marginally good job at planning out their ministry goals and strategies. However, when youth are not allowed in on these discussions, the result is they have no ownership in what happens because they have had no input. Urban youth often perish because they have no vision. Teach them how to dream, plan and pray by allowing them to do it with you.
3. Expose Youth to Other Ministries. Far too often, youth are limited in their scope of the kingdom of God because they know only what is happening in one city, in one denomination or in one church. We have found that taking field trips to other ministries to learn from them and hear their dreams and visions has made an indelible impact on engaging youth on the issues of leadership development and ministry ownership.
4. Create Vacuums that Need to be Filled. Share with youth the opportunities for service in your own church and in their neighborhood, schools and families. Don’t force them into specific roles but encourage them to pray and seek the Lord’s leading in regards to where he is calling them to serve.
5. Let Youth See You in Action. At the end of Elijah’s life we see painted in the Bible a beautiful portrait of a mentoring relationship in 2 Kings 2. Elisha refuses to leave the side of his mentor and as a result watches Elijah in action right up to the time of his being taken up into heaven. As Elijah parted the Jordan with a strike from his cloak when they were together so Elisha did the same upon his return from the other side of the Jordan when he was alone. He learned servant leadership by being exposed to it first hand. We need to allow our youth the same opportunities to watch us in action both when we succeed and when we fail if we expect them to take ownership and leadership in our ministries.
6. Allow Youth to Feel Safe Enough to Make Mistakes. Allow and expect youth to make mistakes as they seek to share the gospel with their gifts and talents. It is through mistakes and blunders that most of us youth leaders have learned our most valuable lessons. A youth ministry that never allows youth to be in positions where they can safely fail will produce shallow disciples who will be leery of venturing outside of their comfort zones for the sake of the gospel as adults.
7. Hold Them Responsible. Too many youth ministries simply seek to entertain young people and thus not to hold them accountable to high standards of responsibility and conduct. In a youth owned ministry model youth are motivated by their investment in ministry to want to be held accountable. While the world is doing a devastatingly effective job of cornering the market on entertaining our youth it is doing nothing in the area of challenging them. That is the real hunger of youth today and they respond at the chance to be challenged beyond the latest Play Station video game. In addition, in our so called “postmodern world” of moral relativity, we’ve seen Christian young people genuinely wanting someone in their lives to hold them responsible for their actions.
8. Let Teens Model Spirituality. Far too often our churches and youth ministries subversively teach that spirituality is something that they can obtain when they graduate into adulthood. Teens deserve the opportunity to model their spirituality and marginally committed teens will be challenged far more by seeing authentic Christianity lived out in front of them by their same age peers than by adults.
Joel Van Dyke
Director of Strategy of Transformation (GYMN partner)
Guatamela, Central America
Reflection and Action
Items:
- Think back on the story of Chico, have you ever felt like him? Are there youth in your ministry who may not be showing their talents because they fear disapproval like Chico?
- Evaluate your youth group: is it more of an adult-led ministry or a youth-owned ministry? Can you remember events in your ministry that have been done by youth instead of done to youth?
- Are there some things that make you hesitant to turn your ministry into a youth-owned ministry? What are they?
- What are the advantages of having a youth ministry that is done by the youth?
- How many of the principles stated in the article (Be Quiet and Listen, Share Visions and Plans, etc.) have you already been doing for your youth group?
- Which of the following principles stated in the article is most needed by your youth group?
- Write down specific goals (with where, when, who and how often) that you can accomplish as an individual and as a leadership team to make your ministry a youth-owned ministry.
