youth group stuff

Transformation

by Jacob Smith
posted on 2005-10-20

For far to long we that do youth leadership have been content to have a static youth ministry. A youth ministry that is focused on creating memories and providing a positive peer group for our youth. That time needs to end.

While creating fond memories and a group of friends our youth parents feel comfortable with is all well and good I believe we are called to a more radical understanding of what it means to do youth ministry. I believe we are called to be engaged in transformational ministry with the youth God has blessed us with.

This kind of ministry has the explicit goal of changing young people. When we talk about changing people’s live most people are decidedly and rationally apprehensive. Our youth are at an impressionable stage of their lives when they are with us and we must not abuse that power. So the key is letting go of our wants and desires for change and trusting that given the space God will act in our lives to change us. That is the transformation we are looking for in youth minstry, that God may change us so that we may change the world around us.

One need not look far to find an example of what we should be seeking to achieve in our ministry. We only need to look to the example of the disciples and their time with Jesus before his death and resurrection. Jesus was very truly about transforming the world.

Christ called 12 common people to leave all of their early possessions and follow him. The followed the call but many more did not. In Matthew 8:18-22 two would be followers tell Jesus that they wish to go with Him. What does Christ require of them? Does he say sure, here’s the signup sheet. No. He tell the one that there will be no rest. To the other he is even more direct. This man wants to bury his father, but Jesus bids him to leave the dead behind and “let the dead bury their own dead.”

Can you imagine the uproar if you took this attitude to youth group events. When a youth asked to leave for a sports event or for another activity you refused. Parents would be in an uproar.

I once had a mother call and chastise because we had published an incorrect date for an event her son wanted to attend. When the correct date was published he had something at school. Imagine if I had responded to her as Christ did.

Christ called this would be disciple into radical transformation, he was not able to make that commitment and so Jesus went on his way. Of course that is not exactly what I am suggesting. I am not suggesting we should say to a youth who has to leave an event early, “let the dead bury their own.” I am suggesting that we need to be about that sentiment. That walking with Christ means leaving an old self behind.

I also don’t believe this is something that happens overnight. As a Lutheran I do believe that I was claimed by God as part of God’s family at my baptism, but that isn’t the end of the story – and praise be to God for that! It was only the beginning of a life full of choices, choices where I need to respond to God’s gifts of grace and eternal life with obedience, but where I often choose my own way.

It is this daily striving that is so radical in today’s world. We don’t like thinking about our lives as daily struggles that we know are futile, but that is what I believe Christ calls us to. I believe God in the Gospel calls us to be in community with God and that community requires a reliance on God’s grace and love.

Calling youth into that community requires transformation and faith formation. As those who are called to minister to youth we are asked to be part of the community and conversation around youth’s lives at a pivotal point in their development. God has given us a great opportunity and responsibility to be faithful to these youth and to be speaking the Gospel to them.

We must see this opportunity as a time for transformation, the Gospel by its very nature transforms. When not watered down to fit our sensibilities and comfort levels it reaches into to our lives and calls us to something different, something new.

Many of the youth God has entrusted to you have heard and felt this from a very early age, for others this will be new and for still others it may be so foreign that they can not truly understand it. But it will be there. If you build your ministry around the Gospel it will be there, God has promised us that.

So my call and prayer is that you would be about transformational ministry. The subtitle of this article is “we play with live ammo” the power of the Gospel is certainly alive in the person of the Holy Spirit. If God chooses to move in your ministry, and I believe God will if you choose to make space for God, then be prepared.

Know that you are not alone in this work, there are hundreds if not thousands of other youth workers going on this journey with you. Most importantly know that God is with you and if you trust in that I can not tell you where your ministry will go, but I do know it will be to places that you or I do not know, but there is One who has been there waiting for us.

I for one hope that we all we be there to join in the transformation.

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