In 1993 I joined Youth for Christ on a gap year. I did this for a number of reasons - the main one being a strong sense of personal call to youth work and mission. I felt the Church wasn’t doing enough to engage with young people in mission and I felt that young people in the Church weren’t being given the responsibility and resources they needed to be active disciples. Sound familiar?
This sense of call has been the driving motivation for the jobs and roles I have taken through the whole of my working life. In 22 years of youth ministry I have lead church youth groups, been a schools worker, helped run youth events and conferences, run drop in centres, done detached youth work, developed open youth work on estates, helped churches start youth work from scratch and most recently trained others looking to do the same sort of things. In a month’s time, I will start a new job for an institution – and neither have ‘youth’ in the title.
This role is still in ministry training and it is with the Church of England, but it hasn’t stopped a few people I know ‘telling me off’ for leaving youth ministry. However, that’s exactly what I am doing. I am quitting youth ministry, and I invite you to do the same.
I want to argue that ‘youth ministry’ does not and has never existed
Six months ago Martin Saunders kicked off this blog with a call for a revolution in youth ministry, one which called for a determined workforce (including volunteers); dreamers who can re-envision the local church and a commitment to prayer to direct us. I don’t disagree with Martin on what he is calling for and I have found the comments and subsequent posts enlivening and enlightening. I haven’t seen anything revolutionary yet though. So come on, let’s revolt. Let’s do it properly. Let’s behave like proper revolutionaries who don’t protest to change the world, but change the world by the way they protest.
If you’re reading this blog then the chances are you have a similar sense of call, motivation and concern as I do to see mission with young people flourish and young people flourish as disciples and leaders. So perhaps a call to quit youth ministry seems an odd way to fulfil this vision. Well, let me try to convince you. Firstly, I want to argue that ‘youth ministry’ does not and has never existed. Youth ministry is not a real thing, but a definition of stuff we do. Unfortunately, once we boundary something as a thing, it can literally define what we do! Second, I want to suggest that for each of us there is a move to protest that involves quitting or resisting being defined ‘youth ministry’ and if we do this, we will start to see things change.
Do I believe that there are approaches of engaging with young people in mission that need to be contextually appropriate and robust? You bet. Do I think that there should be people who make pastoral care of young people and young adults the focus of their work and responsibilities? Absolutely. Am I committed to developing adequate theologies that help shape the ways we interact with young people in their search for meaning and faith, or that help us better respond to their hopes, or experiences of damage? Of course. Do I reckon that we need to plan and provide great spaces and resources for young people to meet in, connect through and use? Most definitely. Am I fed up with these tasks being labelled as youth ministry? Yes.
Each of these three broad areas of activity are both specific to work with young people and connected to broader aspects of mission and ministry. In this respect I don’t mind them being bounded as youth ministry to help us better understand and engage in these tasks. However, they also necessarily role into and rely on much broader areas of action and understanding. They also necessarily require and rest on engagement with people who aren’t young - even if we consider young people to be ‘our focus’ or ‘our clients’. This leads to two problems. The first is that those of us involved in youth ministry can ourselves be easily marginalised by the very people we should be working with to achieve our aim. The second is that we don’t realise the richness and depth of understanding and resources we actually have at our disposal to change the Church and to innovate in mission.
We probably all recognise that to engage with young people in mission we not only need to work with young people, but a whole host of ‘stakeholders’ or gatekeepers. We also have learnt the hard way that building relationships with parents and key adults in the lives of young people is vital. This is one reason why at CYM we still like the term youth and community work. There is no such thing as youth work - it can’t be done in isolation from the community in which young people are connected. Ditto with pastoral responsibilities in churches - how can you feasibly do this without also having a deep and trusting connection with families, and without being able to draw on and access wider support if required? In youth ministry and mission we are always involved more broadly and it might help to name this. If we do not do this then we can be pigeon-holed into roles that actually limit our ability to act, and which can restrict our own thinking and patterns of response.
Think about it. Do you recognise this?
Many of the successes I have seen in recent years in mission and ministry with young people are ‘held’ within broader categories and wider roles. Chaplaincy is one such example - if you’re a chaplain then you might work with young people, but teaching staff can see you both as a peer and perhaps a support to them. Family ministry is another attempt to broaden remit – though not without its own issues. Some of the best youth workers I know in churches are in all essence Associate Ministers - relied upon to lead whole areas of activity and seen as approachable and authoritative by adult members. As a youth group leader - shouldn’t this be a key ministry team role, and definitely a similar standing to home group leaders? Aren’t these groups also best seen in the whole context of the small group structures you might be operating? Some people may disagree, but when I look at the people involved in Fresh Expressions I see a lot of ex or continuing youth workers. Hopefully you get my point.
In recent years my role at CYM has meant developing greater connection to wider mission training, ministerial education and practical theology. It’s a great world to be in. There are some innovative thinkers and pioneers around at the moment in church planting, community mission and contextual and pastoral theologies of all sorts. There are also some complete…no, I’ll stay positive. These people are allies of the highest value. How else do we really get to grips with the ethics of evangelism, or reflect on the substance and form of ‘youth worship’, and how do we tackle gang crime if we don’t take a whole community approach and explore the theological and sociological implications of what we are doing? Conversely, the richness of thinking we have from youth ministry can make a valuable contribution here. In some cases it far exceeds what others are doing and thinking. So if, we want to contribute to the conversations that can shape broader transformation then we can’t just talk among ourselves. If we want our experience and expertise to be taken into account, then we have to offer it and argue our point.
I am not suggesting we give up on our calling to support and serve young people
Is quitting youth ministry then the solution? I believe so. But hear me right. I am not suggesting we give up on our calling to support and serve young people. What I believe we need to give up are our limitations to what it means to actually do this. What we need to resist and subvert are the limitations that ‘define’ the concerns and areas of responsibility we actually need to take up to fulfil our call. So, what is the role you need to take on to achieve this? What are areas of influence, or concern, that we can ally with others to affect? How do you move into these, and what does it mean you need to learn anew or express differently?
My next step is to move into a different area of ministerial training, in which I am determined not to leave my concerns and calling to ministry with young people ‘behind’. I intend to take them front and centre into my next role. In all honesty, I have never regarded what we do as ‘just youth ministry’. Mission, ministry, discipleship, theological education, apologetics, community organising, and church leadership are the things we actually do (and a whole host of other things to). My job move is just the next step I see in following my own calling and conviction - which is as strong as ever. Yours will be different, but whatever your calling and conviction, I wonder if it couldn’t be better fulfilled by ‘quitting youth ministry'. So do it. Start the revolution!
