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Missionaries and Youth Workers Working Together

After 20 years of working as both a missionary and a youth worker, I’ve come to realize that these two groups have more in common than either of them would normally think.

To start with, both vocations suffer from negative stereotypes. They even tend to project these negative stereotypes towards each other. Most of us are offended to hear youth ministry characterized as a kind of glorified entertainment program run by superficial, trendy, physically attractive, somewhat immature, young adults who normally have strong athletic or musical (but certainly not intellectual) interests in their background. As one veteran missionary put it to me, “When you want to get serious about real ministry (church planting) give our mission a call.”

If you think that stereotype is unfair, just ask yourself what you might expect if someone said that you were having dinner with a visiting missionary. You might imagine a kind of super-spiritual geek who was so in touch with the Lord that he or she had lost a great deal of contact with social reality. The two stereotypes are really opposites. Who could be more in touch with their own emerging culture than good youth workers? Who could be more out of touch with their culture of origin than good missionaries? Whatever image might come to mind as you approached that dinner appointment, you almost certainly wouldn’t expect to meet another youth worker.

This lack of contact is a shame, especially in light of the fact that there are a billion (literally) young people out here in the world beyond professional “youth ministry land” and, in most places, the population is getting younger all the time. In addition, with the globalization of youth culture, young people all over the world are facing the pressures of media influence, family breakdown, massification in schooling systems, etc.—all problems that helped create the need for youth ministry in western cultures. Missionaries who understand the dynamic interaction between youth culture and different kinds of societies are needed to help churches face these global challenges. But in order to do so, they have to be well-trained as both youth workers and missionaries.

McMissions

The one context in which youth ministry and cross-cultural missions often come into contact is through short-term mission trips, or what one writer has called “McMissions.” These ministry events are currently the major tool for motivating both young people and adults toward increased interest and involvement in missions. However, they also can present an unbalanced view of the overall task of missions, just as drive-through fast-food cuisine often presents an unbalanced view of nutrition.

“We handed out a ton of food and clothing to all those poor people.” (Never mind the fact that this initiative may have helped bankrupt several local businesses or that the items were later sold at a local market for a good profit.) “We went with these American doctors and nurses to set up an eye clinic and they treated 500 people in only a week’s time.” (Unfortunately many of the conditions they found required longterm care but the local physicians moved out of town when they found it too difficult to recover from the sudden foreign competition.) “We did this pantomime and music performance in the streets, and 500 people made decisions for Christ.” (Unfortunately none of these new Christians could be found in the local churches a week later.) “It was unbelievable how open and loving the missionaries and the local Christians were to us.” (Undoubtedly they were sincere, but they may have funded their entire year’s activities off the revenue generated by caring for that single short-term team.)

Obviously not all short-term trips have these kinds of problems, but the sheer volume of the demand for them increases the likelihood of these unintended consequences. Setting up a good trip requires a real understanding of the local situation and careful planning. If the current trend toward short-term work continues, there will soon be few long-term missionaries left to set up the trips. Ideally the trip should fit into a long-term strategy in which youth ministers and missionaries develop a relationship with each other and a thorough understanding of the tasks that each of them is attempting to do in the kingdom.

To be effective, short-term trips need to be built on long-term relationships. In the process, both youth workers and missionaries may discover that they have a whole lot more in common than their respective stereotypes would have led them to believe. That would be a good thing for both ministries.

Mark Dodrill lives in Castelldefels, Spain, where he directs the ministry of Youth for Christ for that country and teaches youth ministry, Christian education, and missions at the Instituto Bíblico y Seminario Teológico de España. He is co-editor of the GrupoJoven collection, 44 titles of material for youth evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training that are distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world.