Several realities should shape our pursuit of Gospel Centered Youth Ministry. Due to the brevity of this workshop, I only have time to dive into two. They are both facts. One is observable in experience and the other is observable in scripture. I’ll unpack the first one here and then the second one in a few days.
What we win people with, we win them to.
I first heard this phrase out of the mouth of a friend who worked at the time on staff with Willow Creek Community Church. He was explaining that the way they were doing discipleship was shaped in part by the way they did evangelism. Since the latter was done in a program that blended music, drama, video, and message; their approach to discipleship used the same elements. Music switched from performed rock and pop songs to praise songs. Video and drama continued to support the message which itself was more explicitly Bible teaching. His point was that if students came to faith on one night, they would only transition to the other night if it felt the same. This was great wisdom in the realm of youth ministry of that era. Many books and seminars on effective youth ministry taught a model that dictated separating evangelism from discipleship like this. Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins had persuaded the mainstream of youth pastors that we needed separate programs to cater to specific demographics in such a way that students work their way into the deeper parts of our ministries. We saw diagrams like a funnel, a baseball diamond, and concentric circles to explain these ideas. The end result was that we would draw crowds and disciple a core.
The reality of the phrase did not hit me until I witnessed it myself. We had developed a two night approach to youth ministry much like Willow Creek. We had outreach on Tuesday nights complete with live music, videos made by students, drama by students, and a message by yours truly. It was very engaging and drew about 100 high school students weekly. At the same time, we did a Sunday night nurturing program that consisted of praise music, prayer, and alternated between Bible exposition and small group Bible studies. About 65 students attended that each week. These core students were given the vision of using Tuesdays to reach their friends and Sundays to grow themselves. It worked really well… for a few years. Then we started seeing something odd happening. Students were bringing their non christian friends to Sunday nights rather than Tuesdays. When I asked them why they did not use the outreach night instead, the reply was simply “because my friends want to see what Christians do.” This prompted us to evaluate our approach. When we did that we realized that many who came into our outreach program never moved beyond it, while those who entered through our nurture program were showing signs of a vibrant growing faith.
How people start is how they continue. Rico Tice of Christianity Explored uses this phrase when explaining the philosophy behind the course. The idea is that if people come to faith by reading and studying the Bible, they continue to grow by turning to scripture. The concept is the same as the phrase that I use. The implications for youth ministry are huge. Two come to mind immediately. First, what draws students into our ministry is what they will seek after high school. The LifeWay stats regarding 70% of students in youth groups dropping out of church entirely after graduation is suddenly not a shock when we consider that few find a church that replicates their youth group experience. What about the 35% that do return? Looking at some of the most contemporary church plants across the country, we see something that resembles a youth group from ten or twenty years ago more than it resembles the churches that created them. *** The mentality of “we’re going to do a cool and relevant youth ministry” translated into the “cool and relevant” church. This is the reality of the second implication which is: how we do youth ministry shapes the church of the future. So the principle of “what we win them with, we win them to” has both personal and corporate levels to it. On the personal level we need to ask what will students seek in a church after high school? On The corporate level… what will the church look like in the future?
Historically, what has been done in youth ministry becomes the norm for the church. Dr Pete Ward documents this carefully in his book “Growing Up Evangelical”. That should not surprise us when we consider that youth pastors tend to be innovators. Youth ministry has effectively served as the research and development arm of the church. This influence has been both positive and negative. (for further reading on the idea, see Tom Bergler’s book “The Juvenilization of American Christianity”)
How do we do Gospel Centered Youth Ministry in light of this reality? I believe that we have the responsibility to teach students how to be the church. One might argue that the church isn’t very good at being the church. That only fuels my desire to see youth ministries that teach students what it means to be the body of Christ. This also needs to be modeled. So, youth groups need to do what Christians are meant to do. A good youth group meeting must revolve around doing Christian things, namely teaching the Bible, praying, worshipping, and sharing life together. I also believe that a youth ministries priorities must match their church. What is important to the whole church must be seen in the youth ministry and not contradicted by it.
Next up… the second reality and it’s implications.
***See the blog post titled “Tinkering with Church” that speaks more about this.
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