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?
i want to do this more often on my blog Chris, thanks for the idea.
Steve, obviously the “why” question is something you’ll have to come to terms with yourself, but here’s why I like this shift. I think of transformation in terms of relationship. the crux of life’s success and failure are not simply individual, but communal. In my life everything that’s worth doing deals with relationships and community. Programmatic ministry tends to value and impose an order and efficiency on community that ultimately kills it. I’m not saying that organization is wrong, but efficiency may be. Efficiency is the enemy of community and like I said earlier, for me, if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing together.
How?
don’t use “how?” as an excuse to begin with. How? is often what we ask when we already know the answer, or we want to displace responsiblity for our unwillingness to act on others shoulders. (Not saying that’s you in this case…)
But I’ll give a shot at the answer.
Get 4-10 people in a room who love and trust you and whom you love and trust.
Together, don’t dream of a new kind of youth ministry. Be it. Limit your talk of change to the people in the room. What are we willing to change? What have we done to contribute to the problem?, how must we commit? what are we willing to give? What price are we willing to pay?
Then at that moment, you are beginning to inhabit the space differently. You are become what you hope for together. Don’t feel the need to provide answers, in fact, you giving answers is the way this whole process short circuits. don’t look at gaps or problems with the ministry. look at gifts in the room. and be a different people using those gifts. be the kind of ministry that grows out of the community you build together. it’s messy, but worth it.
just some thoughts. I hope it’s helpful.
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