Category Archives: Work

Adventures in Youth Ministry

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I came across this while looking at resources online regarding youth ministry:

“Youth ministry is best lived out in a relational model, where youth ministry staff persons and other mentors build relationships with youth that point to Jesus Christ.  Youth need caring adults who will journey with them and guide them in following Jesus.  For relational ministry to be most effective, longevity in relationship is critical. “

In the above statement, let’s replace the phrases “youth ministry staff persons” and “caring adults” with the word “parents”.

“Youth ministry is best lived out in a relational model, where parents and other mentors build relationships with youth that point to Jesus Christ.  Youth need parents who will journey with them and guide them in following Jesus.  For relational ministry to be most effective, longevity in relationship is critical.”

That’s much better (and more biblical).  Now I can see where my role in all of this is — I fit into the “other mentors”.  Can we admit that youth ministry is a product of years and years of poor Christian parenting?  This verse gives me, the “youth ministry staff person” peace:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

I take my role as a mentor to the youth of my church seriously, but in the end I realize that they are not my children and the ultimate responsibility of discipling them rests on their parents.  Maybe we should have a Parent Ministry…

Official

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As of this past Sunday, I am officially the new youth director at Dayspring United Methodist. A year ago, nothing about that statement would have looked right to me.  For starters, I was able to worship on Saturday nights at the Village, I was Baptist (sort of) and I wasn’t remotely intersted in directing youth.  I told a friend (via e-mail) today that I don’t really “feel called” to youth ministry, but I do think that God has led me to this church, for this purpose, at this time which has me both excited and scared.

I like to listen to lectures on iTunesU — after all of the education I paid for, I feel like I deserve some FREE education :-) — and I heard a definition of “calling” that I particularly liked.  “God’s hand leading us to a specific plan, position, or task in order to glorify himself as we faithfully serve him.”  The lecturer also added, “In this call, God is as interested in what he is doing in our life as he is those to whom he has called us to serve.”  The past few months has been a series of opened doors that has led me to a place I didn’t really want to go, and yet now I’m so very thankful that I’m here.  It’s good to be where you are suppose to be.

To change topics a bit, a friend of mine from college just qualified for the Boston Marathon on Sunday!  I actually saw him at a race here in Tyler back in October.  I should probably go out for a run tomorrow but it’s going to be SO COLD.  Todd, I’m coming over to use your treadmill…  The knee is feeling much much better now which means I really don’t have an excuse (other than the “extreme” cold) for not getting out there more often.  Gosh, it’s not even going to make it to 40 tomorrow…

Who, Me? Part 2

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So I had this problem:  How do I minister to youth when I really don’t like “youth ministry”?

The ministry opportunity I talked about in my last post (the one I feel very un-qualified for) happens to be ministering to youth at my church.  If you asked me a year ago if I would want to be a youth director I would have said “no”.  Well, I would have laughed at you first, but then I would have said “no”.  Why?  If I can be honest with you (and it’s my blog, so I can be), I can’t stand most youth ministry programs.  If I can be ridiculously honest with you (again, I can), I think most of them are bloated with meaningless programs and anemic when it comes to teaching, training and equipping youth to be ready to be a Christian in a very non-Christian world.

I’ve struggled over the past few weeks to look for either a model for ministry or for resources to use as curriculum if (it isn’t official yet) I were to be a part of starting a youth ministry at my church.  At this point I’m seriously asking God “WHY ME!?” because I am NOT a youth director.  I know of a lot of guys who do youth ministry and I don’t fit in — I cannot imagine myself at a youth worker’s convention…

But then God (three of my favorite words) rescued me from my despair.  He reminded me of the one moment in my life when I had a favorable view of youth ministry.  For about a year of my life, I wanted nothing more than to be a part of the high school youth group.

I’m an Army brat and spent 5th grade through 8th grade in Frankfurt and Mannheim, Germany.  In the 8th grade I was moderately involved in a middle school youth group run by Malachi Youth Ministries, which is the youth division of Cadence International.  My brother was actively involved in the high school youth group and I could not wait to be a part of it the following year.  Maybe it was because they went to Ibiza, Spain for a Europe-wide youth conference.  Looking back, the deeper reason was I wanted to be treated like they were treated — like a young adult.  Of course, we would move back to Texas before I had this opportunity, and I have yet to see a youth program run the same way since.

Thanks to a few conversations with my brother and the power of the Internet I finally feel like I can do this.  I can see that it’s just ministry.  It’s ministering to youth, and I can do that.  It doesn’t have to look like everybody else’s youth program — and it probably won’t.

On the other hand, I could be COMPLETELY wrong about all of this and crash and burn in my attempt at leading youth into a deeper relationship with Christ… Life is more exciting when failure highly likely!

Here’s a video from Malachi Youth Ministries that gives a little insight into their ministry.  Enjoy.


Malachi Military Youth Ministries has a heart for military students! from Cadence International on Vimeo.