What a crazy time to be in right now! When thinking about what to write, it’s hard to think of anything other than this lock down we are in. I sit here and think…alone in my room because I can’t go out anywhere. There were times I didn’t want to go out of my house to do ministry, so I’d find an excuse or I’d be upset about having to go do it. Now I want nothing more than to hang out with my students. It’s for sure a hard time for all of us. We have been thrust into sudden changes and sudden changes are almost never fun. So, we can either give up and sit in front of the tv and snack away our time, or we can adapt and change and overcome.
Read MoreThis is the first week that schools, government agencies and churches are experiencing closures and the broader social impact of Covid-19. The young people in your church and community are feeling this acutely, as their schedules are likely the most impacted with extended spring breaks, courses shifting to online format, and stress at home as other realities impact parents.
Even though in-person gatherings may be disrupted for some period of time, students and college adults will have extra time on their hands as they are home from school and activities. Empower small group leaders to be in regular contact with them throughout the coming weeks, taking advantage of their increased availability. Find creative ways to connect with them yourself. You can increase the relational connection with other leaders and fellow students even if in-person gatherings are temporarily suspended.
Read MoreLife as normal might come to a grinding halt from time to time, but ministry never does. Now, amid COVID-19 self-isolation, event cancellations, school closures, work from home etc., is our opportunity to practice long-distance ministry skills and remind the young people in our churches of our ongoing love and care. I want to give you some suggestions for online discipleship in the coming week(s).
Some benefits to online discipleship in this season…
1. No one has schedules at the moment! No school, sport, parties, performances - everyone has time to (virtually) meet with you.
2. The COVID-19 shutdown is a great excuse to follow up and re-connect with some young people who have not been attending youth group/Bible study regularly.
3. You can bring calm and peace at a time of anxiety. It is pretty obvious that all the adults are panicking (just take a look at the grocery aisles) Help your young people who are experiencing anxiety during this time and give them someone to talk with.
4. Be reminded of what youth ministry is all about – passing on the faith (Psalm 78:1-7) – with no need of all the bells and whistles.
It’s amazing what fun we can have with awkward headlines! Without any clarifiers we don’t know where the emphasis belongs. This results in multiple possible meanings, which can be humorous. What does that have to do with youth ministers? Simple. Without the right emphasis, youth ministry falls into the blur of church life and then leaves youth ministers with a harder task of making dynamic ministry happen.
Consider the following two possibilities:
This weird thing started to happen.
I work in a downtown church. It’s 150 years old (this year!). The congregation is an interesting mix of solid biblical believers and people who come because it’s the socially acceptable down-town church. (I know I can’t judge the motivations of anyone’s heart. But I think I can call the families who attend church less than once a quarter some of the least committed.)
It makes sense that we’d see the children of the most committed families in youth group, but we almost never saw the children of these least committed.
For my whole career, I’ve worked to try to get kids like these involved. I’ve done personal invitations. I’ve taken them to coffee and lunch. I still pray for them and try to engage them in conversation when they do show up at church but there’s been so little result that I’ve sort of given up on a lot of them. And I’ve seldom seen a teenager who’s not taking their faith seriously in high school, suddenly start taking their faith seriously in college.
Now we’re getting to the weird thing.
No, I’m not talking about the Lion King! That’s a funny way to think about things…
In Christian Education circles though there is something that is called the Natural Learning Process. This offers a great means through which students learn. Learning style expert Bernice McCarthy (1996) has fostered this theory in which she suggests that each student has a unique way of learning. In order to successfully promote great learning we, as teachers and youth pastors, ought to lead students through the entire process. She posits four steps in the Natural Learning Process.
I have always been picky when it comes to inviting musicians to lead in youth ministry events. It started in my first job as a youth director working with what was at the time known as “alpha teens”. These are students whose taste in things like music are ahead of the trends. I dared not invite any cheesy bands lest I lose credibility and see our numbers plummet.
Now I run youth events for an Anglican diocese (regional collection of 50 churches), which I’ve been doing for more than 17 years. Worship music is a key component to what we do on our weekend events, which have ranged from 75 to nearly 400 hundred students depending on the event. There are plenty of musicians interested in playing for us but few that I will draw on.
Read MoreWhen one of my volunteer leaders told me about an upcoming life change, I was excited for her even though it meant she was going to step down from youth ministry. When my second leader told me they also had life changes that would require stepping down, my excitement was not quite as high. When my third leader in so many weeks shared exciting news that would require stepping down, I had to work hard to keep my poker face. Of course, I was happy for each one of them, but losing three quarters of my leaders in the span of a few weeks left me with conflicted emotions. I had spent almost two years working to put this team together and all my work was falling apart.
Read MoreIt’s probably a combination of a strength and a weakness, but the flow of my youth ministry gatherings have always depended on the willing participation of the students who are there. Because of that, I am not known for what you might call “classroom discipline.” I’ve counted on the group having an internal motivation for listening to instructions, waiting until appropriate times to ask questions, and generally keep order, usually because they respect me or at least value what we are doing as a group.
This means that when I have students who are a bit more...disruptive….I don’t naturally know what to do. The typical cycle of emotions for me is bewilderment, frustration, anger, flustered, and confusion.
It’s not a great look.