Sorry I have been a little absent in the last couple of months. Hoping now that the youth room construction project is finished at my church I will have a little more free time on my hands. Below I have posted a blog I wrote a couple of months ago but it never found it's way onto my blog. It is directed to youth pastors, church leaders, or pastor a little more this time. I hope even if you are not one of those people you can get something from it too. Peace and love everyone. Thanks for reading.
Ministry Cannot Be Done Alone
The number one reason that youth pastors and/or leaders are not a part of a network of fellow ministry partners is that many feel that if they do not put their own church first they will get in trouble. There is this assumption that if they join a “youth ministry network” or they put on an event with other churches, somehow they are either not putting their church first, or that they will lose teens to another church. Any youth leader knows this pressure, whether it is placed on by one’s self and/or by one’s supervisor(s), but doing ministry as a part of a community of youth pastors and leaders will help you put your church first.
If you have been in ministry for longer than a minute, you know that there are hard times in ministry and life. A few blog posts ago I hoped to show how those in ministry need a community of people who care for them and experience similar things. This type of community can help a youth pastor refresh so that he or she can do ministry better, give and receive prayer when in need, so that you can support and care for those within your community or local para-church ministry better.
They Are Not Your Teens
The first step in partnering with others and doing ministry together is realizing that the teens that fill your church are not yours. It is so easy to fall into the trap of feeling like you have to do more or work harder to make teens love God or show up to youth group. Yet, the beautiful thing is that all of the students that fill your room are not there because you did something; they are there because God did something. As Romans 8:16 states, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” It is God who draws all people to himself.
As a minister of the gospel, the only thing you can do is work to partner with God in what he is doing in the world. Therefore, the youth leader’s role is not to work hard so that teens might come to God, or come to youth group, but to discern the work of God in your community. When you do this, you facilitate space for God to move in the lives of teens with the resources you have been given (to meet the needs of your church families and teens do you need this here or can it be removed?).
Check Your Pride At The Door
I once met a youth leader who ran an excellent para-church ministry. His group was growing and those around her were excited about what he was doing. One day I asked him if he would be interested in partnering with a local church to help disciple students and direction them toward a local church community. He responded, “you can come and see what I do if you want to try to replicate it, but you cannot come to take my teens.”
After my encounter with this para-church youth leader, I reflected on my own ministry history. During this time I realized that there had been moments when I had similar responses to other youth pastors or leaders who were looking to partner with me.
If every youth leader were really honest with themselves, they would admit that they are scared to lose teens to another church—I myself am guilty of this as well. At the same time, if you were honest, you would have to admit that the reason you do not want to lose kids to another church has everything to do with your own pride. Pride that you will not have good numbers, or that a teen might not like you as much as someone else. You as youth leaders need realize this and need to allow God to help you check your pride at the door. If you do not, you might start creating a youth group that more heavily emphasizes numbers, resources, a church name, and you; not God.
Pride is one of the most deadly things in ministry. It can not only hurt ministry, but it can also hurt teens. When you are prideful it becomes almost impossible to be in community with and partnership with others in ministry. You have to check your pride at the door and realize that the Kingdom of God is bigger than your ministry and/or church.
The harsh reality of this para-church leader’s ministry is that soon this person’s ministry lost funding and his ministry disappeared overnight. As I was sitting with another friend and para-church leader in my community, my friend got a call from the parent of a student who was involved in the now closed para-church ministry. The parent wanted to know what to do. She asked questions like, “where is my kid supposed to go now?” The students that went to this person’s para-church group were without a group, without a leader, and without a church community. This person made the ministry more about themselves than God’s work, and the teens suffered the consequences.
Do Events Together
The body of Christ is bigger than your church or denomination. The larger Church that God called us to is a worldwide diverse community of people and churches. Students need to understand the beauty of this reality.
Three years ago, a group of Youth Pastors and youth groups in Irvine committed to meeting every week for a summer to do youth group together in a park. Why? Because they hoped to show their students that the Church is bigger than their individual churches.
Through that event students found other Christians at their schools who they never knew were Christians. New friendships were made across denominations. New students came to know Christ, and the Body of Christ became present in such a new way to many students.
When churches do events together, God moves through the presence of his Body dwelling in community. After all, if God is present when two or three gather together, how much more is God present when two, three, or six churches come together?
Find a Balance
Please do not hear me saying that you should forsake your own youth group in order to partner with other youth groups or churches. There needs to be a healthy balance between both. There are times when your youth group just needs to be with your youth group and there are other times where it would do your youth group good to be with other churches or para-church groups. As the leader of youth, it is your job to seek God and determine what that balance looks like within your group.
Every youth pastor will have different amounts of time that he or she can give to a network. No “network” or community of youth pastors should require an “all or nothing” standard. There must be flexibility for the sake of community, because the reality is, there are times you will have to put yourself, your church or your teens first.
Conclusion
The network of youth pastors I partner with is taking these ideas seriously. We believe that when we work together to do the work of the Lord, we are creating a wide-open space for God to move. Through this network, we have seen teens come to Christ, High School campuses be transformed, and new believers become disciples who are plugged into the body of Christ. My prayer is that you see the same thing in your community as you partner with God and his local church to manifest his Kingdom.
