Monthly column for youth workers

What's the difference between rap music and opera? The answer is that rap is people talking when they should be singing and opera is people singing when they should be talking. This article is about neither rap nor opera, nor is it about singing in church. Following last time's discussion about the syllabus, here are some questions to probe.

Many churches run a system of a Sunday morning Bible class and a midweek social event to invite friends to. All this is fine until you consider the motives. Then it becomes like the rap/opera joke. Sunday is Bible teaching, but not reaching out. Friday nights are evangelistic but without a Bible base.

What's the aim

The question is what is the aim of each session? Any answers landing outside the realms of discipleship and evangelism need closer examination. Is it the best use of our resources just to keep the Christian young people in the church occupied in a safe environment? Is the youth club merely acting as 'babysitting' on Friday night? Do we run Sunday morning groups because the children make too much noise if they are left in church? Sometimes asking these questions upsets the status quo. 'This is the way we've always done it' might be the reasoning behind a programme without gospel aims, discipleship and evangelism.

How can we avoid 'talking when we should be singing'? It is a common mistake to think that evangelism should come first, and that the most important thing is filling all the seating. A better approach is to begin by discipling the young people that do already come along, even if it is only one or two. This will enable the young people to mature as Christians. Then, if we are teaching correctly on Sundays and mid-week Bible study groups, the young people will realise that there is a need to reach out to their friends. The objective is to get the young people in the church into the habit of inviting their friends for gospel reasons.

What do the friends get invited to? Many things will attract young people. Loud music, flashing lights, computers, bouncy castles, video projectors and extravagant food will all work. There are two problems. First, churches can very rarely compete with other organisations. It is unlikely that young people will want to go on coming to our events forever and whenever there is a clash, church events usually come off second best. Secondly there is the 'epilogue syndrome'. An evening of enormous fun can take a dive when it comes to the epilogue. It is incredibly difficult to get 30 excited young people with an abundance of energy and adrenalin to sit quietly for ten minutes and listen.

Making socials gospel

What will make the social programme evangelistic? It may seem like a radical idea to move away from the epilogue format, but perhaps this needs to happen, and yet without losing the Bible content. The answer is to go for more Bible input not less. There are two keys to achieving this. We need to be upfront about the aims of the programme. Be very clear with the young people that the purpose of these events is to invite their friends. We need to discuss what is being planned with the young people so they will not be embarrassed to invite their friends. There must be no compromise on the Bible teaching; events will be Bible-based and openly evangelistic. They mustn't clash with other local happenings or no one will turn up. We must be upfront with the church and especially parents about the aim and content.

Secondly there must be an attempt to follow things through. There must be a Bible study group to join or an appropriate service to invite people along to. One of the hardest things to do in youth work is to get young people to move from one group to the next, or from a mid-week club to the church. To succeed in this needs very careful programme planning. Think about the time to make the move to the next group, i.e. not straight after a holiday when they are out of the habit of coming along. Think about whether the next group is too different in style or whether it clashes with other events.

These are just a few ideas to trigger thinking about the structure and aims of the events we run. There are no easy answers and no correct way of doing things. Every model for youth work has to be adapted to individual circumstances. Only the aim remains the same, discipling and evangelism among young people, in order to present them before God, mature in Christ (Colossians 1.28).

What a fantastic aim!

Roger Fawcett

© Evangelicals Now - February 2002
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