In the last chapter of my book, A New Kind of Youth Ministry, I make an attempt at trying to help the reader get a start on the process of re-culturing their ministry or leading change. Some have wished I would have done more to outline the components of the re-culturing process and others have expressed a desire for me to have been a little more prescriptive. At that point in the conversation I usually push back hard trying to communicate the difference between being prescriptive and being descriptive.

Truthfully, I think the gap between those two ways of passing on ideas (prescriptive vs. descriptive) is where a fair bit of tension in youth work lies today. I contend that most youth workers don’t want a formula for what will work or a prescription given to them. Rather, most youth workers want to create their own environments for spiritual transformation. Youth workers want to create an environment that is contextual and customizable.

I also contend that out of fear of being seen as or considered formulaic and prescriptive the pendulum has swung from people passing on ideas that are ‘right’ to passing on ideas that are really quite ‘ambiguous’. I know I am guilty of that. In the ambiguity of the ideas lies a tendency then to only deconstruct former or old ideas. Therefore, one never really gets around to reconstructing anything new or different. We eagerly say, “It isn’t that!” and then others around us ask, “Well, then, if it isn’t that — then what is it?”

So, rather than trying to prescribe new ideas that only push people away I would rather try to describe new ideas. Describing new ideas seems to keep people engaged. Describing ideas then, also attempts to give others a framework in which to being reconstructing something new or different unique to who they are — not in the way of another.

I confess that a lot of my thinking as it relates to managing transition and leading change has come from John Kotter. Kotter’s book Leading Change and then later The Heart of Change truly influenced my thinking around how to effectively lead a change process that ultmately allows for the construction of something new. Kotter describes 8 essential aspects to leading effective change that you must know. Since it his content, I will forgo naming the 8 aspect here.

Kotter wrote a fable (along with another guy named Rathgeber) called, Our Iceberg is Melting. It is a fantastic story of a colony of penguins forced to change. Re-teaching the essential aspects to leading effective change from his previous book, Kotter creatively gives the reader a humorous and yet profound description of what leading change looks like.

We all manage change. Within the scope of our churches and youth ministries (organizations, etc.), we are called to lead change. We are called on to continuously put forth the effort to create the best possible environment(s) for students and leaders to engage more deeply with God and his mission. We are environmentalists! We owe it to our students, volunteers and parents (employees, etc.) to begin constructing something new or different — something that attempts to achieve the highest degree of spiritual impact. It can’t always be about deconstructing or naming what it isn’t … at some point we must begin growing something new.

As we cultivate the new, embracing the chaos and uncertainties of change along the way, we must have some sort of a plan. Kotter’s litte book, Our Iceberg is Melting, gives us a descriptive plan and can help us begin or continue to describe to our students, volunteers and parents the path in which we are guiding our students down.