For, Not against
1/9/2008
A couple of months ago I was speaking at a conference for denominational youth
workers—they came from more than 20 countries around the world. The organizers
asked me to talk about the future of youth ministry. I told them I’d take my best
swing at it, but even my wife seems unpredictable to me, so I’d have to be pretty
arrogant to predict the future of youth ministry, right?
I did, however, promise to lay on the table my hopes for the future of youth ministry. And central to those is this guiding imperative: “Let’s focus on what we’re for, not on what we’re against.”
That day, I divided the room in half and had youth leaders each find a partner. Then I challenged pairs on one side to list things the church is against, and pairs on the other side to list things the church is for. After two minutes I had the pair with the longest list on both sides read them aloud. Then I asked the whole group: “Which list would people who are outside the church be more familiar with?” They had no doubt: “Against!” they screamed out.
Here’s the sad fact: In a culture that’s slowly sliding toward a post-Christian worldview, about the only thing people know about Christians today is what we’re against. We don't need another acronym, but I’ll propose one anyway—it’s WWJF, which stands for “What Was Jesus For”? This is exactly what he was trying to communicate when he told the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13. In it, Jesus is essentially saying, “Don’t pay attention to the bad stuff in life—the weeds; instead, concentrate on nurturing the good stuff—I’ll take care of the bad stuff later on.” Translated for youth ministry, this means we work hard to plant what we’re “for” in kids (the wheat) and pretty much don’t stress about extracting what we’re against (the weeds). How can we obsessively focus on what we’re for, not what we’re against? Here are three examples.
I did, however, promise to lay on the table my hopes for the future of youth ministry. And central to those is this guiding imperative: “Let’s focus on what we’re for, not on what we’re against.”
That day, I divided the room in half and had youth leaders each find a partner. Then I challenged pairs on one side to list things the church is against, and pairs on the other side to list things the church is for. After two minutes I had the pair with the longest list on both sides read them aloud. Then I asked the whole group: “Which list would people who are outside the church be more familiar with?” They had no doubt: “Against!” they screamed out.
Here’s the sad fact: In a culture that’s slowly sliding toward a post-Christian worldview, about the only thing people know about Christians today is what we’re against. We don't need another acronym, but I’ll propose one anyway—it’s WWJF, which stands for “What Was Jesus For”? This is exactly what he was trying to communicate when he told the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13. In it, Jesus is essentially saying, “Don’t pay attention to the bad stuff in life—the weeds; instead, concentrate on nurturing the good stuff—I’ll take care of the bad stuff later on.” Translated for youth ministry, this means we work hard to plant what we’re “for” in kids (the wheat) and pretty much don’t stress about extracting what we’re against (the weeds). How can we obsessively focus on what we’re for, not what we’re against? Here are three examples.
- Engage kids with the real person of Jesus— everything he does, we’re for. Three years ago my friend Ned Erickson, who’s creating our "Bible Study" section in GROUP this year, shared with me something he calls The Progression: “Get to know Jesus well because the more you know him, the more you’ll love him. And the more you love him, the more you’ll want to follow him. And the more you follow him, the more you’ll become like him. And the more you become like him, the more you become he had in mind when he created them—but the Progression is also an invitation...“get to know Jesus well.” Jesus created the models and boundaries of truth organically, by living out the truth.
- Emphasize “doing” more than “knowing.” George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis’ spiritual mentor, said this: “One chief cause of the amount of unbelief in the world is, that those who have seen something of the glory of Christ, set themselves to theorize concerning him rather than to obey him. In teaching men, they have not taught them Christ, but taught them about Christ.” MacDonald’s guiding philos- ophy was “do the next good thing you know to do.” That's why I’m always telling youth leaders to bring their kids to a Group Workcamps experience (www .groupworkcamps.com). It’s not just that kids are working their tails off to make life safer and better for the poor (that alone pleases Jesus), but they’re also moved toward a deeper yielded-ness to Jesus through on-site devotions and an evening program that sets just the right environment for going deeper.
- Submit to more rigorous training. I have a friend who’s been leader of a denomination’s youth ministry office for years. I’m always impressed whenever I meet a youth pastor from his denomination. That's because my friend has emphasized ongoing training for them—he not only encourages it, he hooks them up. Training can look like formal education (go to www.aymeducators.org for more on that), or it can look like the kind of thing we do at our National Youth Ministry Conference. We’re aiming for deeper transformation, more intimate community, and a lot of laughter. And I’d love to meet you there in Cincinnati in a couple of months—for more info, check it out at Conference.YouthMinistry.com. If the “wheat” represented by these three examples grows tall, the harvest will feed your soul and your ministry. Remember, Jesus has the dirty hands of a gardener...he’ll take care of the weeds.
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