I believe we are still living on borrowed time - the vast majority of churches in the UK have no formal youth work but we have a golden opportunity to start thinking differently and to shape the next 25 years of youth work across Britain.
The last 25 years have seen a growth in professionalism: the bar has been raised, we have moved from certificates to bachelors, to MAs, and youth ministry has become, in some ways, institutionalised. Have we perhaps over-complicated things? What would it look like to get back to basics, keeping it simple with limited resources and ensuring that it can, in the main, be volunteer-driven? (I am in no way knocking qualifications in youth ministry - I am all for them!) There will always be a place for paid youth workers with ministry qualifications – and wherever possible we should push for that – but the vast majority of youth work will most likely need to be movement led and organic in nature rather than professional and organisational in structure.
Even in the national charity that I serve, we wrestle with the question of what does it look like to be an organisation in structure yet with the heart-beat of a movement? Churches with no youth ministry are in some ways at a much greater advantage when trying to break new ground as movements. If we take the early Church as our example, there are five basic principles we can learn about being a movement which should help focus over the next few decades.
Have we over-complicated things? What would it look like to get back to basics?
MOVEMENTS HAVE CLEAR INTENTION
‘You will be my witnesses,’ Acts 1:8.
The early Church had a clear calling to share Jesus and establish the church. Youth work today needs to recognise that it has two primary roles: to reach young people with the gospel and to disciple them in the faith within a church context.
MOVEMENTS HAVE A GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS
‘…in all of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the world’ Acts 1:8.
The commission was to start within the city and work outwards. Clear geographical mandates will provide much-needed focus. Establishing a youth group next to a particular high school or housing estate or in the heart of a small town or even borough provides clarity about who you are reaching out to and from where.
MOVEMENTS ARE INCLUSIVE
‘People from all over the world in Jerusalem heard the gospel in their own language’ Acts 2:5-6.
Youth ministry needs to be focusing on the ‘every’ young person within the geographical mandate set; it can’t be based upon a certain type of young person but must seek the ‘every’ and be focussed on who God is moving and working through. We need to respond to opportunities and exclude nobody. We may start with a particular focus such as young people from church families, to young people connected to churched teens, to young people from a particular school and so on, but no one should be excluded from the cause within the chosen geographical mandate.
MOVEMENTS ARE BASED FROM PRAYER
‘The believers met together regularly for teaching, fellowship, communion and prayer’ Acts 2:42.
Prayer should never be the afterthought but must be the foundation to everything and anything related to youth ministry. Through prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit the very future of both outreach and discipleship should be established for the ministry.
MOVEMENTS ARE BORN OUT OF SHARING RESOURCES
‘All the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had’ Acts 2:44.
The Church movement was both able to grow and be sustainable through the generosity of people sharing everything they had for the common cause. Churches are rich in resources in ways beyond merely finances, such as people with their different giftings.
In order for youth ministry to be established as movements within churches which have no current youth work activity, there needs to be a clear vision, with geographical boundaries, focused on all young people, with a progressive focus which needs to be born out of prayer and sharing resources such as volunteers, a place to meet and inexpensive teach tools like ‘Rock Solid’ or their own produced materials.
Organic youth ministry requires simplicity. Calling churches to put youth ministry back on the agenda does not necessarily mean a high price tag but rather a commitment and intention. The next 25 years must hear the rally cry back to basics by making a clear declaration, ‘The Church has a strong future because it is investing in young people!’
