Tactics for Teen Ministry by Youthworks

DEDICATION This book is for all the brave souls who want to disciple young people, especially for the scores of wholehearted volunteers who have served with me at Christ Church Youth. Special thanks to my coworker and friend Nicky Baker, whose insight and optimism is especially evident in the chapters about leaders, main meetings and communication. And also to Dave Miers, a generous friend, for his excellent contribution about online communication. Lastly, to my wife Carolyn for her warm encouragement, great capacity and spirited partnership in life and ministry. She’s a genuine weapon in her Maker’s hands. SP

Youthworks Press Published March 2014 Copyright © Scott Petty 2013 This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism and review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the express permission of the publisher. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc. Materials included which specifically reference Christ Church Youth are used with the permission of Christ Church (Anglican), St Ives, Sydney. Youthworks Press PO Box A287 Sydney South NSW 1235 AUSTRALIA Ph: +61 2 8268 3333 Fax: +61 2 8268 3357 www.cepstore.com.au National Library of Australia ISBN 978-1-922000-97-2 Project manager: Derek Nelson Managing editor: Natasha Percy Theological editor: Guangyao Un Typesetting and design: Bethany Abbottsmith

Introduction—It’s not about the guy (or girl)

1. Youth ministry foundations

2. Structures and pathway

3. Recruiting and training leaders

4. Main meetings

5. Small groups

6. Camps 53 7. Writing and giving youth talks

8. Evangelism 71 9. Communication 79 10. Families 90 Epilogue—The life of the leader

Appendix 1—New leader package

105

Appendix 2—Sharing questions and activities

113

Appendix 3—Main meetings toolkit

116

Appendix 4—How to write a youth Bible study

130

Appendix 5—Camp leadership 101

135

Appendix 6—Sample camp program (Senior high Summer Camp)

139

Appendix 7—Talk feedback form

141

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUY (OR GIRL)

I was there, in Paris in July 1999. We had travelled to Paris especially, although from our then home in London I guess that was less of a big deal than if we had come from our current home in Sydney. But I was excited beyond description. I had followed the Tour de France since I was a young boy and now I would see the finale of the world’s toughest sporting race with my own eyes, on the streets of Paris, under a brilliant blue sky. There was added interest in the 1999 version of le Tour, because a brash American called Lance Armstrong, who had come back from a near-death battle with cancer just two years earlier, would ride into Paris in the maillot jaune, the yellow jersey, as the overall winner of the race. It was nothing short of a fairytale, or perhaps a miracle, at the time. What extraordinary courage, determination, discipline and sheer resilience this man displayed that, having so recently cheated death, he could race his bicycle for nearly 3700 kilometres for three full weeks and over some of the biggest mountains in Europe. I had chills up and down my spine as I watched Lance’s teammates lead him and his yellow jersey down the Champs Élysées, the famous boulevard in Paris where the great race finishes. And just to prove this was no fluke, Lance Armstrong would feature strongly in the next six editions of the Tour de France and become the most dominant cyclist of his generation, arguably ever. I was caught up in the fairytale, and I was quick to pick up a copy of the story of Lance Armstrong, which had been released in bookshops on the back of his success in le Tour. It was titled It’s Not About the Bike. I quickly devoured its pages which

chronicled the way Armstrong overcame not just cancer, or even the French Alps, but a rough family upbringing that included not knowing his biological father and having a contemptible stepfather. Finally his cancer and treatment meant there were medical difficulties to deal with later on when he wanted to start a family. By the time I put the book down it was clear that it was not about the bike—it was about the guy, Lance Armstrong: the comeback king, the all-American and all-conquering hero, the against-all-odds champion, and at least then, the devoted family man. Fast-forward 13 years or so and Lance Armstrong has been stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles, including the first one that I witnessed in 1999. The rumours suggesting his involvement in doping and the widespread use of performanceenhancing drugs got louder and clearer until such time as even he couldn’t believe in his own medicated miracle any longer. It was not about the bike, but following his admission of doping and cheating, it’s now clear that it was never about the guy either. It’s not as though Armstrong alone was using performance-enhancing drugs; his whole generation of cyclists has been associated and tarnished with drug use and cheating. That there was so much doping and cheating going on means that not only was it not about Lance Armstrong, it was not about any of the guys who rode to victory in the great bicycle races of Europe in that era. Perhaps it never could be. In the world of youth ministry we usually associate successful ministry with the guy or the girl—the single, charismatic, exceptionally

I BELIEVE THE ALTERNATIVE IS TO HAVE A CAREFULLY CONSIDERED UNDERSTANDING OF YOUTH MINISTRY, WHICH IS THEN INCREMENTALLY DEVELOPED, CONSISTENTLY EXECUTED

gifted, extroverted, creative, bold

AND REGULARLY EVALUATED. AND ALL

personality. The right guy or the

OF THIS SHOULD BE SHOULDERED BY

right girl leading the youth ministry

A COMPANY OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE.

will see it grow from strength to strength and go from success to success. At least that’s the plan. But if it’s not about the guy in the Tour de France, why do we keep thinking that it could be about the guy or the girl in youth ministry? If such extraordinary people actually exist, they’re in short supply. And they probably won’t end up working at your church. And when they leave, they will take the critical success factor of that youth ministry—themselves—away with them, leaving a great hole for the next unfortunate person to fall into.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUY (OR GIRL)

So if it’s not going to be about the standout leader, then what’s the alternative? I believe the alternative is to have a carefully considered understanding of youth ministry, which is then incrementally developed, consistently executed and regularly evaluated. And all of this should be shouldered by a company of everyday people. That’s what Tactics for Teen Ministry is about: discerning thinking and planning, careful working and building, continual evaluation, and steady growth in youth ministry. This is something that everyday people can do, so I trust that this book will be of use to everyday people everywhere.

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

Going to the movies is not a special experience for my sons. They watch movies on DVD at home all the time, and when you can buy a DVD for not much more than it costs for one of them to go to the cinema, it doesn’t seem to make much sense to take them to the movies anymore. But when I was younger, as a special treat my family would take a trip into the city to go to the cinemas. Back then there weren’t cinemas in almost every shopping centre like there is today, so if you wanted to see a movie you had to go into the city. That meant getting dressed up, and hopping on a train into the city to meet my Dad after work to catch a movie. One of my abiding memories of school holiday movie trips was a big hole on perhaps the most prominent corner in the whole city. A property developer had bought the block, presumably to build a skyscraper and make a fortune. But something went wrong. All that was left was a giant, deep hole. It was a bit embarrassing for the city really, to have a pockmark in the middle of town like that big hole. I would wonder to myself why they just didn’t get on and build the skyscraper anyway. Of course you can’t do that with buildings. Without secure foundations even the smallest of constructions will eventually collapse, and this is even more the case with bigger buildings. Good foundations make all the difference. The temptation when thinking about youth ministry, or writing a manual for youth ministry like this one, is to dive straight into the nuts and bolts, the day-to-day tasks, and the weekly grind of working in church-based youth ministry. But for a long time, savvy youth ministers have realised that it’s important to know not just what to do, but also why you do it. So any decent youth ministry manual must start with a basic

philosophy of ministry—that is, an idea of the biblical foundations of the ministry as well as the overall goals and purposes of it. Without a clear idea of your philosophy of ministry you can get bedazzled pretty easily by whatever the latest and greatest youth ministry model from the hippest American mega-church happens to be. And truthfully, there are youth ministry models from such churches in the U.S and elsewhere that sound genuinely impressive.1 You might be drawn to attractive websites or see diagrams of baseball diamonds or bulls’ eyes. You might hear code words like ‘seeker sensitive’ and ‘missional’, or read about groups with edgy names. Again, these can all sound impressive but these may not be more than well-presented frontages for what are normal youth ministry practices (and may not necessarily be biblical or even effective in the long run). Whether the reality of these youth ministries lives up to the hype or not, you are much better off having your own well-developed and clearly articulated philosophy of youth ministry. From there, you can develop some of the basic elements.

SOME STANDARD STYLES OF YOUTH MINISTRY Before highlighting some of the biblical principles that should impact our approach to youth ministry, it’s worth identifying some of the standard youth ministry practices out there, with which you’re probably already familiar. Perhaps the ministry you’re currently leading looks just like one of these.

Entertainment/outreach In the first instance there is the entertainment style of youth ministry. This occurs where youth ministries try to compete against the best the world has to offer, often just by mimicking it, giving teenagers a fun and entertaining night out. Sometimes the entertainment approach goes under the name of outreach. Whatever you want to call it, it hopes that by drawing in a crowd with entertaining activities you will somehow end up with Christians. It’s hard to see the logic of this approach. Why would you expect to end up with keen Christian teenagers if you’ve done little to

1 Of course, it’s much easier to make youth ministry models sound more impressive in a book than they are in real life. I know plenty of people (myself included) who have gone to considerable effort and expense to visit an acclaimed church that has been the subject of a ministry book, or has had a celebrity preacher, and have been fairly underwhelmed.

directly grow and develop keen Christian teenagers? Although the world of academic youth ministry thinking (yes, such a world—or parallel galaxy perhaps—exists!) has moved on and away from an entertainment approach, this style is alive and well at ground level. I

SURELY WE DON’T WANT TO COPY

once heard a youth minister say, ‘I

THE WORLD OR COMPETE WITH

want my group to be the absolute

THE WORLD ON ITS TERMS BY

funnest [sic] thing on offer on

TRYING TO ENTERTAIN KIDS WITH

Friday nights in my whole town’.

OVERLY SLICK PRESENTATION OR

And he lives in a pretty big town! In

Deuteronomy

17:16,

HYPED-UP DISTRACTIONS.

it’s

interesting to hear God insist that when

the

Israelites

eventually

appointed a king, they were to ensure that he did not acquire great numbers of horses for himself, or make the people return to Egypt to get more horses. That would not only symbolise a return to the land of slavery, it would show that God’s people were relying on the best the world had to offer—horses, chariots and the superpower of Egypt—instead of relying on God. Nevertheless, we read in Isaiah 31:1–3 that going down to Egypt to get horses and chariots was precisely the strategy that Israel’s kings employed. Such a faithless tactic incurred the great wrath of the Lord. Fastforward several thousand years and you’ll find that many youth ministries are doing something similar: their strategy for reaching young people for Jesus basically relies on the best the world has to offer, rather than on the gospel of Jesus Christ. This isn’t to say we’re not interested in outreach, but we aim to do evangelism in a different way (more on this in Chapter 8). Surely we don’t want to copy the world or compete with the world on its terms by trying to entertain kids with overly slick presentation or hyped-up distractions.

Drop-in centre The next type of youth group approach is the drop-in centre. In the drop-in centre it doesn’t really matter when the kids arrive or leave, or even what they do when they are there. They just need a place to go. This kind of ministry looks like a lot of secular youth work, and often arises when parents, pastors and others are most

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

interested in providing a safe place for teenagers to hang out. Of course, we’d rather our ministries be safe environments than health hazards waiting to happen. But we have something much more important and valuable to offer young people than a safe place to hang out, or a place to go when it gets too cold out on the street.

The crazy switch Perhaps the most common style of youth ministry of all is the crazy switch. Unfortunately, this is probably the most confusing approach to youth ministry. In this set-up, the leadership knows they must teach the teenagers something about Jesus or about life as a Christian, but they also think that young people won’t come or stay unless they have high-energy, unfocused, but generally disconnected activities for the majority of the night (or at least half of it). This creates an evening of bizarre and disjointed change with lots of sweat at the start, courtesy of the chaos, before the night makes a rapid ‘switch’ to serious Christian discussion. The kids who come for the crazy activities have to put up with the Christian stuff, while the kids who come for the Christian stuff have to suffer through the chaotic or disconnected activities. The leaders who are really interested in making disciples of teenagers get burnt out by running high-energy but low-impact action. And nobody seems to trust the word of God to do the work of God.

‘Faithful but as interesting as ornithology’2 The last kind of youth ministry that exists is run by the troopers who know that youth ministry is not about entertaining kids, or simply providing them with a place to hang. These are leaders who know they should be teaching teenagers about how to follow Jesus from the Scriptures, but unfortunately haven’t worked out how to do it in a way that isn’t boring. These groups are about as creative as a house brick, and school detention seems like a good alternative for most group members! At least they haven’t sold out to the world in coming up with their way to do ministry. However, just because you love Jesus and love the Bible, doesn’t mean you have to be boring.

2 I apologise here to my friend Dave who is a great youth pastor and who is also into ornithology, or birdwatching. I learned more about the birds in my back garden from the few days Dave was staying with us than I had ever noticed before. So a variation on this title might also be ‘faithful but as interesting as train spotting or watching paint dry’!

A MINISTRY OF DISCIPLESHIP In developing an alternative to these garden variety, ground level styles of youth ministry we must ensure our philosophy of youth ministry, or of any ministry for that matter, is derived from the Scriptures. Once you get to the level of practice and strategy, there’s great freedom to zero in on the particular needs and opportunities within your sphere of influence, your church and your community. It would be worth doing this in consultation with the leadership and other stakeholders in your church. If your church is dead keen on feeding the local poor, but not amped about growing its own teenagers, you’re going to need to either win them to your cause or find somewhere else to build a healthy youth ministry. At the big picture level, the Bible must guide not just the content of your youth ministry but also your foundational approach. There should be neither surprise nor shame in making your youth ministry about discipleship. In a youth ministry that honours Christ’s wishes for his people, we take our lead from the Great Commission in the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus told his disciples to go and make more disciples: … ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you …’ (Matthew 28:18–20)

After Jesus was endowed with all the authority in the universe following his resurrection from the dead, his first command was not to hang out with teenagers or go along to their football or basketball games. It was not even to be their mates. The command Jesus gave was to make disciples, by firstly baptising them, which in the New Testament is almost code for converting them to the faith.3 After people have come to faith in Christ, the journey of discipleship continues as we teach people, and specifically teenagers, all the things Jesus taught his disciples. You need to spot and note that direct connection between making disciples and teaching them about Jesus. You equally need to recognise that there is no mention whatsoever—either explicit or implied—of entertaining people or just providing them with a safe place 3 I’m not saying the actual practice of water baptism is unimportant. Rather the idea of baptism, as it is used here, is an all-encompassing description of people becoming Christian.

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

to hang out. So in your youth ministry, aim to produce disciples—wholehearted disciples of Jesus—who are growing in their love and understanding of Christ, and who are becoming disciple-makers themselves. Discipleship is the very bedrock of any church-based ministry, but there are some other biblical principles that should be brought to bear on your understanding and philosophy of the ministry you are leading, shaping or reshaping. It’s important to take a look at a few of these.

NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL Firstly, expect the word of God to do the work of God. Romans 1:16–17 encourages us to trust in the power of the gospel, rather than worldly powers, to do God’s work: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’.

You might be very prepared to nod your head in agreement with this idea, yet when it comes to your youth ministry programming, if you put your faith in things like fun, hyped and slick production, it would seem fair to conclude that you are ashamed of the gospel. I’ve seen a prominent youth ministry in a large church relying on free video games, dancing to thumping techno music, and a flavoured water bar. I don’t even know what a flavoured water bar is, but if they exist in real life then a youth group is probably not the first place I’d go to find one! The same group also featured an extreme games-styled worship service that included a live screen feed to the car park where a champion motocross racer was faultlessly executing risky stunt after risky stunt. Very sadly, the pastor of this youth ministry even said out loud, ‘if MTV spends all the money it does to lure young men and women, the church needs to do it too’. Shame on him, even if he is lucky enough to have the budget to afford rows of computers, gaming consoles, and a motocross racer.

Fortunately for every youth ministry that doesn’t have a big budget, the gospel is free and it is the power of God, not a flavoured water bar or a motocross stuntman. When we teach the gospel, we are trusting in the power of God. When we rely on gimmicks, we reveal that we are ashamed of the gospel. This seminal truth is further laid down by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:10–17: By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Paul says much here as he encourages the Corinthian Christians to see that Godhonouring ministry is built on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that seems straightforward enough. But Paul goes on to insist that anyone who wants to do gospel ministry must continue to build with gold, silver and precious stones. In other words, continue building with the gospel. Our work will be revealed or tested with fire, which is why it’s important that we don’t build with inferior materials like haphazard hype and unfocused activities. In this passage there is a sobering and ‘flammable’ reminder that, if your ministry is characterised by inferior materials, you might escape through the flames of God’s judgement. But then again, you might not. If by your work you destroy God’s temple—his people who are sacred to him—God will destroy you. Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

BIG ON RELATIONSHIPS Another thing that the Scriptures encourage us to be as a gathering of Christians is big on relationships. You want a youth ministry that majors in positive and healthy relationships of many kinds. If you have a growing number of positive and healthy relationships, you will have a positive and healthy community of teenagers. The emphasis on community flows all the way back to the community of relationships within the Trinity—between Father, Son and Spirit—in whose image we’ve been created. We can trace the Bible’s priority on relationships from when God created humanity as male and female because it was not good for man to be alone, to the creation of God’s people via the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, right through to the New Testament Church and the heavenly gathering of saints in Revelation. It’s clear that God expects his people to live out their faith in a community of positive relationships. As it turns out, it is healthy relationships (rather than drop-in centres) that provide a safe place for teenagers. It is relationships that create real fun and protect a group from becoming boring. And it is through relationships that real Christian life change can be taught and modelled.

BENEFITS OF DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRY There are additional benefits in running a discipleship-style youth ministry, the first being that it has a greater chance of producing disciples who last. If you direct your energies towards a goal of growing wholehearted disciples, your ministry is more likely to have a lasting effect than it will if your program is aimed largely at entertaining teenagers. Mike Yaconelli, a doyen of American youth ministry, lamented as far back as 2003 that most youth ministry seems to lack any staying power because too much energy is focused on taking kids to Christian concerts, cheering ‘Jesus’ at large events and the like, rather than the long haul work of discipleship.4 Discipleship ministry focuses on the people in the group who are interested in the Christian faith, understanding the Scriptures and being part of a gospel community, rather than people who are not interested in these things. It’s always seemed strange

4 Yaconelli, M 2003, ‘The Failure of Youth Ministry’, YouthWorker, May/June edition.

to me that many youth ministries are more concerned with the kids who aren’t in the group and who don’t turn up than they are with the ones who are in the group and who do turn up. I’m not calling for an inward and insular holy huddle. Of course there are plenty of ways to engage with the outside and unbelieving world through your youth ministry, but the kids who are part of the group have to count. I believe the Parable of the Talents has direct application to youth ministries. That’s the story Jesus told in Matthew 25 about a master who went away on a long business trip and entrusted his servants with talents of money. It was a little like the TV show The Apprentice, where the master was looking to see what the servants would do with the cash he had entrusted to their care while he was away. The two servants who received the most money put it to work and basically doubled their money. They were welcomed into their master’s happiness and were given greater responsibilities in the future. But the servant who received the smallest amount to begin with buried it, not even bothering to invest with the bankers where he could have earned interest. Not being faithful with even the smallest amount, this money was taken from the servant. If we can’t be faithful even with the small things or the small number of teenagers whom God has entrusted to our care and leadership, how could we expect him to trust us with more people? As we prove ourselves faithful by making and growing disciples from the

IF YOU ARE GOING TO THE EFFORT

teenagers he has entrusted to our

OF RUNNING A YOUTH MINISTRY, IT

care, we can expect him to reward

SHOULD BE ONE THAT HONOURS

us with others to welcome and disciple. Additionally,

GOD AND PUTS HIS SCRIPTURES INTO ACTION, ONE THAT HARNESSES THE

discipleship

youth

ENERGY OF YOUR LEADERS FOR

ministry is consistent, rather than

MAXIMUM KINGDOM IMPACT AND AIMS

confusing. What message do you

TO GROW DISCIPLES OF JESUS.

send teenagers when you draw them in with disconnected chaos (regardless of your level of worldly ‘slickness’) and then switch to Christian content somewhere in the second half of a meeting? It conveys a lack of trust in the gospel, and a lack of trustworthiness among the leadership. It’s better to consistently live out what you say you are. A rugby club does not play soccer. A ballet school does

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

not teach you how to cook. And a Christian youth group ought not to be known for things not distinctively Christian when there is precious little time to make disciples. A further benefit discipleship youth ministry has over the other methods of youth ministry is that it has less chance of leaders burning out needlessly. It’s hard enough finding good Christian people to volunteer some of their valuable spare time to be leaders, so the energy of our leaders needs to be channelled into disciplemaking pursuits to ensure their time is well spent. Building disciples should in turn re-energise and encourage leaders as they see the group members they’re leading and teaching growing in their faith. Essentially, if you are going to the effort of running a youth ministry, it should be one that honours God and puts his Scriptures into action, one that harnesses the energy of your leaders for maximum kingdom impact and aims to grow disciples of Jesus. Once you’ve settled on your big picture, broadbrush, foundational philosophy of youth ministry, it is time to be more specific about what you’re trying to achieve. To do that you’ll need to settle on a purpose, some values and some goals.

PURPOSE, VALUES AND GOALS You will be better able to understand your ministry, and articulate it to others (such as leaders, potential leaders, parents and group members) if you have the following:

• Purpose statement—this should describe what you’re trying to do in reasonably broad terms.

• Clear discipleship process—this is a practical answer to the question of how you plan to carry out your mission or fulfil the purpose you have identified.

• Set of ideals or values—this is an in-principle kind of answer to the question of how you plan to carry out your mission or fulfil the purpose you have identified.

• Set of goals—in short, this is where you’d like people to be at the end of their time in your youth ministry.

Purpose If you haven’t heard the fable of the fox and the hedgehog, you need to.5 According to the fable, the fox was a cunning little creature, always scheming different plans to catch the hedgehog. The fox would wait in the woods to ambush the hedgehog, or he would sneak up behind the hedgehog and try many other tricks. But no matter how deviously smart the Fox’s strategies, the hedgehog would sense the danger and just roll himself up into a little ball, spikes pointed outwards. He did this one thing so well that he ultimately prospered. He wasn’t as smart, quick or conniving as his foe, but the hedgehog outlasted the fox with his numerous ploys because his focus was on doing one thing well. When it comes to what youth groups can do with their time, their resources and their people, there is an unlimited number of possibilities. And it is very tempting to want to have a crack at everything other people say is important. However, you can’t do everything, and you certainly can’t do everything well. It’s important to narrow the focus of your youth group to what has sometimes been called the hedgehog principle; in other words, focus on the one thing you want to do really well. Ideally, you find your hedgehog principle at the point at which the following three things intersect or collide:

1. What you can be best in the world at. You might be really excited about pyrotechnics, but if you can’t do pyrotechnics well don’t focus on it. Stick to something you’re actually good at. As I mentioned in the introduction, you don’t need to be a youth ministry superstar to do youth ministry well; with thoughtful planning, careful working and regular evaluation, you can be world-class at discipleship ministry.

5 See Collins, J 2001, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don’t, HarperBusiness, New York, p. 90. In this book, Jim Collins traced the success of 11 leading organisations to work out what helped them go from being a good business to a truly great one. The clarity offered by a focused purpose statement, or what Collins calls a hedgehog principle, was one of the key factors that took these entities from good to great. For more information on how this principle, and the general findings of Good to Great, can be applied to not-for-profit organisations like churches, see Jim Collins’ 2005 monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer, HarperCollins, New York.

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

2. What you are passionate about. When it comes to youth ministry, our passions are guided and shaped by the principles of Scripture we’ve already seen in this chapter.

3. What will enable your ministry to keep functioning resource- or energywise. Your passions and abilities need to be weighed alongside your ability to keep doing what you think ought to be your focus. In a commercial setting, this would be a question of what makes the business money. For example, if I happened to be world-class and passionate about building rockets, but nobody wanted to buy my rockets at a price at which I could make a profit, then I would quickly be out of business. Youth ministry is not exactly the same as a business; however we need to ensure that our ministry doesn’t quickly run ourselves and our leaders (our human resources) into the ground.

HOW WE HAVE DONE IT At Christ Church St Ives, we thought long and hard about our hedgehog principle and this is what we came up with. Our youth ministry exists to … grow wholehearted disciples of Jesus through excellent teaching of the Scriptures in the context of authentic relationships. We’re not trying to do everything that is possible. We want to grow wholehearted disciples. This is what we are uniquely positioned to do well. Because God is passionate about it, we are passionate about it too. We’ve been able to do this for decades thus far because it’s what we are uniquely positioned to do well, and it doesn’t burn through our leaders’ energy or our church’s money. A careful investment in leaders, and a channelling of their efforts towards growing wholehearted disciples, actually develops them as disciples as well.

Values Having developed a philosophy based on Jesus’ call for us to make disciple-making disciples, and having narrowed the focus of your ministry to something achievable, biblical and sustainable via a hedgehog principle (or what’s more generally called a purpose statement), you want to have some values that govern the way you will carry out your ministry. Again, there is a long list of possible values you could decide to commit to. And some have suggested that just having values—that they exist at all—is more important than what they actually are. But my view is that if you’re going to go to the trouble of having values for yourself and your group to commit to, you might as well choose values that will create a godly ethos or culture, or what expert youth coach Mark DeVries calls ‘climate’6 in the ministry you are developing. At my church we have chosen four values, and we want these to shape our whole ministry. We first want to be biblical, so that the Bible guides the whole life of our youth ministry as well as forming a huge part of the content of what we do week by week. Furthermore, we want to be relational because we are committed to healthy relationships across many planes: youth worker to group member, youth worker to volunteer leader, leader to leader, leader to parent, leader to group member, group member to group member, insider to outsider, and so on. You can see how these two values—biblical and relational—flow directly out of our hedgehog principle. In addition, we settled on the next two values because we saw them as important for the way our group would work under God.

Excellent. In view of the glorious majesty of God and his perfection in all that he is and does we think it’s worth doing the very best we can in our ministry. We don’t want to offer up half-hearted service, or run half-baked programs, or have halfinterested conversations. In other words, we want to do things excellently because God is excellent.

Authentic. This complements our value of excellence as it pushes us to be genuine rather than phoney, real rather than slick, and honest rather than showy. Although

6 DeVries, M 2008, Sustainable Youth Ministry, InterVarsity Press, Nottingham, p. 76ff.

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS

we have tied excellence to our teaching of the Scriptures and authenticity to our relationships in our purpose statement, we actually want these two values to govern every aspect of our ministry. Of course, it is one thing to develop a clearly articulated purpose and clearly identified values. But you also have to make sure that what you’ve got up on the wall (your hedgehog principle and values) actually happens down the hall,7 on the ground-level ministry that happens under your leadership. It really is the job of the person heading up the youth ministry to ensure there is a correlation between what you’ve said you want to do and be like, and where you’re currently at. To ensure this happens, it’s a good idea to set aside a regular review point—perhaps in the first week of each month—when you look back and make sure you’re not wandering off track in any way.

Goals So you’ve got your purpose and your values sorted out, but you also need to ground these things with some specific goals. These goals should shape some of the programming decisions you make, including the sorts of topics you cover in your main meetings or small groups. The best way to figure out your specific goals is to work out where you want your group members to be when they finish their time in youth ministry. In some ways, I think goals are a bit of a work-in-progress. When we first had a crack at coming up with our goals we forgot to include our fundamental and primary desire: for our group members to have a vital, living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Fail, epic fail! However, when we were thinking about goals in consultation with our youth leadership teams, we quickly discovered this deficiency and made a relationship with Jesus our number one goal. Again, there are probably many possibilities when it comes to setting your goals for your people by the time they graduate from your youth ministry, but it would be worth thinking through these areas:

• The Bible—what do you want them to understand and know about the Bible?

7 As Andy Stanley of North Point Ministries says in the 2008 DVD, Systems (Catalyst, Atlanta).

• The gospel—what do you need your people to understand and be able to articulate about the gospel?

• Evangelism—if evangelism is important to you (and it should be) how do you want your troops to be engaging with their non-believing friends, family and other contacts?

• Christian living—in what areas of struggle, temptation, decision-making or just general Christian living do your people most need to understand the Christian response? And what sort of strategies do they need to develop in order to honour God in their lives (for example, at home, school, sport, parties, with boyfriends/girlfriends; in relation to work, money, leisure and conflicting matters)?

• Church—how do you want them to operate in relationship to their Christian community?

• Service—is Christian or community service something that’s important for your young people to be involved in? You can probably think of other categories or goals you’d like to set for your group members. As I’ve said previously, goals are in many ways a work-in-progress. As you go along you might identify further weaknesses in your group members or your ministry that need to be addressed. But without aiming at something, there’s every chance that you’ll hit nothing. The issues discussed in this chapter form the very footing and bedrock for your whole ministry. With the words of Scripture underpinning your philosophy of ministry, and some careful thought devoted to clarifying your purpose, goals and values, you are now in a position to start getting practical, and thinking about youth group structures and pathways.

YOUTH MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS