Monthly column for youth leaders

Life can be full of questions: Why isn't there mouse-flavoured cat food? Can you be a closet claustrophobic? Is there another word for synonym?

When companies ship polystyrene, what do they pack it in? Do cemetery workers prefer the graveyard shift?

Youth leaders can be full of questions too. How do we attract more young people? How can we reach out to non-Christian young people? How do we cope with lots of excited youngsters on a Friday night? How do we get young people from the club to the church? Does anybody sell 'extra energy' pills?

Last month's article highlighted seven ailments that may afflict your church's work with young people. This month we have the cure. Five universal answers to the most commonly asked questions by youth leaders. What ever your question in youthwork, the answer is always...

Pray

Something that is not mentioned enough in this column or in any book about youthwork. Pray for the groups, pray for individuals, pray for those teaching the Bible, pray for the effectiveness of the Bible teaching, pray that the Holy Spirit will change the young people's hearts and minds. Pray, pray, pray.

Go back to your goals

What do you mean 'you don't know what your goals are'? The old adage says that if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time! Sit down as a leadership team, or even with the young people if you are brave enough and review what your goals are. Remember what they are from a biblical perspective (Matthew 28.19-20 or Colossians 1.28-29 should help). Your goals are your long term plans. They will need to be broken into smaller steps.

Begin at the beginning

That was the advice in The Sound of Music and it is a very good place to start. Don't imagine that you are further down the track than you really are. Start with what you have got. If you only have two teenagers, see what you can do to serve them. If you only have the grandchildren of an aging congregation, look at how you can teach them well. If you get your young people excited about the Bible and the church, they will become natural evangelists, they only need the excuse to invite friends along.

Work within your resources

Don't think that you can provide enough resources for a Bible-based class, an open youth club, a social group for the Christians, small Bible study groups and 'one to one' for everyone. The majority of Christians attend smaller churches, with tight budgets and very busy people. Unfortunately books of ideas are often written by people from mega-churches. Most youth leaders and groups can't match that, so don't try. Instead do less but do it well. Work within your resources, guided by your goals. This will undoubtedly lead to conflicts of interest, but for the answer to those questions read on.

More Bible, not less

Almost all of the commonly asked questions raised about youth ministry can be given this answer. It is why churches should look for youth workers who can teach the Bible effectively. Christian youth workers who arrive waving a secular qualification are simply proving that they have misunderstood what biblical youth work is all about!

If you stick with the common view that to be appealing you have to cut out the Bible at first and introduce it later, you have fallen into a trap. You may well end up with more young people and many of them will be non-Christians. However, all you are really doing is easing the local council's burden. You may even encounter problems common to secular youth clubs such as vandalism, graffiti and fights. Long term (or perhaps sooner) you will have driven away those who might have been interested in the gospel, incurred high running costs and disillusioned the leaders.

How different it might have been if you had answered the questions with 'more Bible'. You would not be competing with local youth clubs for numbers, because you provide something that no-one else is. You would keep only those who really want to hear the gospel (answering the 'too many' problem). Those who do come you could teach soundly, they would be converted and start coming to church (answering the 'more youth in church' question). Those newly converted young people will tell their friends and growth starts. Now you have a fully-fledged Bible- based youth club on your hands.

The next time you are wracking your brains about youthwork issues try applying these five universal answers. You may at least save some of your hair from being torn out!

Roger Fawcett

© Evangelicals Now - September 2003
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