It's time for church leaders, youth pastors, and others in organizations who serve these folks to declare what the preferable future for youth ministry looks like. Not in a limited constricting way, but a robust vision for what youth ministry can be.
This must involve all of the people I mentioned above for this to work. The vehicle I'm suggesting is a collective.
Wikipedia describes a collective this way.
A collective is a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective. Collectives are also characterised by attempts to share and exercise political and social power and to make decisions on a consensus-driven and egalitarian basis. Collectives differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an economic benefit or saving (but can be that as well).
It's time to leverage our collective passion and energies toward the churches benefit. In my experience most church leaders, senior pastors and parents don't understand the reimagine youth ministry conversation and therefore don't see a need for it. A Collective would become the voice for this preferrable future, not just the lone voice of one youth pastor, nor the larger voice of a youth ministry organization, but all of us together. Our hope would be to create a new normal for youth ministry and fundamentally change the expectations for youth ministry within the church in North America.
What do you think? There's about 800 hunderd of you who visit everyday without posting, I want to hear from you as well.
Wow. Great thoughts Rick! I appreciate your corrective comment in point #3 a lot too!
ReplyDeleteI won't pretend to be the one who will answer all these questions either, though I have my thoughts.
This needs to be a communal thing.
thanks for taking the time Rick!
Mark, I hear you.
ReplyDeleteI've been in youth ministry since graduating college for only eight months now (I did part-time and volunteer work before that), but when I was in school, I vowed to not do youth ministry the "conventional" way. Frankly, I find the current understanding of youth ministry to be quite lacking theologically.
A few places I would say we need to start:
1.) Youth ministry needs to become more of a theological endeavor. The youth pastor (if that position is even necessary in the future) needs to consider one of his or her roles to be that of a theologian. As the person who guides the ministry, we need to understand the theological implications to how we "do" youth ministry.
2.) Flowing from number one, I think we need to acknowledge that the medium is the message. For too long, we've identified our "goals" and gone about them in whatever way is most "effective". Well, we need to begin to see that the way we go about doing ministry communicates as much as, if not more than, the actual "content" of ministry.
3.) That we have found ourselves in the state we are in is an indicator of a wider ecclesiologial issue. In order to change the way youth ministry is done, I believe that we must begin to reevaluate how church as a whole is done. We can't just try to band-aid our youth ministries when our congregations don't understand their role as part of the Body of Christ.
Those are some of the starting points for me.
My thoughts on this new move in youth ministry….
ReplyDeleteI feel like we again are just beginning to develop another approach and model to youth ministry that is dangerously close to what were are used to…..that is we dream big, get people to follow us (a “collective” if you will) and then roll out the next model of ministry that may work and be used by God. This ultimately loses its effect because of the rapidly changing nature of our world and youth culture. You see we always swing to extremes in the church, throwing the good of one approach due the bad we see within it. The pendulum continues to swig and yet we live in an era of discontinuous change that calls for leadership (youth and adult) that looks more like this
Future leaders that:
o recognize what it means to discern the activity of God in and around His people (Divinity Detectives if you will)
o live in a state of prayerful discernment amidst change looking for God’s leading in their context
o think and live like a missionary seeking to speak the language God’s love in the language of the day
o leads in the time and place that they serve, and continue to be focused on people not programs.
Can our programs be used by God? Absolutely, and they will continue to be used by God, but we also need to develop a posture that understands that they are just a means to an end which is helping people grow in their love for God and love for others. My question would be how can any group, at any time, that is connected only virtually ever really come up with a “preferred future” for youth ministry? Youth ministry and ministry in general needs instead to have a collective vision for missional activity in our world….what that looks like will be different in each and every context and possibly even day by day. My prayer is that we realize that we our all missionaries and in this together for people, and specifically for youth, let’s join in sharing the mission and pool our prayers, ideas, insights, etc. A “missional learning community” if you will.
On ward, upward, and outward!
In Pursuit,
Brian
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI like what you are saying... which is why I say we need to begin to think theologically and ecclesiologically (not sure if that is a word) and to acknowledge the impact our "medium" or "means" of ministry. Each of these things allows for contextual adaptation.
However, something that I would say is important in this whole process is helping people expand their frame of reference. Sometimes, our imagination is so captivated by the way we've always done things that we literally cannot think "outside the box". So, while I don't think we would advocate copying a new paradigm of ministry, we could help people begin to re-imagine youth ministry by putting forward some outside the box examples and ideas.
Thanks for responding Matt and Brian.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree that there is wisdom in people of different settings and experiences coming together to wrestle through what the future of youth ministry looks like. I think with openness and humility, alot can be gained. Also, of course, presenting a united and cohesive vision lends credibility. The risk we would run would be to present THE preferable vision, instead of a vision. What I do know is this: I love God, I love students, and I don't know everything. God has made me that way on purpose, requiring me to minister along side others to be effective. Getting my head and heart together with people of the same passion is a necessity.Would a collective be able to lay it all out down to the nuts and bolts, no. However, it is possible to agree upon the broad vision of what youth ministry can be.
ReplyDeleteHey Mark,
ReplyDeleteYou are always one step ahead (in a good way). I'm passionately interested in this subject as you know. Just a few minutes before I read your e-mail I opened up my new book which just arrived from Amazon.com - Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everythin. Hmmmmm... good timing!
Peace and Joy,
Mike King
Green is the new green.
ReplyDeleteAt least, that's what the magazines would have us think. They print how the world (particularly America) is finally turning its attention toward "green" ideas that will help the world be in a healthier place than where it has been in terms of pollution, waste, and recycling. (Ironically, this is all printed in mass quantities for us to read on glossy paper)
The bottom line for this change, though, is that corporate America finally sees it as a "profit" to make this change.
Perhaps that's the shift we need to make... we need to help the powers that be (whether they be staff, elders, parents, etc) to see the "profit" in this change. Honestly, we're asking them to pitch out the window all the ideas they have about youth ministry to join us in reimagining it.
The problem is that we haven't given them the answer yet, so "why would they bother?" Which makes more sense - to give up on everything for nothing (currently) or to hang on to the one thing that is generating a few bucks even if it is slowly going bankrupt?
Yes, I'm still talking about youth ministry.
My idea? We need to get youth and adults rubbing shoulders more. The average adult won't seek this relationship out, but may be more open to students seeking them out. What would it look like to raise up a generation of students who are actively pursuing the adults instead of the typical adult pursuing the student(s)? Imagine teenagers showing up to cheer on the adults at their things instead of the other way around?
For instance, what would it look like for a small core group of kids to stand up at the end of a church service and do the pastoral prayer every week? What if teenagers were invited to board/elder meetings and allowed to participate? Imagine the impact of students calling out some missional causes in town - whether they plan the next all-church service project or are given permission by the church to designate what an entire weekend offering can be used for to make a service oriented impact.
These are the questions I'm asking... because until adults see the profit, they won't make the investment. And until that is revealed, nothing will change.
Which, of course, means we need to be willing to redefine how we even view our own job security. After all, how much of what we do is motivated by wanting to keep our gig?
As one of the 800 and one who can always be coaxed out of hiding by such as simple invitation, I have to join the other commentors in saying that the idea of a collective sounds intriguing ( ... and I will get past the fact that the very word collective makes me think of the Borg from Star Trek:TNG).
ReplyDeleteOf course, I wonder how this would or could all happen. Would it be as nebulous like the whole emergent conversation or would it take on some sort of discernable form?
And I have to second Tony's comment above. One of the greatest things I have seen over my "career" as a volunteer youth worker is adults overcoming their fear of the youth (that is really the best way to describe some of the attitudes adults have) because they have worked together on a project that they both valued.
I'd love to write more tonight but you know (partially) how my life is. I'd enjoy participating in that process.
ReplyDeleteMark, you well know I think this conversation needs to take place. Quickly I would echo the need for theological reflection, ecclesiological implications and the bringing to bear of a wider understanding of the work of God with both Kingdom talk and Spirit talk. Collaborative work is tricky as you know through your various consultations. In the end, I think you have a handle on ways we could look forward to a more fluid approach to ministry that takes into account the certainty of sociological shifts occurring faster than we can think.
ReplyDelete