Shalom

youth ministry is no longer an art. it's become like everything else in life, meaning the leadership of youth ministries look for the next "thing" to do. like an infomercial is going to help. there are now thousands of books and workshops that a youth leader can attend to open their minds to "different" ways to run their youth program. the books and workshops are not bad in of themselves. it's like watching an infomercial for a weightloss supplement. we see how the supplement helped the person advertising for it and assume that we will get the same results. and that's where i have a problem.
first, ministry is supposed to flow from the overflow of our hearts. if i am not being discipled and learning and falling more and more in love with christ, how can i expect my students to? lead by example. but ministry has become programs and busyness. is your youth ministry "cutting edge?" i hope not. is your youth ministry just another thing for students to do during the week? or is it engaging your students to grow and learn about themselves and their lives found in christ? ministry should be messy. but we like to sweep messes under the rug and never come back to them.
second, is ministry about "results"? i don't ever want to be a part of a church that has expectations of "results". like, how many conversions did you have this month/year? or how many teens are attending your wednesday night meeting? i don't care! shouldn't we be focusing on the kids we have? how can we ever hope to see teenagers become disciples if all we care about is numbers?
third, something has to change in the way america "does" youth ministry. people between the ages of 17-30 are missing in our churches. so apparently we've done something wrong. now i'm not talking about numbers here. it's not about numbers. it's about the kingdom. if we only focus on numbers then we lose valuable years with these students to nurture and disciple them. so what are we doing wrong? honestly, most things.
we try to compete with mtv. we try to make things look good because that's what jesus would want. or is it? didn't jesus' ministry look a lot like hanging out. i mean he was rarely alone. he was constantly with people. not neccessarily preaching or teaching. just enjoying people. letting them know that they matter. what would it look like if every church in america stopped focusing on numbers, on attendance, on conversions and just focused on loving people. because ultimitely that's how jesus said he would separate us. the sheep from the goats. those who cared about broken, the lost, the least. and those who cared about numbers, rules and services.