Monthly youth leaders column

Without a vision?

Are we?

‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.’ The quote is, of course, how some interpret Proverbs 29.18. The NIV renders it: ‘Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law’.

God’s word is that which guards us and saves us from undue wandering in godless places. But we do need to hear God’s revealed word to teach us how we should move in the future. But how do you look at the future and how should we, as churches trying to do biblical youth ministry, be looking to the future? Here are some models.

1. The Gaps model

A church perceives they have a problem with their youth ministry. Young people are not sticking around, parents are unhappy. There is no plan but we just need someone who can keep our young people happy. This usually leads to

2. The Entertainer model

We don’t just want to keep them coming to the meeting. We want them to be happy people who can get what they often say they want — a ‘good laugh’. So we go looking for a comedian who can keep happy because of his/her dynamic fun-loving personality.

Nothing wrong with appointing someone to meet a need or to look for someone who is a good person to be with. But is that the core purpose which drives us? We are simply meeting a short-term need. Both of these models feel a bit like a piece of ‘Elastoplast’. When you try to create a team of volunteers or appoint a paid youth minister what are you creating? The lack of clarity in a defined vision has often led to some disastrous situations. Nobody is quite sure what they are trying to do and, as long as we can find a ‘Mr. Fix-It’, all will be well.

When we appoint church leaders, we tend to take a bit more care and, thankfully, some churches are doing the same with youth ministers. Our vision for youth ministry must mesh together with the strategy for our churches. It is part of the same whole (called ‘Church’), so our plan is to integrate our young people into the life of our churches. ‘Elastoplast’ is not what we need. We need long-term care for every age group in the church community. So those we gather need to be a part of that long-term strategy. So this leads us to

3. The Pastor/Teacher model

Here, in essence, is the fundamental purpose of youth ministry — creating mature disciples by careful teaching and genuine pastoral care. Any youth ministry team should see this as their core purpose and, although there will be a need for many other gifts to be exercised, the central vision should be clear and everything should be geared to that purpose.

4.The Integrated model

Youth ministry is not a sideshow. Teenagers become adults who move away from home and live in different communities, sometimes marry, and usually go out to a place of secular work. Here is ‘salt and light’ for the future and the present.

Models 3 and 4 should exist together — both concepts are vital. But let us have a vision that sees every baby born in our churches grow up to know, love and serve the Lord of heaven and earth, and gear everything we do to helping young people grow in maturity. There is a little more about this in a book called Growing Up which I have just published.

Dave Fenton

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