On their turf
As a youth pastor I long to move beyond shallow ministry, programs, and dodgeball. And I have to confess something right from the get go, I’m not sure if my ministry over the past 18 years has been very effective. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’ve wasted my time. I’ve just watched students come through our programs and it’s been kind of hit or miss. But of course when you see a student grow into an adult and they whole-heartedly follow the way of Jesus, well, there is nothing better in my book, huh?
We just had about 10 students from our previous 2 churches visit us over the course of this past summer and all of them are Christ followers – what a thrill! But for all of those students over the past 18 years who are now following Jesus, there are just as many, if not more, who didn’t make it. They left the faith and I haven’t heard from them in years. We attracted them to our youth ministry but it never became home.
It’s been just over a year now since we moved to Oregon to start a new youth ministry project. For me, this was my shot to start from scratch and think out of the box about discipleship, outreach, programming, and basically everything. Traditional youth ministry had become so predictable, stale, and ultimately no longer relevant to most of my students. I was tired of running unproductive events, sitting in meaningless meetings, and trying to inspire my students to do amazing things for Christ when I myself wasn’t even doing that. I asked them to be salt and light, to take their campus for Christ, but I myself was just sitting on the sidelines.
So here we are in Oregon, one year later, and I have to tell you it’s been amazing. We joined a church that truly has a heart to reach and serve the city. To actually be salt and light and to let go of the old attraction based ministry and to get off of the Hill (city on a hill?) and begin to meet felt needs in our community. The first thing I wanted to do was to try and find out what the schools in our city needed: What their struggles were and what dreams they had, but ultimately didn’t have the manpower or the finances to see them become reality. So I met with the county commissioner, the mayor, city officials, and the administrators in our city. Just asking them how we could serve – no strings attached, no agenda – just plain and simple – make their jobs easier. What blew me away was that they said no one had ever asked this question. If that’s not a sin, I’m not sure what is.
So I need to make a long story short. We are now running the school assemblies, service projects, video and media classes, DJ all dances (I have never DJed before… ever), and I attend the student government classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to help them plan all of their school’s activities. I want to tell you a whole lot more but I guess I’ll have to wait until the convention – I’d love to share this stuff with you.
Here it is in a nutshell, I wanted to stop running competing programs with my students’ schools and just run their schools’ programs – hey, they are already there anyway and I get to meet their friends on their turf. And then at church, I am able to focus on discipleship, mentoring, spiritual formation, and of course dodgeball. Oh, excuse me, Xtreme dodgeball.
Brock Morgan is a member of the Youth Specialties Core training team and has been working with students for the past 18 years. He is an exciting and popular speaker for retreats and camps and lives in Oregon with his wife, daughter, and labradoodle. They are a year in to launching a ministry to the city of Salem where they are loving students and serving the city in new and innovative ways. He loves to play Madden football, hang with his wife and daughter, and he welcomes all-comers on Facebook.
September 23rd, 2008 - Posted By: Adam McLane in Guest Blogger | |
