Monthly youth leaders column

So what do you write about in your first youth ministry column? It could be all about big strategies and how we look at the big picture and there will be some of that later - promise! But for many of us in youth ministry the most pressing need is the week-by-week demands placed on us in maintaining our ministry. That Friday (or Sunday) feeling of knowing that there will be a group of students waiting for us whether we like it or not. And the last time we met them things didn't go to plan - some listened but others were on another planet.

In the years I have taught and led young people, the chapter in the Bible I come back to so often is 1 Thessalonians 2. Paul was defending his actions, having left the city in a hurry (Acts 17.5 ff), and was anxious for the new converts to get the support they needed. This chapter reveals his motives for doing things and should help clarify ours.

Encouragement needed

We all need it - week-by-week youth ministry is hard work but we don't do it just to feel better. We do it to please our God and the biggest encouragement we could possibly have is that 'we dared to tell you his gospel'. It may not always be received with rapturous applause but it's what God wants us to do. It's why we're on the planet, so the mere fact that God has given us the opportunity to speak about him is a great privilege. It is very easy to lose our focus that the best thing that can happen to a young person is to respond when they hear that Christ died for their sins according to the Scriptures. So much in a young person's life is geared to self-fulfilment and it's good that people should use their talents. But let's never lose the truth that being obedient to the gospel is permanently life-changing and we are to be the messengers of that good news.

Men approved

It's great to know that 'gospel tellers' are approved by God (v.4). The desire for popularity can be very strong in the world of youth ministry. Our longing to be accepted by the young people we serve can become our chief aim but we are to 'appeal' (v.3). The gospel is and should be appealing. It should make sense in the culture of our day. It should grab the hearer and strike them as relevant but we don't speak it in a way that simply strives to make everybody happy. Without deliberately setting out to be unpopular we, nonetheless, tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And that means we sometimes have to handle difficult ideas. Dying on a cross is not pretty (public deaths never are), but that is the means whereby a sovereign God allowed us to be restored in relationship to him. The question becomes - how dare we not tell our young people? If I was drowning in a fast-flowing river I would be seriously interested in the nearest life jacket.

What do we tell?

Easy to say - the gospel - but Paul gives us more. We share the 'gospel of God and our lives as well' and the motive is clear. Paul's deep love for these people is very clear from the verses and there are dangers today that, as youth ministry attracts more and more people and becomes more of a profession, we will lose that fundamental of all true gospel ministry - our love for the people we serve. Churches can become sucked into power issues and lose the fundamental reason for Christian communities to be on this planet. Week in, week out loving of young people can be hard. When we feel the group lack response to what we are teaching them, it is easy to work on auto-pilot and 'lose our first love'. Young people need to share our lives - not every intimate detail, as that would be inappropriate. But they need to see Christ at work in us as we teach them, care for them, pray for them and spend time helping them unravel all their doubts and fears.

Three questions

When I first entered full time youth ministry, I was asked three questions:

* Do you love God's Word?
* Do you love young people?
* Do you love telling young people what's in God's Word?

Those three questions have kept me going through many years. Our love and concern for young people should drive us to tell them the truth of God's Word in all its fullness. This is the foundation of true youth ministry and there is no magic new formula to be experienced. If we want to grow true disciples, they must be fed. I trust in this column I will be able to share with you some of the ways we can develop youth ministry in this style so that God's kingdom may grow.

That Friday feeling...

Encouragement needed

Men approved

What do we tell?

Three questions

Dave Fenton

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