A couple of years ago, away from Gotham City, I made a decision not to take my youth group to Soul Survivor that summer. I decided that this group of teenagers didn’t need another ‘experience’ or another Christian bubble, but to be moved out of their comfort zone. (Important caveat: I love Soul Survivor and the impact it has on young people, and fully believe in it.) We had already been to another Christian festival that year and I felt like an opportunity to serve would be beneficial and provide a nice balance. When I shared this news, it was massively unpopular among the young people (and not universally agreed upon by other leaders). Soul Survivor was a highlight of the year; the ones who had been before missed it and the ones who were only now old enough to go felt like they were being denied an opportunity. Instead, I found a small mission trip for us to go on, a chance to break out of the relative comfort of Shepton Mallet and serve the real world in a vaguely unthreatening manner. It seemed perfect. It seemed like the right thing to do. 

Ahead of the cultural curve as ever - Youthwork’s Jamie Cutteridge shares some key lessons we can learn from Gotham’s greatest hero 

No one wanted to go. Despite some initial excitement, when it came to the deadline for the forms we didn’t get any in. I can’t say to what extent it was influenced by their annoyance at not going to Soul Survivor - it may have been seen as threatening to go out and ‘do something’ or I may have just not encouraged them enough in the right direction. Clearly, it wasn’t a popular decision. But it was the right one. 

If we give young people the youth work they want, we sell them short 

Around the same time, there was a young person who put himself forward for baptism. At the end of the course I had a conversation with the church’s pastor about the baptisms, who was ready, and, more critically, who wasn’t. A couple of teenagers had come to the conclusion that they weren’t quite in the right place yet, and a few were obviously ready. These were the easy decisions. And there was this other young person. He thought he was good to go. The pastor didn’t. I was caught in the middle, but edging slightly towards my pastor’s viewpoint. I knew that saying no to this person would upset them, no matter how affirming we were, no matter how we framed it. And predictably, it wasn’t taken well. The fella took it as a personal insult – as us saying that he wasn’t good enough. It rocked his faith. It made him question his involvement with the church. It was really tough. He disappeared from the youth group for a while, and still hasn’t been baptised. But even after that, I know we made the right call. I know the time wasn’t right for this guy to get baptised and I know he’d have regretted it later on. I know that we gave him what he needed, not what he wanted, even when it hurt.

If I’m brutally honest I’m probably less popular with some of those young people than I was when I joined their church. I haven’t been the youth worker some of them wanted. But, I’ve tried to be the one they need ed. There were times when I took young people out of positions of leadership because of the impact it was having on them; decisions that came after conversation, deliberation and prayer. We re-organised the way sessions ran, the way we split up groups, and some of the nitty gritty details. And then there were the things we got rid of - those traditions within the group which had started off with all the right intentions but turned into golden calves, trips that became far more about the event or activity themselves than seeking God. The things that needed to go. None of these decisions were popular. And to be honest, not all of them were the right decisions. Not all of them panned out how I had planned, and not all of them had the impact we had hoped or desired they would have. But this I do know: we did these things for the right reasons; we did them because we felt that’s where God was leading us, not because it’s what the young people wanted.

Unpopular prophets

I’ve been reading the prophecy books of the Bible recently. I really enjoy how unpopular they made themselves, how they were willing to say the things that needed to be said, and do the things that needed to be done, irrespective of how it was received. They told the people to repent, told kings to sort themselves out, decried cultures, lived with prostitutes, preached to enemies and caused heaps of trouble. They brought God’s word to the people, and the people wanted a different word. In Isaiah 30:10 it says: ‘They (the Israelites) tell the prophets,“Don’t tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies.”’ The prophets of old were the messengers of God, and staggeringly unpopular. They were the prophets that the Israelites needed, not the ones they wanted.

Later on, the Jews expected a messiah to save them from Roman colonialism. As it turns out, he wasn’t a hero leading an army but a humble carpenter’s son. He wasn’t the man to overthrow Roman colonialism, wasn’t the man to expand the Jewish empire. He picked the dregs and losers of society to join his inner circle. He couldn’t have been further from the Jews messianic expectations. Time and time again, God subverts the wants of his people and shows his omniscient divinity. Jesus, this rabbi from a town in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dropouts, traitors and terrorists isn’t what the Jews wanted.

Even on a micro level, Jesus rarely gave people the answers they wanted. ‘Hey Jesus, how many times should I forgive someone?’ ‘Loads.’ ‘Hey Jesus, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Sell everything you have.’ No biggy. Let’s do a short compare and contrast exercise: ‘Hey [youth worker] do I need to come to church on Sunday?’ ‘Nah, it’s fine, it’s not really aimed at you, don’t worry about it.’ Important note – I’m not saying church on Sunday is the be all and end all. Are we so fearful of scaring people away from the Kingdom that we’ve removed the sacrificial, giving-him-everything element that Jesus was pretty clear about? Jesus wasn’t the messiah they wanted, he was the messiah they needed.

Unpopular YOUTH WORK

Just like the prophets, youth workers should be pointing out the awkward truths, the hypocrisy and the areas where the church is failing. Prophets said what people needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear. Where do we need to be speaking truth? Prophets didn’t play it safe, prophets weren’t worried about alienating people, prophets weren’t people pleasers.

One of the key things I have learnt over the past two years is the importance of questioning why we do what we do. It is so dangerous to keep doing things because ‘that’s what works’ or ‘that’s what we’ve always done’. It’s crucial to regularly sit down, discuss, and pray about all your ministry encompasses, and work out why you do it and if it’s working. Ultimately, the reality is that God knows what we need far more than we do. That’s the nature of prayer, of God’s intervention, of his plans. I have no idea what is best for me. I know what I want, but rarely do I get it. If we give young people the youth work they want, then we sell them short. We need to be praying for our young people. It sounds obvious but if we’re not coming before God seeking his will in their life, how will we truly know what they need?

That’s not to say that young people shouldn’t be involved in shaping youth work. Far from it. I believe that a youth work prayerfully shaped by young people is more powerful, dynamic and relevant in their culture than anything designed by an employed youth worker. But that doesn’t mean they get what they want.

Maybe what we need is a little bit more self-confidence. God has put us in a position of leadership, and has appointed us pastors, stewards and disciplers. God believes in us and Jesus said that we would do greater things through him. Sometimes your gut instinct will be right. Sometimes that inkling you feel is from God, and the very thing that may make everyone feel uncomfortable is exactly what the church needs to hear. Sometimes the unpopular decision is what our youth work is missing. 

Let’s not hide the gospel under a pool table or between two games of table tennis 

THE BALANCING ACT

As with so much of youth ministry, there’s a delicate balance to be struck. I want the youth work I’m involved in to be fun, to be a good place to be. Of course I want all of those things. It’s not always a clear dichotomy between what they want and what they need. Saying this, we need to be careful not to hide the gospel under a pool table or between two games of table tennis. There’s also nothing wrong with popularity per se - it’s nice to be liked and appreciated, especially by those we minister to. But it’s all too easy to justify it to ourselves by saying that it’s ‘really important to be popular in order to effectively build relationships and point young people towards Jesus.’ Spoiler alert: – Jesus was killed by the people he came to save. Jesus was not popular. So why do we need to be popular? I’ve told myself this lie and lusted after popularity - and it has damaged me, my youth work and my young people. I think it’s the need to be popular and liked that can undermine so much of our ministry.

We end in Gotham city. ‘I’m whatever Gotham needs me to be,’ Batman says before disappearing into the night. The role of the youth worker is similar. We’re flexible beasts; sometimes we preach, sometimes we teach, we inform, we comfort, we love, we discipline, we guide, we laugh. We do what the situation demands. Batman isn’t popular. Batman takes the blame for a lot of what goes wrong in Gotham City. As youth workers sometimes we need to be unpopular; we need to be the palatable face of the church, and young people will sometimes disagree with the church. We need to make the tough decisions that young people don’t want us to make. Be less popular, be more like Batman.