Phenomenology studies “that which appears” from the first person point of view.

When I entered youth ministry, I promised myself that I would take a long and hard look (aka observation and assessment) on what phenomenas were transpiring in the youth ministry in which I was serving.  I would do this observation and assessment by simply asking:  What seems to be automatically showing up in my youth ministry without my intentional and programmatic effort?  I would greatly benefit from this reflection because it allowed me to better learn the landscape of my student ministry even if it meant I had to change major programmatic pieces.

A youth ministry phenomena is a particular way(s) God is/was appearing in and through your students, youth ministry, and church.  Self observation and ministry assessment help lead youth pastors to discern what is appearing in their youth ministry. If ministry assessment and self observation are not practiced, youth pastors will never know how and where God is organically moving.

Assessment exposes what is really happening, which encourages the youth pastor to either change the course or continue on the course. All throughout the Bible God is always “appearing” (John 20, 21, Matthew 1, Exodus 3, 1 John 3.2-3, Luke 24, Genesis 18, Mark 16, 1 Kings 19, Numbers 16, Exodus 24, and Joshua 5) in obscure places.  For example:  burning bush, top of a mountain, on side roads, Bethlehem, weddings, and Samaria.  So does this mean God is appearing in weird places in our youth ministry?

My assumption: God is appearing in our youth ministries.

My question: But where exactly is He appearing?

There is no specific scientific hypothesis to test if God is working or appearing in and through your youth ministry.  There is no set model that can promise God will appear and reveal himself to our students, which means youth pastors have to quarterly schedule a time to observe how and where God is moving in their youth ministry.  The beauty about the philosophical idea of phenomenology is that it highly encourages student pastors to take a honest first hand look on how God is appearing or showing up in their youth ministry.

My fear: Our youth ministries are so inherently busy and programmatic we are NOT observing where God is appearing in our youth ministries which only leaves God to work on the outskirts.

My theory: The more and more I thought about how God appeared and worked in my youth ministry context, the more and more I realized that God was predominantly working on the fringes of my youth ministry context.  God was showing up on the outside edges of my youth ministry. It is difficult to admit God is working on the perimeter because “apparently” the action is always suppose to happen in the center.  But in my experience God was not always front and center but rather revealing Himself on the borders of my youth group.

As I studied Jesus’ 3 years of high action packed ministry, I concluded Jesus FIRST went directly to the outskirts of Jerusalem to perform His most powerful redemptive miracles.  Then towards the later portion of His ministry, Jesus traveled into Jerusalem to make His final statement–that He is the Son of God.  So does this mean God may be highly working on the sidelines in our youth ministries?

My questions to youth pastors:

How are we overlooking God’s activity in our youth ministry?

Would you agree that God is more likely to work on the fringes than being in the “obvious and predictable” places?  Why or why not?

How do we honor God’s work in our youth group?

A missional youth ministry highly values understanding (contextualization) and serving the local community.  In the youth ministry world, school campuses is where our students spend most of their time.  Having Jesus at the school campus, would only make logical and missional sense.  In my last post Youth Ministry In Culture, I argued one of the key components of transforming culture is serving the good of the local schools.

Traditionally churches and schools have a bad relationship.  In our culture, churches don’t have an instant street cred.  Let me say it another way:  people don’t give a rats butt that you are from a church.  Unfortunately churches have a credibility problem. 

My Assumptions:

Youth pastors enjoy….

- spending a lot of time at school campuses.

- being outward focused.

- taking their youth ministry outside of the church walls.

- going on “their” turf.

There is a right and wrong way to serve the good of the school for Jesus.

Wrong Way

- forcefully protesting and filing lawsuits against non-Christian curriculum (i.e. sex education, evolution, and religion history)

-  serve with attachments

-  demand instant respect and credibility

-  expect that prayer is welcome

-  talk trash about atheistic teachers–especially science teachers

Right Way

-  serve without conditions

-  offer free tutoring sessions

-  take prayer walks around campus

- pick up trash around school campus

-  become a substitute teacher

- attend school board meetings

- serve breakfast (doughnuts) outside of the school before it starts

-  donate $$ to school relate activities

-  if school has open lunch (students get to leave campus) host a lunch @ church

-  offer to chaperon after school activities/dances

-  attempt to coach a sport/activity

- respect school’s boundaries and laws such as preaching to students, passing out tracts, etc.

-  allow church building to be a resource for the school

-  schedule intentional meetings with school counselors, principal, and teachers asking the question how your organization can help without getting in the way

-  set up a “Christian Club” on campus

Homework

1.  How involved is your youth ministry at the school?

2.  Does your local school think your church is annoying or accepting?

3. How many Christians (teachers, students, and other staff) are at the school?

4.  Do your local schools need to see more Jesus?

Don’t forget it is not against the law to be praying people serving the good of the school

Fuller Youth Institute translates research into resources for youth and family ministry.  Honestly, Fuller Youth Institute is brilliant and does a wonderful job making youth ministry research fun and practical.  Also if you are around next Tuesday, January 12 at 11:00 AM PST please join FYI for a live online interview with Kara Powell to discuss the new book Essential Leadership.

__________________________________________________________________

Deep Leadership: Training Onramps for Your Youth Ministry Team.

The FYI (Fuller Youth Institute) self published a great resource for youth workers entitled:  Essential Leadership.

Essential Leadership is authored by:  Kara Powell

This is part 2 of my review:

Deep Assessment: A Map That Gets Our Ministry

In any youth ministry assessment is essential.  Deep assessment entails:  SWOT– is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Threats.  I believe a youth pastor needs assess every 6 months.  The beauty about youth ministry is that everything changes.  I make sure to note on all my calendars that everything is subject to change.  Basically, conducting a “SWOT analysis is one tool that can help youth ministries better determine where they are, as well as what steps they need to move forward.”

Honestly, I strongly believe assessment is the key to youth ministry success.  Aristotle said it the best:  “The way to achieve success is 1st to have a definite, clear practical ideal—a goal, an objective. 2nd, have the necessary means to achieve your ends—wisdom, money, materials, and methods. 3rd adjust your means to that end.”

Deep Justice: Moving Beyond the News Crawl

The Deep Leadership team asked these questions:

> How can our service work be part of God’s kingdom justice?
> How do we move service beyond spiritual tourism?
> What are the vital theological threads that should weave their way through our service?
> How can we move beyond rhetoric to true partnership with those we’re serving?

Essentially the team suggests a model of 4 steps: (STEP 1 framing)  (STEP 2 experience + reflection) (STEP 3 initial debrief) (STEP 4 ongoing transformation) (PLUS support & feedback)

Many youth pastors conduct service and mission trips but it is difficult to really have a productive initial debrief.  I have found that students are so emotionally charged about what they did, that it is hard to maneuver through the high emotional intensity in order to get true and authentic responses that stick.  Hopefully by adopting this model, youth pastors can be more intentional when debriefing about the service and mission trip.

Deep Intergenerational Ministry: From “Big Church” to “Our Church”

Today in our churches we see the youth ministry as a “secret society”.  The Deep Leadership team wants it’s reader to realize there is a theological mandate both in the OT and NT that kids matter in the church body.  There are a few ways to get kids involved in “our church”:  1.  Mentors 2.  Church Wide Service projects 3. Intergenerational worship

Deep Holistic Ministry: Whole Ministry for the Whole Kid

Shalom means whole.  Therefore our youth ministries need to provide holistic care for all students on the levels of:  relational, spiritual, emotional, and mental.  Importing a holistic approach in our youth ministry will effect our youth ministry programmatic structure, philosophy, recruitment strategies, and curriculum development. Youth pastors need to think about the entire student’s being:  heart, soul, and mind instead of worrying about behavior modification talks.

Deep Family Ministry: Partnering with Parents

Dr. Chap Clark at Fuller Seminary categorizes three family system categories:
1. The Counseling/Care Mode
2. The Nuclear Family Mode
3. The “Church-as-Family” Mode

The idea is that healthy family ministry comes in threes.  “The goal is not to add more programs to your already-full calendar. What we do need are spaces and places for us to link arms with possibly the only people on the planet who care even more about the kids in our group than we do: their families.”

Building highly attractive youth ministries is not a bad thing.  Although some would suspect that highly attractional youth ministries may lose some of their transformational edge along the way.

The beauty about contextual youth ministry–  is that the missional mind set demands it’s missionaries to enter a cross cultural setting; which forces them to eat, drink, and talk like the natives, and love and serve them in Jesus’ name. (Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches, p.17)

For many youth ministries across the USA becoming attractive to its neighbors is part of their missional strategy.  These attractional youth ministries love allowing students to “come and see” the message of Jesus in their perfectly manicured youth room by presenting culturally relevant stuff (X-Boxes, Flat Screen TVs, sick sound systems).  These type of youth ministry are being missional in some way, but it is not enough to be a Biblically and missionally obedient youth ministry.

Youth ministries can be attractional but need more of an outward-focused mission as part of their youth ministry philosophical culture.  I believe more and more youth ministries need to move well past “come and see” and move into “go and tell” mentality of ministry.

Youth pastors can talk about the Great Commission all day long, but in practice what percentage of your youth ministry is outward focused?

I am arguing that youth pastors adopt a missional theology.  A youth ministry becomes missional when it holds strong to the gospel while seeking to contextualize the gospel so the gospel can compel it’s listeners and transform their wordview.

Van Gelder in Confident Witness—Changing World states:

We need to exegete…culture in the same way that missionaries have been so good at doing with diverse tribal cultures of previously unreached people.  We need to exegete….the themes of Rolling Stones…, Dennis Rodman, Madonna, and David Letterman…..  We need to comprehend that the Spirit of the Living God is at work in these cultural expressions, preparing the hearts of men and women to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have to find, in good missionary fashion, those motifs and themes that connect with the truths of the gospel.  We need to learn how to proclaim, “That which you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you.”  This is the missionary vision at its best.

I think youth ministers and ministries desperately need a true spiritual awakening.  The sending aspect of Who God is, has never changed.  God has sent many youth pastors into emerging American cultures.  I strongly believe youth pastors are most like Christ when they partner with Him in the mission of reaching the unchurched students by being a sent people.

Once youth pastors reconfigure its missional mind set, it will establish a resurgence and an intense passion to be a youth ministry on mission.

Students need to see themselves as missionaries to the people around the world and to the people around in their neighborhoods and school campuses.

How many of our students really see themselves as a called and sent people to represent the reign of God? In our youth ministry teachings are we using this type of language? Do youth pastors really see their teenagers having the capacity and ability to usher in the Kingdom of God into it’s town?

Youth pastors need to develop a firm theology and understanding of missional leadership. According to Darrell Guder, in Missional Church: The purpose of leadership is to form and equip a people who demonstrate and announce the purpose and direction of God through Jesus Christ.

My assumption: students have the ability to be missional leaders.

So how the heck does a youth pastor figure out what the mission is for his/her youth ministry?

1. Clarify and observe the local context and identify the needs

2. Define the church culture and locate it’s values

3. Determine who are the committed students

Now the youth pastor will know the real needs of the community, the theology and sociology of the church, and what students see themselves as a committed called and sent people of God. Observing the context and locating the needs will steer the youth pastor and his/her students in the direction of their youth ministry mission that will mobilize them to bring the Kingdom of God here and now.

Having a contextualized youth ministry mission will make your youth ministry distinct and unique. And it will mean the youth pastor is being obedient to how God is working in and through their specific context.

I get excited hearing about youth ministries that are putting students on mission.

Top 5 ways to detect if youth ministries are NOT mission focused:

1. Budget allocation. How much money is being spent on equipping students to be missionaries vs program management?

2. Solus Pastor. The solus (solo) youth pastor doesn’t partner or work with other “people” or organizations outside of their church community.

3. Small groups are at the center of their discipleship program.

4. 80% of their youth ministry calendar involves being “at church”. Therefore the true missionary is the youth pastor on stage and not the students.

5. Students leadership means serving IN the church. Basically students serve the church and not the community.