Many years ago, as a young youth pastor, God impressed something on me about how I viewed my work. In looking at a long list of church kids we were not reaching and then thinking about the massive number of unreached students at local schools, the temptation was to go after the unchurched. In some respects it would have been easier. They don’t bring massive burdens of expectations and are often just glad someone took interest in them. New kids generate excitement and are usually our best evangelists in the sense of people who will invite friends. They don’t complain about our meetings and their parents don’t usually grumble about what we are not doing for their kids. The temptation was compounded by my Young Life background which directed my attention more to kids who did not go to church.
However, as I sat in my office looking over a list that had more than 200 names of high school students all of which could legitimately call this their church, reality struck me. A large percentage of them did not often show up. Many arrived on Sunday morning as freshman and sophomores and dropped out later. Few (percentage wise) came on Tuesday nights to youth group. Here was my dilemma… did I cater my ministry to kids who had little interest or go after the students at local schools? The reality was that if I built a ministry around local students and neglected the church kids, I would probably be out of a job after a little while.
I prayed a lot over this matter and I think God impressed something on me. A phrase from the New Testament rang out in my ears. The gospel went first to the Jews and then to the gentiles. In the gospels, when Jesus talked about the lost, He was often speaking of Israel – God’s people. They were the lost that needed to be reached and Jesus knew that many of them would reject him. So, I set out to reach those pesky, demanding, critical, church kids who showed little interest in our youth ministry. It took a significant amount of creativity to attract them back to church programs. The sense of community we had created in our youth group was such that we knew if they just would show up, they would find something truly special in the group. In the process, God gave me a heart for the lost students of the church. Over the next five years or so, we went from reaching a mere ten percent of our church list to more than half and the Sunday school began to retain the older students.
Now, I have another phrase gathering steam in my head. It is “Feed my sheep”. Jesus said this to Peter when he restored him to leadership. Peter as we know is the disciple upon whom Jesus promised to build his church. This phrase stood out as I was praying about how we grow churches. I attend a church that needs growing and have been thinking a lot about church growth because we have many churches in our diocese who would be more engaged in youth ministry if they were growing as a congregation. Jesus said “feed my sheep”. We often laugh about the fact that food gathers people but do we think about the fact that people leave churches where they are not feeling fed? Is the same not also true of youth groups? (I am not speaking of good grub here) And if that is the case, then would it not follow that people who stay involved are being fed? In what ways? Spiritually of course, but I think it goes back to finding meaning and purpose, belonging and community, and ultimately to the gospel changing lives. It brings me back to content and context. What do you think? Good mental chewing gum?
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