My Thesis: I argue there are 5 ways to relate Christ to your local youth community in order to transform culture.  This process is called—youth ministry contextualization.

This thesis is really the heartbeat and mission of REYouthPastor.com

My assumption: Some youth pastors think culture poisons our youth ministry culture.  Also, some youth pastors reject every aspect of culture and create their own“holy” subculture.

Youth pastors have 3 options:

Reject culture

Embrace culture

Transform culture

Youth Ministry contextualization happens in five parts:

1. Move into the city
2. Understand the Gospel
3. Integrating faith and works
4. Live countercultural
5. Youth ministry serve the good of the city and school campuses

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1. Live Locally

To understand your current community’s cultural influences and tradition, it is essential to live where you minister.  In order to receive God’s heart for the city, you have to be able to see (1^st hand) the cultural trends and the sin and strongholds within the community.

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2. Know the Gospel

The Gospel is God’s single redemptive plan for humanity.  The Gospel is restorative, transformative, and redemptive.  Students need to know that the Gospel takes the weight off and encourages them to help God restore the world and set it back right.  When students accept the Gospel, they give up the car keys to their life.  Essentially the gospel means students have to give up their life ownership.  Students need to know when it gets tough; Jesus paid it all and defeated the evil ways of this world.

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3. Faith, Life, School, Culture, & Church

Youth pastors need to show how Jesus intersects with life, church, and culture.  The Gospel is a worldview and not something that makes individuals feel good.  Youth pastor needs to get better at raising up cultural leaders within their youth ministry.  Youth pastors must deconstruct the student homogeneous population and design a youth ministry philosophy around the students’ real needs.  For example, if the dominant student culture and population is legalistic, then youth ministry really focuses on grace.  If dominant student culture is lazy, rebellious, and sex addicts, then focus on repentance and God’s restorative plan.  Then, flip flop.  Identify the unseen needs.  Students need to see a Jesus worldview that appropriately responds to sexuality, politics, money, school, and relationships.

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4. Countercultural

Lohfink in Jesus and Community calls this:  Contrast Society.  Stanely Hauerwas call this:  being a resident alien.  Youth ministries need to create mini clusters and sub groups that show diversity and value the teaching of Jesus– love, service, forgiveness, patience, and compassion.  Non-Christians students need to see Christian students inhabit the city and live very differently.  Youth groups need to look like the High School campus while being fully devoted to following Jesus.  It is a problem when youth groups don’t look like the community and is full of people who talk and look the same.  Student Christians are not trying to take power.  Basically they are trying to live very differently in terms of how they see sex, money, school life, and power. 

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5. Serving the Good of the City and School Campuses

Youth ministers need to look at their neighbors and ask:  How can our youth ministry make our neighbor’s lives better?  Youth ministries may want to consider to be outward and not church focused.  Asking how we can make our church/youth ministry better is a completely different question than asking how we can make our local community a better place.  It is all about serving!  Serve the local school campuses in a way where you are not in the way.

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© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

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.

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.