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Monthly youth leaders column

Radical...

A favourite word among the young and youth leaders quite like it too. There has always been a radical feel about youth work — a desire to challenge the status quo and go for more radical ways of doing things.

At training events, you often hear people say that their church needs a radical shake up because of their attitudes to the young. Many would argue this is the reason for the ‘youth church’ phenomena — people get so fed up with battling with traditions they go their own way and set up radical congregations designed for the young people who are so frustrated.

As I write this I am on a youth leaders conference and have talked with a couple of leaders who want to take radical steps to awaken their congregations to the needs of their young people. They have a real passion to see their young people move on with God, but cannot see ways of integrating what they are doing with the life and ministry of their local church. This is an often heard cry from youth leaders who want to see their young people being really committed to the gospel but have often run out of steam and are discouraged.

Expanding church

I am fascinated by two phrases towards the end of Acts 2: ‘They found favour with men’ and ‘The Lord added daily to their number, those who were being saved’ (verse 47).

The two phrases are not unconnected. In the early church ‘adding to their number’ was simply what happened — an expanding congregation was the expectation. It was a missionary church with a desire to see people come to Christ and, because their reputation was good among the people, non-Christians were attracted to their gatherings and were saved. Could it be that we have become so much an institutionalised church that we have lost missiological perspective? To put it simply, young people and their leaders are frustrated that the gospel has lost its cutting edge in our postmodern world. Because we are declining in numbers, we fall back on maintenance and holding on to what we’ve got, rather than developing a strategy that will put us ‘in favour with men’ that numbers ‘will be added’.

Strategy

So, what was their radical strategy? Firstly, they had ‘all things in common’ — they were a community who shared all they had and that clearly had an impact on those around. A community needs to embrace people of all ages — they need to belong and see their church as the place where they can go to meet people and where those who are not believers can feel comfortable. It was ‘in favour with men’ — it was not some strange building at the corner of the street which everybody walked past. The church of Acts 2 was engaged in community affairs and was known. If we want more radical ideas then we only need to see what they got up to. They passed on the apostles’ doctrine. That which had been seen by eye-witnesses was expressed to those who didn’t believe. How we do that with young people is clearly an issue for discussion but do it we must. If we preach we must also pray and that is so easy to neglect in the hurly burly world of youth ministry.

Summary

So this is the radical solution of the New Testament:

* preach the truth
* pray for the young people
* be a place of community
* be credible in your community

Monthly youth leaders column

Radical...

Expanding church

Strategy

Summary

Let’s do it.

Dave Fenton

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