The world of a teenager in today's culture offers many different subcultures to be a part of or belong to. No longer are schools plagued with the "popular crowd" like cheerleaders and jocks and then everyone else that happens to attend the school. I graduated in 2002 and this model was already beginning to fade, although I did not have as many groups to choose from at least there was a choice.
The fact is that all students just like us are discipled, experience God, and worship differently, therefore a once a week meeting of 1-2 hours that offers a little bit of everything simply just not cut it anymore for transforming lives of teens. They need to be a part of a healthy community that goes along with how they grow and learn to be the person Christ needs them to be.
Through prayer and discernment of my situation and some frustrations of how youth ministry has been taught to me and done in the past. I have decided to offer my students a choice if you will to take part in different communities within our youth group, that I call "Sub Groups." My vision for this is that it turns our youth ministry into our own version of the verses found in Acts 2:42-47.
"42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. "
I hope I am not sounding like a consumerist in this approach because I don't want students to feel forced to attend because it is on some calendar that I send out, or make it seem that I am running a bunch of small youth ministry programs. But am merely trying to offer something that speaks to how teenagers function today and receive a sense of belonging within a authentic healthy community. There is no real agenda to these Sub Groups except for the fact of why they exist and what they offer.
To start we have an all girls and guys sub group that is similar to the idea of what a small group setting might look like. These groups touch on the more spiritual side of prayer, scripture, and accountability. Soon we are going to offer two other groups that alternate weeks throughout the month one being a Jam Session for the more musically inclined students. And the other one being simply opening the church doors and allowing the students to come hangout and play games. Obviously these two groups focus more on the building relationships and fellowship aspect.
For now I am announcing when these groups are taking place because it is rather new to the parents and students within my ministry context. But over time I hope that through consistency I will not have to let students know when these different groups are meeting. That they will just be part of the way they live life and how they connect with others and with our heavenly father. And that other students in our community will find out about them simply through the networking of my students that already attend. Mind you this is not a secret attempt to shove Jesus down throats of teenagers, but to allow students to be discipled and grow in the way God has created them and get to know them for who they are.
By really pushing an important sense of community through my recent lessons and through conversations with students. Other Sub Groups have surprisingly sprung up without any direction on my part but totally the idea of students. For example two of my Sr. High guys wanted to start meeting with me over chicken wings on a weekly basis. Girls now like to meet with my wife for shopping and talking over a meal about boys and other female issues.
The response so far has been far better than I anticipated and have had amazing results in transforming lives of not only students but leaders as well. I believe that as a group we beginning to understand why meeting in these communities is so crucial to our development, following Jesus and fulfilling our purposes on earth as Christians. Having a chance to have life on life experiences with my students throughout week has been an awesome opportunity, and could not imagine ever again only meeting with them once a week. I can only thank God for what he is doing within the ministry he has so graciously given to me to help out with.
1/30/2009
1/08/2009
Missional Youth Ministry
When I got home from the office yesterday I parked my car in its usual spot on the street right in front of my house. As I exited the car I noticed about 8 to 10 junior high students on the porch across the street talking and hanging out. Mind you there was not school that day due to a snow storm and I have never seen any of these students before.
As I was walking into the house I told God that it would be cool if I got a chance to meet and talk with some of those kids or make small connection with them. Now I live in a pretty rough end of town and I could tell that right away that they were up to no good and or need some sort of healthy adult influence in their life. Still thinking about the situation I keep walking into my house and greeted my wife, and we begin to have our typical small talk like always about our day. Quickly I forgot about the group of youth across the street.
No longer than 20 minutes later as my wife and I were playing a heated game of scrabble I hear the doorbell ring. So I opened my door and my Landlord who lives in the apartment downstairs is standing out on the porch screaming at the top of his lungs. So I said "What's going on, is there a problem" he said "Yeah some punk kids are throwing snowballs at your car and I thought you might want to know."
Now I have only been living in my apartment for less than 3 months and already know that my Landlord despises the neighborhood that we live in. And it is not the first time that I have heard him yell profanities at our neighbors while threatening to call the police. Immediately I thought to myself "big deal it's just a snow ball, its not like I drive a Lexus or BMW," but to humor him I went out to investigate.
When I finally got my shoes on and made it to the front porch I found myself in a very awkward scenario. There on the porch with me is my Landlord a 40 something year old man talking trash to the same group of students that I mention earlier. While across the street a couple of the kids are yelling back at my Landlord and through their body language are suggesting that they want to fight him. Which was pretty much what they say on the street as "all talk" due to what takes place later in the situation.
Obviously God has a sense of humor, because I quickly remembered my request for the chance to meet and talk with those same students. So standing there with my prayer answered I pondered to myself my next move or at least something to say, but due to the situation I didn't really know how to proceed. I wanted to calm the anger that was being said back and forth across the street, while also be an example of Jesus to my Landlord and the group of students.
While all this is going on in my head my Landlord quickly runs across the street because one of the boys in the group in a very threatening voice says "why don't you come over here and make me stop." Now the fact that my Landlord actually did it is pretty funny, but the scared face on all the kids as he is running towards them was even funnier. Some more yelling takes place and eventually he pulls out the police card and says if they don't leave he will call the cops. Which to my surprise worked and the group ends up dispersing.
Now I tell you this very long story because as youth worker we need to be missionaries to the youth culture that surrounds us. I missed my opportunity to make a connection with those kids, I missed my opportunity to be a healthy adult influence. I did not walk through the door that led to their underground world that God opened for me, to talk and meet with that group. Afterwards I was pretty upset with myself for not taking advantage of what was before me, and kept replaying in my head other scenarios that could of unfolded.
I thought to myself I could of helped make a difference in one of those lives, I could of started a new relationship that would offer authentic life-on-life sharing to a desperate teenager who just needs someone to listen. Or quite simply I could of had a few new friends to play X-box with in my house on a regular basis. I wish I could go back in time and walk through that door instead of just look in from the outside.
Having a missional mindset in our church, youth group, or just daily lives is what God calls us to do as his "Sent People" to help him redeem his creation. As Alan Hirsch writes in his article called Defining Missional, "to be missional means to be sent into the world; we do not expect people to come to us." To create teenage disciples that are passionate about Jesus Christ we must as youth workers go out and meet them, we have something to offer that is worth sharing.
I know youth ministry opportunities like the one I missed, usually don't pop up on a regular basis. Therefore we have to choose to missional, we have to choose to go out and find where God is already working and help his cause of saving the world. Spend time discerning how God wants to use you and your youth group in a way that best fits your context.
As I was walking into the house I told God that it would be cool if I got a chance to meet and talk with some of those kids or make small connection with them. Now I live in a pretty rough end of town and I could tell that right away that they were up to no good and or need some sort of healthy adult influence in their life. Still thinking about the situation I keep walking into my house and greeted my wife, and we begin to have our typical small talk like always about our day. Quickly I forgot about the group of youth across the street.
No longer than 20 minutes later as my wife and I were playing a heated game of scrabble I hear the doorbell ring. So I opened my door and my Landlord who lives in the apartment downstairs is standing out on the porch screaming at the top of his lungs. So I said "What's going on, is there a problem" he said "Yeah some punk kids are throwing snowballs at your car and I thought you might want to know."
Now I have only been living in my apartment for less than 3 months and already know that my Landlord despises the neighborhood that we live in. And it is not the first time that I have heard him yell profanities at our neighbors while threatening to call the police. Immediately I thought to myself "big deal it's just a snow ball, its not like I drive a Lexus or BMW," but to humor him I went out to investigate.
When I finally got my shoes on and made it to the front porch I found myself in a very awkward scenario. There on the porch with me is my Landlord a 40 something year old man talking trash to the same group of students that I mention earlier. While across the street a couple of the kids are yelling back at my Landlord and through their body language are suggesting that they want to fight him. Which was pretty much what they say on the street as "all talk" due to what takes place later in the situation.
Obviously God has a sense of humor, because I quickly remembered my request for the chance to meet and talk with those same students. So standing there with my prayer answered I pondered to myself my next move or at least something to say, but due to the situation I didn't really know how to proceed. I wanted to calm the anger that was being said back and forth across the street, while also be an example of Jesus to my Landlord and the group of students.
While all this is going on in my head my Landlord quickly runs across the street because one of the boys in the group in a very threatening voice says "why don't you come over here and make me stop." Now the fact that my Landlord actually did it is pretty funny, but the scared face on all the kids as he is running towards them was even funnier. Some more yelling takes place and eventually he pulls out the police card and says if they don't leave he will call the cops. Which to my surprise worked and the group ends up dispersing.
Now I tell you this very long story because as youth worker we need to be missionaries to the youth culture that surrounds us. I missed my opportunity to make a connection with those kids, I missed my opportunity to be a healthy adult influence. I did not walk through the door that led to their underground world that God opened for me, to talk and meet with that group. Afterwards I was pretty upset with myself for not taking advantage of what was before me, and kept replaying in my head other scenarios that could of unfolded.
I thought to myself I could of helped make a difference in one of those lives, I could of started a new relationship that would offer authentic life-on-life sharing to a desperate teenager who just needs someone to listen. Or quite simply I could of had a few new friends to play X-box with in my house on a regular basis. I wish I could go back in time and walk through that door instead of just look in from the outside.
Having a missional mindset in our church, youth group, or just daily lives is what God calls us to do as his "Sent People" to help him redeem his creation. As Alan Hirsch writes in his article called Defining Missional, "to be missional means to be sent into the world; we do not expect people to come to us." To create teenage disciples that are passionate about Jesus Christ we must as youth workers go out and meet them, we have something to offer that is worth sharing.
I know youth ministry opportunities like the one I missed, usually don't pop up on a regular basis. Therefore we have to choose to missional, we have to choose to go out and find where God is already working and help his cause of saving the world. Spend time discerning how God wants to use you and your youth group in a way that best fits your context.
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