Thursday, March 12, 2009

So I figured that one of the things I wanted to begin doing as a youth pastor is to provide some training for youth volunteers at my church in the form of youth leader workshops. I figure, if you're bold enough to volunteer in youth ministry, then you should at least have the opportunity for some instruction. The only problem is... I'm totally new at this! I've spent probably the last ten years or so in studying, theorizing, contemplating, philosophizing on the role, significance, and methods of youth ministry. The only thing I've never done is... well, youth ministry. Like, as a full-time job, anyway.

So here we are with three dates in the next nine months to have some volunteer youth leader workshops, and I am waning in experience, which translates into MATERIAL! I have no idea how to lead a youth leader workshop, having never done one before, and I have been incredibly nervous as to how to put together three sessions to cram inside 4 hours on a Saturday morning, and make it meaninful and genuinely helpful to youth leaders. That is, I don't want youth volunteers walking away, saying "WEAK! I learned NOTHING from that workshop. What a waste of my Saturday!" And for that matter, I struggle with the problem of pathos: How does a green noob stand and presume to teach seasoned leaders on principles and practices of youth ministry?

So I have been scrambling for material, interviewing youth pastors, asking for advice and materials that I can possibly use. I just keep hoping I'll stumble upon a video training course or something that will give some valuable material for youth volunteers so I won't be expected to say anything intelligent, but to just sit and learn with the rest of the group. I really need someone who has been doing it a while to step in and say "here, let me show you!" But here I am, starting from the bottom up, doing it from scratch. Pray for me.

Anyway, I have been pounding away on the keyboard off and on all day. I keep sending myself emails reminding myself about resources and ideas for talks, etc (since my computer is in the shop and I'm using a loaner right now). The following is just a thing that I banged out this afternoon on the topic of making disciples out of young people. I find that my frustration with being a new youth pastor sort of echo's the topic of this little essay on "the qualities of a disciple-maker". But this is, like, discipleship 101. It's not really heavy, specialized training, more like beginner stuff. I don't think I'm dealing with beginners, as all of our church youth ministry volunteers have tons of youth ministry experience at our church, and are ALL parents as well, which makes them a billion times more experienced than me at working with young people (I, as the youth pastor, ironically, am the ONLY person on the Youth or Children's board WITHOUT children of my own).

But for the life of me, I can't stand starting in the middle with ANYTHING I do. Lord help me, I feel like I'm preparing to teach the ABC's to a room full of Ph. D's.

Anyway, here's some stuff I wrote out today.

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Perhaps you have heard this comment before: "Volunteer youth leaders should not see themselves as chaperones, but shepherds."

That is to say, we're not here to serve sodas and make sure no one cracks their head open by diving into the baptistry. That's called a sponsor. An adult supervisor. Anyone can do that. Indeed, it is a part of our task very often as youth leaders, as well it should be. But it is not our primary role. Our primary role is that of a shepherd, a spiritual leader, a mentor, sometimes a counsellor if need be.

The first knee-jerk response to this kind of challenge may be a firm "amen!" Everyone agrees that youth ministry is not just about providing adult supervision, but spiritual leadership. Great! But after that, the second, more reserved and less articulated response is that of intimidation. Who, after all, has ever felt qualified to be a shepherd and spiritual leader to young people? Most of us get nervous at the thought of having intimate conversations about God and spiritual things with teenagers. Sometimes, we would rather be an adult supervisor, the job seems much easier. If a youth ministry were like a school, then many of us would prefer to be a janitor - always there to clean up messes and provide crowd control, not a proactive role - rather than a teacher, responsible for the delicate and weighty task of teaching and discipling students, a highly proactive role that will have a huge effect on the future.

Why the intimidation? It's because many youth leaders feel unqualified for the task. Lack of experience or education or understanding of the current youth culture may cause an adult to be intimidated at the thought of being a maker of disciples, a spiritual shepherd.

The fact of the matter is, it is a huge misconception that has us believing that we must have an intimate understanding of youth culture or have a masters degree in teaching or counselling before we can have an effect on the lives of young people. It's a lie, and I will prove it:

Of the twelve apostles, how many of them had the equivelant of a college education? None of them, really. All of them had experience in their trade, and that was it. Yet God used them to be the very first disciple makers. Read Acts 2: Because of the ministry of the disciples, 5,000 people were added to the church in the first day. How is that for church growth! As the days turned into weeks, thousands more were coming to Christ as the apostles were busy preaching the good news of the gospel. What was their secret? A degree in sociology? Vast experience in public speaking? And understanding of First century Jewish and Greek culture? None of the above. Rather, it was an intimate knowledge of the material they were teaching: Jesus Christ. They had spent the last three years coming to know Him intimately. More than being familiar with the material (message of Christ), they had a personal relationship with him - literally! - and had received the Holy Spirit to empower their ministry.

There you have it: An intimate relationship with and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit working through them. Those are the simple ingredients of any truly successful ministry to young people. Given to us straight from the apostles. Given the fact that they were personally given the mandate by Jesus Himself to preach the gospel and make disciples, being given the promise that "I will be with you always" and the assurance that "all power has been given unto Me," they were ready to go, with the message that packed a punch!

Try this on for size: What are you good at? Think about your hobbies, your career, your special interests? Maybe you are a good musician, or maybe you build things, or perhaps you are good with computers. What is your strength, what are you comfortable with? Do you think you have sufficient grasp of your field of knowledge and ability to teach a novice? If you're a musician, could you comfortably pass on some of your experience on musicianship to and aspiring young music-maker? Builders, can you pass on your expertise and experience to a rookie learning to build a bird house? Computer geeks, could you teach a few things to someone who has never touched a computer before? Of course you could! It may be a little awkward at first, but once you got the hang of teaching, you would find that you have complete confidence that your years of experience in your subject would give you the ability to pass it on to others as one who is somewhat of an authority on the subject. You may not be a master in your field, and you may not be breaking records in your category, but you can still teach others from your vast well of experience.

The same ought to apply in the matter of making disciples out of young people. The fact of the matter is, counselling skills, understanding principles of education, and grasping youth culture are all side issues that can be helpful, but ultimately, will not be necessary in the work of leading young people in their spiritual walk. Let's put it another way: A sincere, seasoned follower of Christ can make disciples even if he lacks an education in teaching, counselling, or youth culture; but a person who is educated and experienced in all of these areas, yet does not have a sincere and thriving relationship with Jesus Christ will not be able to effectively make even one disciple. The only thing he will be able to produce is culturally aware, sensitive, perhaps well educated young disciples who have a weak, if non-existent, knowledge of who Jesus Christ really is. No matter how well a person may connect with young people, they will only produce shallow Christians if they are shallow themselves. This should be a relief to those of us who struggle to understand youth lingo, cultural icons, and teen life issues, but are genuinely loving and serving God and want to pass that on to the next generation. This is where we hear strange, wonderful stories about youth leaders who are in their 80's, making an impact on young people who were brought up in a completely different generational setting than that of a WWII vet. Bottom line: Your competence as a youth leader is directly in coorelation with your experience as a disciple of Christ. If you commit very little of yourself to being a follower of Christ, then you will have little experience as a disciple, and you will have little to teach. You SHOULD be intimidated. On the other hand, If you are actively, fervently pursuing a deeper relationship with God, allowing your life to be transformed by His word, you will have plenty of stories of a seasoned Christ-follower, and lots of experience. You will feel more comfortable sharing what you know about discipleship with those students who you are trying to disciple. Even those who see themselves as "introverts" or "awkward" will still find that they have a great deal to offer students.

So where does this put youth leaders? It puts us in a very important point of decision. Before we can answer the question "how do I lead young people effectively?", we have to be able to answer the question "how is my relationship with Christ?"

Here are some points to consider.

Growth takes time. This is more than taking a spiritual thermometer to our spiritual "mood" at the moment. A relationship with Christ is not like a mushroom that pops up over night with no root. Rather, it is cultivated. This is true for young people, yes? It is also true for youth leaders as well.

Growth can be hard work. We've got to be willing to ask the hard questions about our life and faith, applying it to every area of our life and being. Paul said we ought to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Sometimes, in order to do this, we've got to allow ourselves to be open and honest about things that we have been ignoring and hiding from ourselves. Very often, when this is the case, we find we have become so hardened in some area of life that, in honesty and desperation for genuine growth towards God, we have to ask Him to begin the work of opening our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts to those things which we have been blind to. We may not like what we see. God will reveal blackness that we didn't want to know about. It hurts. It stinks. It's hard. It's humbling. It's embarassing. But it is necessary if we are to truly do the work of letting God clean us out, and make us the disciple He wants us to be, and to make us fit for being a disciple-maker. Remember: We can never expect young disciples to go through the hard paces of discipleship if we have not gone through them ourselves. Shallow disciples make more shallow disciples, and when a blind guide leads the blind, both will end up in a pit.

Growth will provide "pathos" or "credibility" to your message. Perhaps you've heard the expression "I can't hear what you are saying over what you are doing." In other words, actions speak way louder than words, and if the two are not consistent... well, let's get real, young people aren't stupid. They may not have it all figured out, and they may be duplicitous (hypocritical) themselves, but they can definitely smell inconsistency in others, especially in those who are claiming to be their leaders. A young person will often have a hard time throwing their trust towards someone who is inconsistent, whose actions does not match their words. But when they see an older disciple whose words and actions match, they will latch on to that person as someone who can be trusted. Even though young people are striving for independance, in this generation, they have been betrayed so much by duplicity in the adults they see - especially Christian adults - and they are longing for someone to trust. Someone they can count on to do the same thing every time. Someone whose very life will display the outcome of the message he or she is trying to put across. When young people sense this kind of genuineness, this seamless consistency and honesty, they latch on, no matter how much experience that adult may have with communicating with kids. Ask an adult what is the most important quality in a youth leader, they may reply "experience" or "education" or "being able to connect with the youth culture." Ask a teenagers what is the most important quality in a youth leader, undoubtedly they will not mention any of the above, they will simply reply by saying "Being real." Youth leaders have to be the real thing. It cannot be imitated, feigned, reproduced, or faked. A successful maker of disciples will be a true, genuine disciple himself.

Growth is not about biblical literacy... primarily. By this time, it should be obvious that while a knowledge and understanding of the bible is a key component to a significant, meaningful faith and relationship with Christ, but it certainly does not end there. Doug Fields has pointed out that there seem to be (at least) three different components to disciple making. Biblical training is one component. The second is example. The third is relationships. Someone who desires to make young disciples certainly should strive to teach the truth of God revealed in His word, but it doesn't end there (and if you find that you struggle to be a teacher, this should good news for you). Disciplers are also providing a solid example of what a disciple really does. This is comes with the whole package of becoming a sincere disciple. If your walk with Christ doesn't end in the class room, why should that be the case for your students? Put another way, does anyone who has ever driven a car for more than one year really believe that a person can learn to drive simply by reading a manual? Of course not! It requires practice, and a teacher who will sit in the passenger seat and gently guide you, giving you pointers along the way. Anything that asks for our full attention and dedication cannot be taught in a book, but must be demonstrated in real life. As far as relationships... well, this is where young disciples experience the character of God: through the character of other disciples! God's attributes are clearly shown to us through His creation (go breeze through Romans 1 to catch that lesson), but the greatest expression of God's character has not been through the whole of His creation, but specifically, through people, and even more specifically, through His Son. As Jesus invested His life into His disciples through meaningful relationships in which He displayed the true character and nature of God, then it falls upon us to do the same thing, cultivating meaningful relationships with young disciples, reflecting the character of God through the way we interact with them, demonstrating grace, kindness, gentleness, truth-speaking, etc. So while knowledge of the bible is a key component, we cannot go on assuming that discipleship ends in the classroom. Discipleship is integrated into the whole of life, and it must be communicated as such. Be ready to take your students far beyond the classroom in an effort to show them true Christ-life!

This is what makes a good youth worker. Not a chaperone, but a shepherd. Not a janitor, but a teacher. Not merely an educator, but a life model of true discipleship. If this is still scary, and you still feel uncomfortable, perhaps it's time to get familiar with the material. I don't mean go read another book on youth ministry or give an extra hour of study into your Sunday School Lesson. Rather, perhaps it may be time for you to begin to rediscover Christ. To examine yourself, to see if you are truly of the faith, or if you are simply coasting, sweeping the spiritual complacency under the rug.

It all starts by getting alone with God, getting brutally honest about the state of things in your heart, and sincerely asking God to make some very real changes. To begin to rid you of those things that are ugly in God's sight, and replace them with something worth looking at, and imitating. Remember, when you are in the work of making disciples, you've got to be worth imitating, reproducing. Paul said "imitate me, as I imitate Christ." I don't think Paul intended on being the only one able to say that, but he recognized the principle that every disciple should eventually come to the point where they can look at younger disciples and confidently yet humbly say "Imitate me as I imitate Christ."