Youth Ministry and Evangelism
I've been guest blogging over at Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed Blog on Thursday mornings. You can read today's post and enter into some great conversation on youth ministry and evangelism here: http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/03/youth-and-evangelism-chris-fol.html
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Over the last couple of weeks I have been in some terrific conversations about youth ministry and evangelism. One youth worker from a church in Toronto asked me, "Where did evangelism go? It seems as though evangelism is way less important as it was 10 years ago when I began working with teens and their families." I responded by asking this youth worker, "Is it less important to you?" "No!" He shouted back. He continued by saying, "It isn't less important, I just don't know how to do it these days! Students are just so different."
Personally, I don't think that youth ministry has forgotten about evangelism or that it is less important. I do, however, wonder what it will take for us to feel like we know 'how to do it these days'. Maybe I am wrong. Has evangelism become less important in youth ministry? Or are our traditional methods no longer effective so we, therefore, await a more effective approach? What might a more effective series of approaches look like?
I have observed, from my limited vista, that youth ministry in North America has been making wonderful shifts. I especially have enjoyed observing and participating in the shift from what is often labeled an attractional approach to what is commonly referred to as a missional approach. Specifically, I have noticed that within this missional approach we have allowed our view of evangelism to be as much about embodiment as it is about proclamation. This is good. But, just like proclamation without embodiment is incomplete, so embodiment without proclamation is incomplete. Perhaps this is what my youth worker friend in Toronto meant by evangelism being of less importance.
I can't quite wrap my arms all the way around the issues related to new perspectives on evangelism and that frustrates me. However, I have come to personally conclude that the articulation of the gospel story today must be related to people's lives -- it cannot be just a rational argument. The gospel story must be holistic in the sense that 1) it isn't merely about the accumulation of knowledge and 2) it doesn't separate the soul from body (and ultimately a Kingdom society). To effectively and faithfully articulate the gospel story today it seems important to proclaim and embody it in a community that exists as a hermeneutic of the gospel. Too often the end is to make converts, not invite students into a community of disciples interested in the ongoing work of God's transformation.
To this end, we have to also articulate how our students' stories connect with the story of God. Evangelism includes helping students see themselves in light of the imago Dei, helping them discover their identity and calling. In what ways can we more deeply connect our students' stories to the imago Dei? What do we need to start doing, stop doing or do differently in youth ministry to guide a generation to articulate the gospel story in both action and word? How do we train and equip our students to articulate the gospel story?
Youth Ministry and Narrative Intelligence
The more I thought about the conversations surrounding last weeks post on re-thinking mission in youth ministry, the more I thought about the need for youth workers to also be re-thinking the idea of narrative in youth ministry.
I am hearing a wonderful amount of chatter around 'story' and the art of storytelling in youth ministry. What I am thinking more about these days, however, isn't our ability to craft good stories and tell them well. What I have been absorbed by lately is what is commonly referred to by some as narrative intelligence, which is the ability and capacity to think in story.
Thinking in story is critical for a meaningful connection between a person's story, the story of a particular community and God's story. So the question lingering in my mind and heart is, how do we help our students raise their narrative intelligence? In other words, how do we help the students in our faith communities engage more deeply in the enduring, unfolding narrative of God?
Tantamount to the mission of God we thought about last week is the narrative of God for it is out of God's narrative that mission is first and most deeply understood and acted out. It is out of mission that we might interact with our worlds -- not just with logic, reason and information but also with meaning. The ability to think in story furnishes our students' lives with the ability to generate context and meaning from the stories of Scripture, their experience, reason, culture, etc. How do we help our students generate context and meaning from the mission of God to help them live more closely aligned to the intended ways of God?
Last week when I mentioned that youth ministry might be "on hold" what I was referring to was that our commitment to think theologically, organize philosophically and act practically about mission was in need of renovation. The more I think about it, the only way we can truly renovate our commitment to being missional in and to our communities is to go back to the source, God's narrative, to find our purpose for youth ministry. That purpose (derived from our mission which is derived from God's narrative) of youth ministry is to participate in God's restoration of the world toward its intended wholeness.
Youth ministry has to get unstuck and work its way toward extending the missio Dei through a creed of: evangelism (where the message of the mission is proclaimed and performed),
contextualization (where the message of the mission is made more accessible culturally sensitive) liberation (where the message of the mission sets students free from the hesitations and hindrances that keep them from their belief in a loving God) and impartation (where the message of the mission is about the converting of culture from hearers of the story to storytellers).
Ultimately, this helps students think in story, raising their narrative intelligence.
I'm certain that youth ministry (through mission yielded people like you and me and a globe full of others) can make its way toward a place as described above, but how? In what ways might we more deeply commit to a narrative-missional approach to youth ministry? What is it going to take to realize this commitment? What is keeping youth ministry from this commitment? Why is it so much easier to be committed to attractional, social or externally focused approaches?
I'd love to know what you think.
Working as a Team
Below is a recent email I received. Maybe some of you can help out Richard with your years of experience and expertise. I've given him some of my quick and brief thoughts below.
Hi Chris,
I know you do consulting with YS. Can you help me out? I'm in my first year of youth ministry and I'm wondering if you can help me know some of the important factors involved in working with teams. I am working with a great team of volunteers who are mostly much older than me. I have never really been on or led a team before. I'm relational but not really good at leading my team mtgs. Can you help me know what kinds of things I should be thinking of?
Thanks,
Richard (White Plains, NY)
Here are a few really key points of thought/discussion regarding how healty teams interact. I hope they are helpful...
- Care for one another -- Of course, without concern for another, you are selfish. Selfishness has no place on any team. Effective teams are selfless and live out a genuine concern or one another.
- Open, honest and truthful -- Effective teams are open to new ideas, honest about their feelings and truthful in how they communicate those feelings. To be an effective team you must be willing to share your ideas and feelings.
- Trusting -- Team members trust each other. That is to say that team members think the best of one another and rely unconditionally on their cohorts for the overall success and effectiveness of the team.
- Opportunity for consensus -- Not all decisions can be led by consensus. However, effective teams at least allow for the opportunity of consensus when making small or big decisions.
- Commitment -- The reason why teams can work together in a trusting way is because each team member put forth a unswerving commitment to the task(s) at hand. Ineffective teams have members of those teams who partially commit or only commit when it is convenient for that particular person.
- Peacemakers -- Effective teams make sure that they are operating as peacemakers. Occasionally there will be a conflict to manage. Effective teams work together to find ways to make peace arise from disagreement and discord.
- Listening -- You cannot be an effective team if you are not willing to genuinely listen to one another. This does not simply mean giving everyone a chance to talk. It involves that for sure, however, it also involves making a conscience effort to genuinely hear from one another.
- Expressive -Good teams become great teams when the members of those teams are able to express their feelings. Sometimes those feelings will be things like doubt, fear, uncertainty, celebration, joy, anger, etc. We are all human. We are going to have feelings and great teams allow for its team members to express how they are feeling in healthy and appropriate ways.
Any of you want to contribute other helpful points of thought/discussion?
13 Ways To Help Your New Vol’s Plug In
When our family moved from the Chicago area to Kansas City last summer we began attending a church called, Church of the Resurrection. Our pastor is Adam Hamilton who is a brilliant communicator and very thoughtful writer. His latest book is entitled, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality and Politics. This week Adam will be preaching his sermons on location in Israel and shipping the DVD's back for us to worship with on Sunday. Very cool...
For the last couple of months I have been volunteering in the youth ministry (called rezlife) It's been great to be able to help out such a great team of ministers. I'm looking forward to engaging deeper as the weeks and months go by.
Anyway, jumping head first into a new youth ministry has been tough to say the least. After 12 years of doing youth ministry as a paid youth pastor and now being on 'the other side' of it all as a volunteer, I have learned a ton. One of the things I have learned is how difficult it is to get plugged in as a volunteer! So I crafted this little list of 13 things I'd do if I was ever back in the church as a youth pastor.
- After three or four weeks of consistent attendance, I'd make sure I introduced them to the students at the large and small gatherings -- in a talk show host kinda way. I think I'd wait the couple of weeks to minimize the revolving door.
- I'd highlight the new volunteer in a e-newsletter, e-blast, Facebook group or any other way possible. I'd do this in cooperation with # 1.
- I'd introduce them to students just as if I was introducing a new student to the group. "Hey Rob! Come here for a sec. Have you met Chris yet? He's new to the group."
- Give the new volunteers some sort of mechanism that the students expect might lead to conversation with the new volunteer. Something like a survey of sorts or even a tag (a non-verbal invitation) on one of the students shirts that gives permission for the new volunteer to ask them a question or two. A verbal one is totally cool, too. It would be great if we could invite our students to be the one to start the conversations.
- I think I might work to introduce them to a small group first. Having the names of at least three or four students would really help to get to know the students in a larger setting. Knowing a persons name is a great way to say hello at the very least. Something like, "Your name is Rob, right?" And go on from there...
- It might also help to allow for there to be a mechanism aligned with the talk or message or lesson that gives permission for a new volunteer to ask a student or two what they thought about X, Y or Z from the talk. This could be during the gathering or after it is all over.
- I'd make sure that the newest volunteers are the ones getting the most face time with the students. Opportunities like serving food, receiving the offering, sitting at the registration tables, passing out information, etc. can lead to some great conversation.
- I'd work hard to do a two-three minute video interview intro that could be on the screen before worship or after or some other time. I probably wouldn't overkill it so if I did this, I wouldn't do # 1 but I'd still do # 2. Although, I think a "live" intro is always the best there are some folks who might be better represented on a video.
- If the new volunteer had a specific talent or gift and they felt comfortable I'd have them perform their magic show, sing a song, read their poetry, paint, teach, juggle, etc. very early in the process of engaging with the group. This might more immediately draw students who share an affinity into a conversation. This is a hard one because a lot of youth pastors I know don't want to give the stage up to anyone, especially a volunteer.
- I think I would assign a veteran volunteer to show them the ropes for a few weeks in a row. There is nothing like the feeling of standing in a room all by yourself. Crazy awkward. Remember how you felt as a teenager when that happened to you? Yep. It still feels the same.
- Name badges on lanyards work great to identify volunteers. Visitor lanyards can even look different to help them stand out. BTW - this is a great security mechanism too. Especially if you have a large group and the number of adults can make it hard to know everybody. I think if I were a youth pastor again, I'd have the volunteers where a shirt or a lanyard. Something. Anything. Without some kind of designation new volunteers just look like the weird uncle everyone has.
- I know I'd do a better job following up with new volunteers. An email or a phone call asking, "How can we make your time better or make you feel more comfortable?" can go a long way with a newbie.
- I think I would be much more vocal with the students about the value of incarnational ministry than I ever was as a youth pastor before. I would probably say something like, "All of you know that we are all about community; about relationships. You may have an adult or two you don't know approach you and try to engage you in a conversation. Don't be wigged out. This is part of what we do. We care about you and we want to get to know you better." Whatever... I am sure you can think of something better or something the better reflects your ministry context. Either way, say something. It'll cast some vision (think: Hybels well-known phrase, "vision leaks") to your already established volunteers and students.
Can you think of any more? I am sure you can think of a ton more. I'd love to know how some of you are engaging new volunteers. Share your wisdom!
I should mention that much of this list above is what I know "works" -- it is what our youth ministry does with new volunteers and I have appreciated it. Our context might be very different than yours so take the above 13 with a grain of salt. Regardless, reflect on how well you are doing in this area. If you feel like your volunteers with tell you the truth and not just what they know you want to hear ask them what their experience was like.
Steve’s got a question…
Almost every week I get at least one person who has a question related to my book, something I have said at a conference, in a seminar or whatever. Sometimes I just get general youth ministry questions like the one below. I've decided to start posting the questions I receive to give the person asking the question a more holistic and robust set of responses -- responses other than just mine.
Here is a question (actually two questions) from Steve, a youth pastor in Northern Ireland:
My main question is regarding the growing wave of 'program to people' stuff I am reading in all the YM books. It has really challenged me as a youth pastor and my ministry. I wanted to know why you in particular think it is a successful approach. I speak out of a very program driven church culture. Uniformed organisations such as Boys Brigade and Scouts are still very much part of the make-up here. I guess I want to know why everyone is saying about moving from programs to peope, thats my first question, and I suppose my second question is how on earth is this possible in a program driven world?
I'm happy to respond to Steve and I will very soon. In the meantime... Do any of you want to offer Steve a response to his questions?
Re-Thinking Mission in Youth Ministry
I'm certain that many of the people engaged in youth ministry think regularly about the mission and work before them. Our unsettled culture and its itinerant nature require ongoing strategic thought and practice.
In order to avoid being characterized by what Nietzsche referred to as the "fundamental form of stupidity" (forgetting what you were trying to do in the first place), I am sure that many of today's youth ministers have a variety of mechanisms to keep the mission of their ministry somewhere on the dashboard in bold, bright font. They are reminding themselves just what they are meaning to accomplish.
I'm wondering, however, just what the thing we are "trying to do in the first place" is, exactly. What is our mission? It appears that the mission of most youth ministries just might be as unsettled and itinerant as the culture to which it is attempting to impart the great good news.
My recent experience has led me to believe that we are in many ways "on hold" between a season of deconstruction (with a residual number of feelings including angst, ambiguity and hesitation) and a future season of renovation that I hope will largely be comprised of a new commitment to a narrative approach to ministry that will result in a greater devotion to God's mission.
Specifically, I'm hopeful that many of us who've been longing for a fresh wave of thought and practice to emerge might sincerely consider what Chris Wright in his book,The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative , refers to as our mission. There, Wright defines it as "our committed participation as God's people, at God's invitation and command, in God's own mission within the history of God's world for the redemption of God's creation" (page23). Perhaps this ought to be the bold, bright font placed strategically on our dashboard as the thing we are "trying to do in the first place."
So I am curious to know: have we forgotten what we are "trying to do in the first place?" Am I the only one feeling like we are on hold? Is the pendulum swinging from deconstruction to construction? As we move towards a fresh wave of thought and practice, will the "committed participation as God's people, at God's invitation and command, in God's own mission within the history of God's world for the redemption of God's creation" be the mission that we embrace? As it relates to youth ministry, what will be the strategic ways we embody the gospel in an unsettled and itinerant culture?
