A few recent conversations have convinced me that I need to start writing out my ideas on youth ministy. This is mostly for myself to see them on a screen and decide if they are legit. What I am most interested in is the idea of a youth pastor choosing to have faith.
"Faith in what?" you may ask. "Faith in the students," I would respond, as in having faith that students can and will change. Let me get specific. The average youth ministry, following the ministry model passed on from the 1980's, does attractional ministry, which can also be called bait and switch, in which we try to do lots of cool things so kids will come for fun and that's when we hit them with the gospel (watch the movie Saved for an example). Why do we do it this way?
I would say we do ministry in this fashion because we don't have faith that God is really working in the lives of our students. If we really believed that the Spirit was and is transforming the lives of students, we wouldn't be doing bait/switch ministry. I want to have faith and encourage students to be incarnational, living the way of Jesus in their schools, homes, fast-food jobs, etc. Youth ministry needs to become a ministry of faith where we pour ourselves into students with the hope and faith that they will do the same in their communities. This means we ditch the "larger is better, let's do lots of stuff, keep the music loud" mentality and actually work towards life change instead! That way of doing ministry seems much healthier to me, not mention honoring to the way Christ lived and taught.
Peace,
Matt
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2 comments:
Monkey!
Look at you, you little blogger you.
I like your thoughts. And I think they are very much what we've been trying to live into for the last few years here in Spokane. Congrats on the job... I'd love to hear more of what your ministry looks like there.
ahh there's the rub lad!! Further do we actually trust God's agenda with the group He's given us? Will we live unfettered by the "success" timeline many ministries will have?
Press On Bro!
Yours, but mostly His,
Ray Cymbaluk (North of the 49th)
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