Monthly youth leaders column

When terms like vision and values are mentioned, some argue that we are introducing the world’s thinking into God’s work.

I have some sympathy with that as management-speak is all around us and it is easy to do things for wrong reasons. But it is hard to believe that vision is not involved in Jesus’s statement to go into all the world to make disciples. That is a huge vision and one which many feel we may have lost. Paul’s vision clearly drove him into Asia Minor and on into Greece and beyond, so that people of every nation should hear the gospel.

The need for balance

Sometimes a vision is set and then remains set in stone. We decided to do that and that’s how it’s going to be until the Lord returns. One thing is clear from Paul’s ministry is that he set himself to move in certain directions but was always prepared to listen to God’s voice and change the plan. His call to Macedonia was clear evidence of that.

But a vision is helpful for the working of a team. It was Bill Hybels who used the profound phrase ‘vision leaks’ and needs topping up on a regular basis if the team are to be clear about their objectives. So we must go on articulating our purpose but remain sensitive to God’s leading of our ministry into areas that we failed to anticipate.

Articulating vision

Some have found it very hard to clarify their vision. Why does everybody turn up every week to be with young people in our church? Is it a social activity? Are we seeking to hold on to our young people because we fear what will happen to them if they leave? Do we just give them a talk each week? I once visited an open church youth group that was experiencing some difficulty with the unity of their team. Some of the leaders felt that the short talk in the middle of the evening was the key moment. Others thought that the ‘God spot’ interrupted the flow of the evening and should be dropped. Others thought the club was a waste of time and should be scrapped. The team had never sorted out why they turned out every Friday evening and that mixture of expectations was a recipe for disaster — and it was.

A case study

Take a group of 20 15-to-18-year-olds. Some are keen, committed Christians — others come because their parents say they have to be there. Some of the group are regular attendees, others rather spasmodic. Motivation seems low — leaders turn up week by week but they’re not sure why. My first move would be to establish the purpose of every group meeting. The teaching meeting is there to teach young people what is in God’s Word — it may have other fellowship aims but its primary intention is clear. After their hour with us we want them to have been exposed to clear teaching. That teaching may raise questions which we need to address. We then need a few small groups where we engage with their questions and where any question is valid. If we have a social gathering it is to introduce friends of our youth group to what the group is all about. But for each meeting we all know why we’ve turned up.

Ways in and ways through

That simple phrase embodied what we sought to do in our youth group. We wanted young people in the group to stay there so that they could hear more of the good news and grow into mature believers. But we wanted ways in for those who were not believers. A Christian youth group can never be closed — it must always have room for more. But the phrase gave us a simple reminder of what the group was about.

At the most basic level, we all need to sit down with our teams and thrash out what we are doing and why. Do some of our meetings need to be dropped so we can focus our energy on the meetings that achieve something? One of the things churches find hardest is to drop meetings that haven’t served any useful purpose for years. Often the reasons for retaining such meetings are solidly linked to ancient traditions and rarely to do with well thought out vision.

Volunteer leaders are very busy people these days and do not like to waste their energy on pointless activity. Many of our volunteers work in the secular world where their vision is clearly defined. The Bible gives us authority to ask the question — ‘what are we doing and why?’ and to take the appropriate action to sharpen up our act.

Next month we will look at values.

Dave Fenton

© Evangelicals Now - February 2006
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