slant33-blog

What are youth workers' roles in "community development" in their own cities?

Steve Argue

Due to the limited space here, I’ll lay out my assumptions pertaining to this question. I’m going to focus on paid/professional youth workers because I think there are different expectations based on the nature of their roles versus volunteer youth workers who are equally qualified but have more limited resources. Second, I’m going to define community development as the process of helping the community develop to its full potential through empowering individuals and groups.

Youth workers must have a commitment to the whole person. Often, youth ministry forces false dichotomies, creating sacred and secular. This has often led youth ministry to emphasize the spiritual at the expense of the equally sacred aspects of the adolescent. While it is essential that youth workers mentor young people in spiritual disciplines and in the practices of their faith community, adolescents also need help learning, relating to their parents, negotiating peer influences, and dealing with pressures at home, neighborhood, school, and society. Youth talks, Bible studies, and lock-ins get lost in translation unless youth workers see a more complex and colorful adolescent.

This also means that the youth worker must see elements of community development as an essential part of the gospel, not as a means to an end. When we start “meeting the needs of adolescents” in order to “tell them the gospel,” we reinforce a sacred/secular dichotomy that bifurcates rather than integrates adolescents. Instead, we must bring “good news” and “gospel” back together.

What is interesting is that in Matthew 25, where Jesus pronounces judgment over the sheep and goats, we observe that Jesus highlights gospel in terms of what good news means to the poor, the hungry, the lonely, and the sick. I’d suggest, then, that instead of youth workers merely defining gospel in abstract concepts, they re-imagine gospel as good news as defined by young people in their communities. The question youth workers must ask each adolescent is, What is good news to you? Appreciating these answers may change youth ministry’s assumptions, budgets, programs, and approaches.

Youth workers must have a commitment to the whole community. Christian Smith’s work (also referenced in Andy Root’s work) claims that youth ministries often subscribe to “free-will individualism” and “anti-structuralism” that ignores systemic problems within society, placing the problem and the solution on the individual. An overemphasis on the individual misses the systemic problems that affect young people (poverty, racism, family systems, education, policy, etc.).

In my estimation, this assumption creates a misunderstood role of the youth worker in the broader community. Some youth workers operate as if they are the only true game in town, living in competition with other youth groups or assuming that it’s up to them alone to “save” this generation in their community. Lack of true partnership with other churches, schools, government, social services, counselors, etc., fosters an unrealistic perspective of how best to serve one’s community through youth ministry. The SEARCH Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets are a helpful step toward rethinking what your youth ministry’s role is within the whole community and how youth workers can lead, follow, and partner with others advocating for adolescents within their communities.

Youthworkers must have a commitment to their whole discipline. My first two points likely make my last point obvious: Youth ministry that is committed to community development calls for a different kind of youth worker. Gone are the days where youth workers’ job descriptions were merely about programming and hanging out with kids. Those committed to a whole gospel for the whole community must have the knowledge and skills to appreciate sociology, adolescent development, theology, and community partnership (with teachers, parents, civic leaders). This past week, our student ministry team spent time reflecting on the major strands of adolescent/emerging adulthood research and theology we believe must inform our ministry practices. Conversations like these are reframing our roles, reestablishing our priorities, and remaking us as youth workers.

Community development, therefore, needs youth worker development.

Mike King

This is an interesting question. The phrase community development became a part of our culture’s vernacular during the 2008 presidential campaign because of President Obama’s past role as a community organizer. The phrase community development has defined organized and ongoing efforts dedicated to improving community life, especially focused on caring for those who have been marginalized.

Recently the phrase community development is increasingly used more broadly to describe efforts to improve the quality of life and deal with challenging issues in our residential communities, especially within neglected urban centers. A growing number of Christians who believe that engagement in social justice is a part of God’s missional calling are using the phrase community development to define their activities of service and ministry within needy communities. I have used this language because I live among networks of Christians who use this nomenclature.

However, as I have considered an answer to this question, I suggest that we use the phrase community development frugally and specifically. There are people who have been called vocationally into community development. I think we belittle their work when we call sporadic service projects the same thing. When our youth ministries and churches engage in meaningful work that blesses our communities, we are behaving missionally and honoring God. It is important for God’s people to participate in God’s mission to help those in need, to extend mercy, and to work for justice.

Our activities of service should be intentional and ongoing. The church of Jesus Christ exists to engage in God’s mission. The church is to be about blessing the world, not itself. Our commitment to follow God in the way of Jesus sends us into the world to serve God, our communities, and our neighbors so that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. The church is called to embody the love of God in our communities, our cities, and throughout the world.

Serving communities in proximity to where we live for the love of God and love of neighbor is crucial if we desire to embody the great good news. It is the role of a youth worker to help our young people understand what it means to participate in God’s mission in the world. Too often we depend on the Mission Trip to shape our kids missionally. The mission trip may result in wonderful ministry, but it can create a distorted theology of mission.

In fact, I will go so far as to say that short-term mission trips should be suspended until you find a meaningful way to serve in proximity to where you live. If we (youth workers) do not build a missional ethos and behavior in our own communities first, we reinforce the tragic idea that serving God is something done “over there.” Missional thinking and living must be rooted in the here and now if it is to become a way of life. If your response to suspending short-term mission trips is concern for the people you serve “over there,” wherever “over there” is, then I suggest sending the foreign mission a portion of the money your youth group would spend to go “over there.” In the future, make faithful involvement in serving communities locally a prerequisite to going on a short-term mission trip.

I think we should reserve the phrase community development until we are deeply, regularly, and sustainably involved in serving and living within a particular community of need. Even if we are involved with works of mercy and actions of justice as we participate in God’s mission in a particular community over a long period of time, I still think we would be remiss to call our efforts community development. I believe one must actually live in the community of need one is serving to be able to consider the efforts community development.

I see an ever-increasing number of Christians relocating to communities that have been neglected by churches, government, and society in general. I admire those who move into certain neighborhoods for the purpose of living missionally. We should connect our youth groups with these bold missionaries and develop consistent and deep partnership to glorify God by embodying the gospel in communities that have been forgotten.

Andy Root

I have to begin by saying that I’ve never really thought about this question as it’s being posed here. So that means, at least in my mind, that I can take back everything I say here if later I think it blows. Deal?

I think youth workers have absolutely no role in community development and yet everything to do with it. What I mean is that I think our purpose in ministry is to participate in the action of God; our concern is to seek out what God is doing in the world of young people. But God’s action comes from God’s future. God acts from the place of the resurrection, from the location of the new humanity and new creation, encountering all that is not the new, seeking to act to bring it into God’s redemptive life. The youth worker’s role is to participate in this action, to seek to place him or herself at the location of God’s action in world, to have eyes to see those places in the world where God is encountering death for the sake of life. It is the gospel that is the youth worker’s reason for being.

That said, to participate in God’s action in the world is to partake in the world; it is to delve deeply into the reality of the world. So the youth worker may very well participate in community development by providing outlets for the homeless or hungry or basketball programs for elementary-age kids. But these outlets exist not to develop social capital and lower crime rates (thought that’s not bad) but to witness to God’s action bringing forth the redemptive. The youth worker organizes these outlets as a concrete way of pointing to God’s future, a future where no one is without a home, a meal, or safety; the youth worker does these things as way of pointing to God’s action. The goal is not necessarily to be a community developer but to participate with God in the world, which can (and in some contexts will) lead to community development.

This means that success in ministry is viewed in a different way. If you see yourself as a community developer, than you have only succeeded when all homelessness and hunger are gone, when everyone is fed and sheltered. Anything short of this is short of success. The church does proclaim that society and structure must act to make human life human, using its structure to keep people from the dehumanization of homelessness and hunger. This is the church’s—the youth worker’s—prophetic calling. If you are the one who does this, then you are only successful when all problems are wiped away.

But from an eschatological perspective, from the perspective of God’s redemptive act, the youth worker’s actions of shelter and feeding come not with the naïve belief that they end homeless and poverty but with powerful proclamation that these acts, even small—feeding just this one child—witness to God’s future that is even now on its way into the world through the church’s action. Success in ministry is not solving every community problem but entering the problems and acting as a way of participating in God’s future.

In what ways does befriending someone whom you find it difficult to like bring you closer to God?

Chris Folmsbee

Every one of us has people in our lives whom, for whatever reason, we find it hard to like. The idiosyncrasies of others can drive us batty if we let them. We know too well the specific things that some people do to get under our skin and take us to a place of complete irritation, frustration, and sometimes even fury. For that reason, we tend to separate ourselves from the people who raise those emotions in us. There are some people who just drive us mad! Conversely, each of us drives others mad! It is just the way humanity works.

We’ve all heard the well-known saying, “Fate chooses our relatives; we choose our friends.” We typically choose our friends for a variety of reasons. Some of us choose our friends because we have like-minded interests or because we like the way someone makes us feel or we like to be in charge or we don’t like to be in charge or because we want to be like the others we are befriending. Whatever the reason, I am confident you don’t look for the people who are hardest to like to befriend. Why intentionally inflict such lunacy upon ourselves? We’d rather just steer clear of the insanity and be in control of our relationships, just like we like to control everything else in our lives.

Honestly, I think the reason we don’t befriend the people we don’t like has more to do with ourselves than the other person. We are often unwilling to negotiate our emotions and instead just abandon the people we find it hard to like. It is easier to dump the agitations and be about what we want. It is easier to be in control of our relationships. This control issue comes from largely from the fear that we will be thought of in one way or another as onlookers make judgments of us according to whom we befriend and whom we don’t.

Befriending those we find it hard to like does bring us closer to God. First, it releases our desire for control, allowing us to receive the powerlessness that God demands. Releasing control is saying, “You are God and I am not.”

Second, it takes our eyes off ourselves and places them on others. We befriend those we find it difficult to like because we want to be people of kindness and grace who extend God’s love and restoration—kingdom people.

Third, we befriend those we find it difficult to like because in doing so, we reveal the story of Jesus. Revealing the story of Jesus is to reveal the gospel. To reveal the gospel is to reveal the mission of God. To participate in the mission of God is to join in the activity of restoring the world to its intended wholeness.

Fourth, we are brought closer to God though a process of self-transcendence. When we are able to recognize our own faults, weaknesses, and annoying characteristics, we put ourselves in a place where we can learn from others, realizing that our lives are not without need for ongoing development. In other words, we begin to see in others (even the ones we find it hard to like) the very things that we need to make our lives more whole or complete.

Finally, when we befriend people we find it difficult to like, we tell God the truth about who we are—people in need of love, care, and friendship. When we tell God the truth, we awaken forgiveness. When we awaken forgiveness, we open our lives to a greater level of mercy and, in some cases, even pardon. Because God pardoned us, we too, therefore, ought to pardon others. In this way we are brought closer to God.

Danny Kwon

When I first read this question, I was puzzled. What does it mean to befriend someone who is “difficult to like?” What does it mean for someone to be “difficult to like?” Perhaps I am “difficult to like?” The nature of this question could make a person consider a variety of relationships. Could it be a co-worker you don’t get along with? Could be it a person you are forced to work with? Could it be a friend of a friend whom you need to develop a relationship with? Could it be a difficult parishioner? Could it be a student in your youth group? Could it be a parent who is antagonistic?

These were just a few of the various people in my life whom I considered and whom I believe I am called to nurture relationships with, no matter how difficult it may be. However, I do believe that these relationships are certainly worthwhile, and moreover, they do truly bring me closer to God in many ways.

For instance, I know that when I feel like I am dealing with a difficult person, while I may try to initially resolve the difficulties myself, it is often not easy. Hence, I am glad that in this way, it turns me to prayer and dependence on God. In doing so, I believe that I am opening myself up to God’s grace and accountability and letting myself be examined by God amidst the difficult situation. As Psalm 139:23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” As I pray this prayer, I can sense God’s Spirit reveal to me my sin in the difficult situation, how I may need to humble myself, and in what ways I need to change.

More importantly, however, it is the general movement of God in my heart that draws me closer to him that I find I am most grateful for. Difficult situations, especially in relationships, can be taxing, painful, and hurtful. However, I am thankful that ultimately, God uses these situations to draw me closer to him.

Another way these difficult situations draw me closer to God is that is in those times when I feel like I have been hurt, personally attacked, or treated unjustly, it helps me to remember that Christ—despite his hurt and having an unjust punishment placed on him at Calvary—was able to forgive those who wronged him. We all know the words Christ exclaimed on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." In his act of forgiveness, he was also turning to God the Father. In my journey, as I struggle with the times I have to deal with a difficult situation with another person, and especially when I feel that injustice is present, I am thankful that it turns me to God.

Finally, trying to befriend someone who is “difficult to like” draws me closer to God because I again realize the greatness and need of the love of God in my life. Moreover, it is the reason and motivation that I can love and reach out to those who are even difficult to love. First John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” When I find it difficult to love a “difficult person,” I always remember that “…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Subsequently, since he does love me so much, I am also called to love even those who are “difficult to love.”

Claire Smith

It would be pretty boring if everyone was exactly how we wanted them to be. Where would the challenge in life be, that challenge that keeps us more in touch with who we are, that forces us to look at ourselves time and time again, and if we’re honest, that makes us pray some more for grace and strength?

So everyone doesn’t really “suit our taste,” just as every flower or food or animal doesn’t. Always there are things and people that are more palatable than others. Think about it: Would you want it to be any different? God in God’s infinite wisdom has created this earth with a great deal of variety. This variety affords us the opportunity to learn about other types of life, ways of living, and ways of viewing the world. However, sometimes it’s easier to stick with the people we like rather than stretching ourselves and making adjustments to deal, live, and work with the others who are not likeable. It stretches us too much. Yet real community comes out of the reaching and accommodating and stretching.

When we encounter someone we do not immediately like, we have a choice. We can erect a fence, or we can find ways to reach out and discover the likeable aspect(s) of that person. We can also reach within to discover what has been stirred inside ourselves to cause us not to find that person agreeable. You may say that we do not always have a choice because sometimes we have to interact with those we do not like. Yet we really do have a choice. Even though we may physically have contact with those we do not appreciate, we can withdraw and build psychological, emotional, and mental fences. There is one more option: we can recognize in that person God’s creation and with God’s help reach in and reach out.

It’s easy to blame the other person for not being likeable, but could there be something in ourselves that needs adjusting, and could this be God’s way of encouraging that adjustment? Could it be that we have a limited understanding of God’s love and God is bringing us to a more perfect understanding? We tend to pray when we’re challenged. Thus, when we encounter someone we do not like, let us reach out to that person and pray that this God-appointed meeting and journey may allow the love of God to be more perfected in us and Christ’s image to be better formed in us as we draw nearer to God. How can we help our students to live this?

What are the five best things to teach your interns?

Steve Argue

Dear Future Interns,

Chances are that you’re considering connecting with a church or nonprofit organization because you believe it’s the next step for you as you explore your interests and unpack your calling. What I have discovered with many interns like you is a contagious enthusiasm that fuels energetic participation. Sadly, I have also seen this same enthusiasm and energy transfer to cynicism and disappointment when the internships fail to live up to expectations.

I encourage you to seek out organizations that will set you up for a truly helpful internship. In your search, ask the following questions:

Do they value the meaning you’re making more than what you’re producing? I have often found that interns think their role is to rock the world, impressing those they work for. Mix this with organizations that are excited about cheap labor and you have the potential for intern burnout. The main purpose of your internship is not for you to produce but for you to make meaning of your experiences.

Pragmatically, you may have the chance to excel in your gifts/talents, benefiting those with whom you work. Developmentally, however, you have a wellspring of opportunity as you reflect beyond what you’re doing, toward why, or what is going on behind your activity.

What gives me joy?
Why did that experience evoke fear?
What am I learning about myself?

Your internship must encourage reflective space for your own thinking/journaling, raising more questions than answers, entering regular dialogue with your mentor. Without this, you will miss one of the most important elements of your internship experience.

Do they encourage discovery more than conformity? Internships should challenge interns’ assumptions about life, ministry, and self. If you can embrace a reality where doubt is a portal; if you can embrace the idea that failure brings wisdom; that pain is solidarity; that joy arises in unexpected places, you will begin to experience a different kind of internship that has the potential to rearrange your life categories.

When you are tempted to say, “This isn’t what I signed up for,” you may on the threshold of a more profound experience.

Will this internship mess me up? Hopefully.
Will this internship allow me to ask questions of my mentor and myself? It must.

In this process, ensure that churches/organizations allow these transformative thresholds to happen. Those who repress doubt as disloyalty; see failure as “unprofessional;” view pain as something to be solved; and equate joy in numbers and programs betray people, interns, redemption. Avoid them.

Do they see internship as a sacred role? If you are motivated to join a church/organization because “it will look good on my résumé,” rethink doing an internship. Using internships to “help get ahead” can easily lead to exploiting people. Ultimately your goal should be to serve those associated with your internship. This means knowing your role and remembering that behind your task are real people.

Menial tasks have meaning.
Projects are connected with real people.
Conversations you have with others are holy ground.
Work you give your mentor helps or hurts her.

See every activity as a sacred expression. Treat each task as a redemptive act. Ensure that your conversations with your mentor are not merely about the tasks you’re doing but how these tasks are affecting the people you are serving. Intern and mentor hearts should break as much as tasks get completed.

Are they willing to give you significant feedback? Mentors and interns must view internships as experimentation. Expect to make mistakes along the way. While affirmation is helpful, real learning comes through talking about the things that didn’t go so well. Be courageous enough to bring these things up with your mentor. Ensure that your mentor is willing to go there with you (many are unable).

Additionally, seek feedback beyond the tasks toward the competencies you are developing.

Can you be honest with your mentor and with yourself?
Will your mentor consistently seek you out?
Is taking ministry and relational risks valued?

Internship goals should reflect a commitment to growing in your competencies as a person and follower of Jesus. Not just getting things done.

Do they encourage healthy living? Limited intern time forces you to steward your role well, investing your best in the hours allotted. You are not a better intern if you continually work more than your intern hours—you’re a budding workaholic establishing destructive patterns. Accept your limitations. Laugh. Do your best. Don’t expect to do it all.

Ensure that your mentor/organization is equally diligent about this. Make sure they value (and model) healthy work habits and a realistic outlook about one’s person and one’s ministry.

How is work assessed?
Will your mentor model a healthy lifestyle?
Who are you beyond your internship?

Finally… It is my assumption that organizations that are unwilling to invest in their interns are not ready for interns. Be sure you know what you are joining to ensure that your intern experience encourages your development and prepares you for life beyond internship. Then, someday, do the same for others.

Danny Kwon

Interns come to our churches—and specifically to our youth groups—not only to learn but also to be trained and molded continuously as valuable leaders in God’s kingdom. Presently, we have four interns serving in our youth ministry. So in the spirit of being a good researcher, I turned this week’s topic around and asked the interns themselves what are the five best things they have learned as interns. I hoped this would make a most interesting contrast to what I perceive are the five best things to teach interns. Moreover, in seeing these differences in perceptions of what has been learned, it can provide a place to glean implications for me and those who lead present and future leaders.

Five Best Things My Interns Have Learned:

1. Learn what it is to take ownership of the youth group.

2. Learn to plan ahead.

3. React well to unexpected things that happen during ministry (emergencies and surprises).

4. Keep some kind of record (e.g., a calendar) to remember things about the ministry.

5. Use wisdom in all circumstances.

1. I really don't have any idea what I'm doing. I thought I learned and knew everything I needed to know about ministry from past and previous experiences and books, but I definitely got owned.

2. I am not a student's parent. The parents are the ones who are primarily responsible for their children's spiritual lives, not me (if their parents are active members in the church).

3. It is important to be respectful and honor the culture and traditions of the church regardless of how I may feel about it.

4. It is important to respect the students and not treat them like babies or assume they are immature, naive, ignorant, etc. (even though they may be).

5. If you have the chance to work in a team environment and with experienced pastors/youth workers as opposed to running your own show, take advantage of that opportunity. Experienced pastors/youth workers will be able to call you out and keep you accountable.

1. I am continuing to learn and distinguish what relational ministry entails. Relational ministry takes patience and a lot of grace—for ourselves and for others. It continually reflects on the incarnational ministry of Christ, which is the model I would like to implement in my life and ministry. A distinction I’ve seen in this particular ministry is that incarnational ministry is not another program in ministry, but it is simply being in love with God and loving those we are sent to serve.

2. The quality of the relationships and level of communication within the leadership team significantly affect ministry as a whole. As a part of the leadership team, I am learning what it truly means to be a servant leader. I have to continually keep my attitude in check and work within the team. Decision making and working together in ministry must be communicated across the team so that confusion or misunderstandings will not take place, whether in the team or the ministry as a whole.

3. Time management is something I have learned is vital to my own personal life and ministry. Being a full-time student of a rigorous seminary while serving in ministry is not easy. There are a lot of things to balance. I've learned that a lack of discipline in my use of time not only affects my personal life but my ability to serve and minister as well.

4. I've learned that there are different ways of managing leadership teams. A leader who micro-manages a team controls every detail and responsibility as if he/she is not working with others, while the leader who macro-manages delegates responsibilities to others to achieve the same goal.

5. I've learned that my personal time of worshiping God should not be neglected. As I am serving others, I should only depend upon God alone, for he is my only source of strength and the one who sustains me.

1. Exposure to a ministry operation.

2. Learning what it means to lead beyond simple mechanics.

3. Time management.

4. Learning to balance and make priorities. One example is that if you're too prideful it leads to arrogance, but if you don't have enough confidence, that can lead to faithlessness.

5. Remembering to be always thankful and learning how to apply that to sincerity in one's work and brevity in one's work responses.

Overall, in considering these four lists, I have realized a few things myself.

1. I often focus on more tangible aspects of ministry such as time management, returning emails/texts, being on time, professionalism. I am glad to see that deeper, more profound aspects of ministry were learned by my interns, whether intentionally or not (but I hope it was more intentional).

2. In reference to intentionality, I am blessed, grateful, and joyful for the things my interns learned from our ministry. And while I did question my intentionality of teaching them these things, I do believe that these are intentional and consistent values and aspects of our ministry. Hence, I would stress in terms of the book of James that faith and works do go hand in hand. In other words, I have hope and conviction that the things my interns have learned, which I am proud they have learned, were really just the fruits of the ministry itself and how we function. So ultimately, actions speak louder than words.

3. “Teach a person to fish.” After seeing these lists from my present interns, I am more affirmed that the things that I have focused on in teaching my interns will and have equipped them to do ministry for a lifetime in the kingdom. In other words, I believe that they have learned things so that they can do ministry not just for the context of our youth group but for the eternal, universal kingdom of God.

Brooklyn Lindsey

I wrestle with the title of this slant, “the five best.” It sounds so final. Every intern has a different outcome in mind, and they also have different personalities. But there are some important and essential things that we’ve got to pass on. I’ve been chewing on this for a while. Then it occurred to me to ask my interns.

So that’s what I did. I asked my two most recent interns what they considered to be their best lessons and then made my comments (see italics). Consider this a slant within a slant. Three viewpoints in one. Right on.

Five Bests from Alexandra Burgess (Southeastern University):

Teach me to budget. Teach me to learn. Teach me to have a vision and express my vision. Teach me to be hands on and proactive. Teach me to lead and disciple.

1. I loved how you showed me your budget. I believe this is something interns often overlook, and I think it is stuff like this that is crucial to understand before entering ministry. Interns need to learn how to manage their ministries with integrity and creativity. Especially when it comes to budgets.

2. Give your interns opportunities to sit in on a youth workers’ conference or convention of some kind. Teach your interns to be learners. Cultivate their boldness and idealism while offering them opportunities to grow under the leadership of authors, speakers, ministers, and veterans.

3. I think youth pastors often leave their interns out in regards to their lesson planning and sharing their passion and ideas behind their series. You put it out there and really got everyone excited about it. Don’t forget to share why you do what you do, when you do it, or the importance of vision in ministry leadership.

4. I also liked the hands-on work that I got to do. Teach interns to do the work, make the calls, create a poster, or carve a pumpkin—whatever it is that you do, let them help you do it!

5. I think every intern should have the opportunity to lead a small group because that is definitely what impacted me the most. Ali was able to connect with her girls and get to know other students through her small group. She learned valuable lessons—on teaching God’s Word, thinking as a student would think, and planning her own mini youth group—that she’ll take with her into ministry.

Five Bests from Nathan Neihof (Kentucky Mountain Bible College):

Teach me to keep Jesus first. Teach me to plan and prepare. Teach me to build relationships. Teach me to lead together. Teach me to take time to study.

1. Keep Jesus at the forefront of everything. This has been modeled to me, and it was wonderful for me to see it lived out. I think many interns are looking for the real deal—people who live the way they say everyone else should live and humbly follow Christ.

2. Ministry doesn't evolve into excellence in the heat of a church service. I’ve learned that there is a lot of preparation, planning, and practicing that make ministry happen. Teach interns what it takes to plan ahead, pray over, and prepare well for the ministry ahead. There will always be surprises, and planning well gives them room to respond rather than react.

3. Relationships are key in ministry. My first week here, I was plugged into a small group. I got to know the guys, and they decided I was “cool.” When the first Wednesday night came, I was able to establish a group of guys who already decided I was approved, and this led to other guys giving me their approval. This is an echo from Ali. Teach your interns to be involved in small-group discipleship. There are multiple lessons to learn, and the rewards will keep them inspired.

4. Establish a core group of volunteers you can depend on and delegate leadership roles to those people. This makes your ministry more powerful in its outreach and expands the capacity of the amount of people one can minister to. It also makes ministry more enjoyable because you don't deal with all the stress of being the lone shepherd. Amen, well said!

5. It’s been vital for me to learn how to prepare and study. I have met a lot of pastors who don't spend a lot of time in study. Teach your interns to make time for God’s Word in their work schedules. If they don’t plan for it, it probably won’t happen. It’s the thing that will give them life as they minister to others.

Overall, teach interns your heart. Nothing will stick with them more than the expression of your call to ministry because it will help them to cultivate their own call. Teach them to fan into flame the gifts God has given them and to rely on others’ strengths for the gifts they lack. And, maybe most importantly, teach them to forgive. The church is full of humans who are all on a journey. There may be some pain, but God can and will use the hard spots to refine us as we find rest and purpose in him.

How would you define the gospel?

Scot McKnight

After 2000 years—give or take two decades—of church history, one would think that a strong consensus or even certainty about crucial doctrines would have been achieved. Such is not the case when it comes to the ground-level word gospel, and it surprises some when I stake that conclusion in the ground with a flapping little flag.

So let me flap this little flag one more time. The first thing we have to do is ignore scholars, for whom the term gospel has endless nuance and careful articulation. And I say this as one of them, and I say it because our nuances frankly have not been translated into common communication. If you ask an ordinary evangelical Christian what the gospel is, chances are you’ll hear something like this: Jesus came to die for my sins so I can spend eternity in heaven with God.

If you have enough time to sit down over coffee with them and ask them to discuss the meaning of gospel, you will most likely get something like this: God loves us, but God is also immensely holy. God created us as image-bearers (what I prefer to call Eikons), but we sinned. God is now in a dilemma: God’s holiness drives God to punish us for our sin and our rebellion because God cannot tolerate sin in his holy presence. But God’s love drives God to do something about our condition. What God’s love did was prompt God to solve the problem of our rebellion by sending Jesus Christ, who—as God—satisfies God and—as human—satisfies our humanity. What Christ did was suffer our penalty: he took upon himself our sin and placed upon us his God-approved righteousness. If we simply accept, by repentance and faith and confession and baptism, his perfect substitution, then we can be made right again with God and reconciled with God forever.

And many of us would say, “Yes, that’s the gospel.” We might want to quibble here and there, but I think many of us would say that is an adequate representation of the gospel.

The problem is that no one so far as we know preached the gospel like that in the earliest church. There are seven evangelistic and gospel-shaped sermons in the book of Acts, and they are found in Acts 2, 3, 4, 10—11, 13, 14, and 17. They are preached by the two greatest apostles: Peter and Paul. If these records are an accurate summary of the gospel preaching, we can say they didn’t preach “our” gospel.

We can’t examine each of these sermons, but I want to look at one very clear summary of the gospel according to Peter, and I want to quote it because only by reading it can we see how Peter preached the gospel. It’s found in Acts 10:36-43, and it’s addressed to Gentiles (with some Jews listening in):

You know the message he [God] sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Not a word about God’s love and God’s grace or about God’s holiness that burns in wrath against sinners until they respond in faith to Christ. Not a word about Jesus as Savior. Not a word about justification or substitutionary atonement. Okay, I know what some think about such statements, but you read it, and you can see that those terms are not the framing terms for Peter. Those terms tell us truths—let that be clear—but they are not the way Peter told the gospel truths.

Instead, we get these ideas: Jesus is the Messiah; Jesus is the Lord. We get lots about Israel’s story coming to its completion in Jesus’ story. We get a narrative about Jesus’ life; we get a story about Jesus’ unjust death and God’s reversal of the injustice by raising Jesus from the dead. And we get the command that he told the apostles to tell this story to others. Jesus is the judge too. And people are to respond to him, and those who respond in faith will be given forgiveness of sins.

This sermon mirrors the others, so I want to answer the question we have been asked: The gospel is the announcement that the story of Israel is now complete in the story of Jesus, and this Jesus brings forgiveness of sins and empowers others to declare this story.

Andy Root

I would define the gospel in one simple sentence: God’s act through Jesus to bring life out of death. So now that I’ve defined it, let me explain (because any definition of anything worth defining needs further explanation).

The gospel is the good news that death (and its diabolic engine in the world, sin) will not have the last word for humanity and creation. The gospel rests in the action of God to take on death and sin so that we might find life up against our many experiences of sin and death. So at its core the gospel is relational; it is about God seeking to overcome what destroys relationship—sin and death. But the only way to overcome death and sin is for God to become death and sin, not because God in heaven needs some sacrifice to appease God’s anger over sin but because death has entered so fully into the world (into every corner and niche of human existence) that we need death to be overcome.

But death can only be overcome by suffering. Suffering is never good, but in a world where death is around every corner and stands as the destiny of every person, love must suffer; love must enter into the fragility of humanity. So the gospel is God entering into death for the sake of love because only God entering into death, only God suffering death on a cross can overcome death without using the weapons of death. In other words, the only way to overcome sin and death is to suffer sin and death. So for Paul, the cross is the ultimate sign of the gospel, for in the cross we are dead with Christ—we are with Christ. While sin separates us from God, God does the amazing act of reconnecting with us, not through our own action but through God’s—God’s action to take on death.

So the gospel is God taking on death so that we might be bound to God through our own experiences of death (just ask an eighth grader if she has experiences of death—rejection, fear, bullying, poor body image…). But the gospel is even more; the gospel is God entering into death so that we might live. God encounters us in our deaths, but the cross is not the goal of God’s action. Rather, from death God brings life; from cross comes resurrection. So the gospel is the overcoming of death with life. For Paul we are now dead in Christ, and therefore made alive, we share in his death and therefore in his resurrection. So the gospel is the promise of life out of death.

But here is the most important question, the one that makes the time reading this blog worthwhile: How do young people encounter the gospel? How do they participate in it? For me, because the gospel is the good news of God entering death, reversing the natural and tragic ways the world unfolds (from life to death, from death to new life), it then means that we encounter and participate in the gospel not through our cognitive belief or moral assimilation but in seeking God in our experiences of death, seeking for new life up against realities of doubt, yearning, and brokenness. This means that to help young people encounter the gospel is to invite them to share their experiences of death and together in community seek for the God of life to move, a God who takes all that is dead and brings forth new life—this is the gospel lived!

Claire Smith

We talk about it. We write about it. We seek to share it and encourage others to do the same. Just what is this gospel we are called to proclaim? It is the good news of Jesus Christ. Okay. What does that mean? I like what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:2-4: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…”

In Jesus Christ—the Messiah—has dawned the new age of the reign of God in which is the full restoration of relationships as God intended them under the sovereignty of God. Jesus came announcing the good news of the kingdom (Mark 1:14-15). Jesus’ life was a demonstration of life under God’s reign—love, right relations with people, forgiveness and reconciliation, restoration and newness. Jesus died on the cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection showed Jesus to be Lord and Messiah. Peter summed up the gospel when he spoke to Cornelius and said:

“You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:36-43

In this passage, Peter shows the continuity between the two covenants, with Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise. He describes that Jesus was sent by God as the anointed one. Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. He not only died but rose again. This Jesus is able to forgive sins. Furthermore, this resurrected Jesus Christ is Lord of all people.

The gospel has significance for everyone, then. It is something to be shared, not a secret to be dearly held. It is noteworthy that Peter, like Jesus in his own life, points to God, the one who sent Jesus Christ, and puts the emphasis on God at work through Jesus Christ. God is the one who has shown Jesus to be Lord.

It is good news. Christ died and rose again for all people, and in Christ we are set free from sin and its consequences. We do have a problem, however, because sin doesn’t matter to many people, whether it be personal or systemic sin. Blinded as we often are by our deep sin of self-centeredness, we often judge, value, and behave based on how things affect us. Thus, for example, it may be okay to stretch the truth—that is, to lie—in the effort of self-preservation.

Nevertheless, when we accept the good news and trust in God’s work in Christ Jesus, we have no choice but to turn from self because we have owned up to our sins and sinful state and received God’s love and salvation. We are now oriented toward and around God and believe that God’s love is enough. God now sets us free to love God and others. Thus we can follow Christ’s ways of gentleness and humility, knowing that God is with us. That is good news.

How should we view and interact with media (especially social media)?

Lilly Lewin

I’m in the process of moving and cleaning out old files. I found some old youth group newsletters from the late 90s, run off on bright-neon paper.

Back in the dark ages—just 10 years ago—every month, I took the time to write, copy, fold, address, and stamp an actual letter with all the dates, times, and encouragements that I hoped would be read and posted on the fridge door. That seems so ancient now that we can text an event or word of encouragement in an instant! An upgrade from the printed newsletter, the email newsletter is now just great for parents, but as you know, way too old school for most of our students.

Most students I know don’t even check their regular email unless they are required to for school or a particular class. They use Facebook and IM, but most of all, they text. Thanks to being in youth ministry for a long time, I’ve actually been on Facebook longer than my teenage sons. It’s a little scary to be friends with some of their friends, but I believe that social media—with good boundaries—is really the way we can best communicate with our students because that's where our students really live. We have to be good at communicating in their world and understand how they receive information, not expecting them to relate to our world even if it’s not much older than their own. And we need to be able to use and understand these tools as well as they do!

Sadly, this isn’t the case for some in ministry. They are still fighting the Internet is of the devil battle and are thus losing the ability to just keep in touch and build relationships with their students, much less help students connect with God.

A couple of years ago, I spoke with a youth worker from North Carolina who was banned from Facebook because her church leadership felt it was not a godly form of communication. She wasn’t even supposed to have her own Facebook page, much less use online communication of any kind for her students. I asked her what they were so afraid of and realized they were burying their heads in the sand, avoiding and/or denying the major cultural shift that has taken place in the last few years.

While I’m not a big fan of how much time we all can spend getting sucked into vortex of the Internet, especially Facebook, I do know that in order to communicate in a relevant way, these are the tools we need to use because, whether we like it or not, Facebook and the cell phone are how students connect, and if I’m honest, it’s more likely to be by phone through texting than even on the computer.

I decided to do a little research among my youth ministry Facebook friends and see how they’re using Facebook, etc., to communicate with their students. Here’s a sample of what they said:

Patty Kernstock, Lutheran youth pastor, writes:

I use both texting and fb. I have a giant whiteboard in my office telling me who has what (because not all kids have either or both)! I find fb very effective, particularly in a large congregation, for last-minute events, where things have to be publish ready really early in the week. Example: We did a laser tag day (nothing says Christian fellowship like let’s run around in the dark, shooting each other!), and I got 2 students from the bulletin and 23 from the fb announcement. We don’t have a youth page, per se, but I do have one for our students doing a particular trip.

Jim Holland, youth pastor in New Orleans, writes:

We have a Facebook page and create events using FB. It connects with about 70% of the active teens. We also use a mass text system (http://www.txtsignal.com) to broadcast important information for our events. But that only works if they sign up for it. Teens don't read email at all anymore. We can send out messages to all members through FB as well. We do not encourage anyone to sign up for FB. But since teens are using it and are going to use it then I'm not going to ignore it out of principle. It's a way for us to connect. But, I expect parents of church kids to know what their kids are doing on the Internet (thus help them to protect their personal information and be aware of predators).

Like Jim, I believe it’s our job as leaders to help our students learn to use the Internet and their cell phones in responsible ways. We need to help them see the power of these communication tools and how this power can be used for good or can be abused. We can also help them see the differences between online communication and real, face-to-face relationships. We can and we need to help students learn to communicate and build real friendships, not just Facebook ones; and help them understand the importance of community in real time, not just in the virtual.

And don’t forget all the great ways we can use the tools online and on the phone to help them connect with Jesus in a new way too…like my student who texts me and 60+ friends a Bible verse and thought each day, or my friend who texts “I’m praying” to all his students at a specific time each day.

Also, check out some of my favorite websites, just to name a few:

Sacred Space

Sacred Gateway

Bible Gateway

ReJesus

24-7 Prayer

Danny Kwon

I would not say that I am a novice when it comes to social media, but in no way am I an expert either. However, as a person who wants to be a continual learner about the effective uses of social media, I believe I can offer some voice about social media and its uses for ministry. From this perspective, I also hope that I can speak to those people who are less sophisticated about the uses of social media, as well as those who are more sophisticated, and perhaps give them more of a layperson’s point of view so they can have compassion and sympathy for us plebeians. So, here is my take on social media.

For starters, most are probably familiar with the term social media but may need some help coming up with a precise definition. I have to admit I had to go online to find a definition. From Wikipedia, I found this: “Social media is a term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online.”

Second, as part of an older church that is more conservative in its theology, I often have interactions with folks who think various things are sinful or inappropriate for church use. One of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 10:31, where Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” As I examine the context and words of Paul, I understand him to be saying that more than what you do, it is about how you do things, for the glory of God. Hence, when parents tell me their children are on the Internet too much (which is probably true) then ask whether they should cut off Internet access at home, I always remind them of the positive uses of the Internet at home (such as for homework!). Essentially, I am telling them that it is not so much the Internet that is the problem but how it is being used. In that same way, as I see social media, I would not say we should view it as evil or good, but we should look at how we can use it, particularly for the glory of God.

This reminds me of something I just read. In the winter 2010 issue of Leadership, there is a quote by Michael Buckingham, who notes that “the Internet isn’t powerful because it connects you to information but because it connects you to other people.” Thinking further back in the history of youth ministry, I remember a thought contrasting relational ministry vs. programming, which noted that programs are just a means to an end. We may take this latter thought for granted now, but there was a time when youth ministry had forgotten that programs were just means to deeper relationships. Ultimately, these are just examples that make me think about social media and how someone like me—stuck between being a novice and expert—can use social media for the glory of God.

Ultimately then, in having used and in continuing to use social media for the glory of God, I really believe it has blessed our youth group in this—connections to people. In other words, in light of Michael Buckingham’s quote above, social media has really helped our youth group connect. About two years ago, I challenged myself and our volunteers to write Facebook posts on at least five students’ pages a day for one year. I don’t know how that may sound to some of you (crazy, stupid, madness), but I can tell that the daily ritual of writing to them was a true means to an end…which led to many deeper responses, deeper conversations, and deeper connections. In other words, Facebook became a way to connect more deeply to students.

Similarly, social media has allowed our group to connect by sharing prayer requests, Scripture, and encouragement with one another through different pages our youth group has made together. Moreover, it has been a good tool to welcome newbies to our group and get out the word about events and activities of our youth group (and to parents too). I know there are so many more uses for it, but even in these ways, social media has been a great tool for our youth group.

Finally, a few quick thoughts deal with some cons of using social media. First, some students (believe it or not) still may not have social media outlets. Thus, you have to consider how you can connect with them. Second, students (and parents) may not be consistent about checking it. Thus, you have to have ways to make sure your social media outlet is connecting with them. Finally—and I have heard this from many students and parents—there are parents and students who check the social media outlet of their youth group, but youth workers are not consistent and committed in their use of it. Hence, if you set it up, make sure to be committed in your use of it so people will have a reliable source of interaction and information.

Paul Sheneman

The timing of this question is appropriate as Facebook's marketing team is reeling from the backlash over privacy concerns. Couple that with the buzz in the blogosphere over a rumored mass exodus of users from the social networking giant, and we are afforded the perfect time to discuss the essence of and engagement with social media.

We should begin by viewing social media as a technology. Blogs, microblogs, vlogs, glogs, forums, video sharing, picture sharing, and wikis are just a few of the social media technologies. As a technology, social media promises to enhance human functions or traits. It specifically seeks to improve human relationships by virtualizing interactions and collaborations. Social media, along with advancements in hardware and wireless communication, breaks down the barriers of time and space, allowing for instant and constant communication between people.

It is easy to observe that social media has delivered on its promised enhancement. Our current adolescent generation is growing up online. They talk about their "social network," which refers to people they know strictly through the Internet (Have you seen that creepy Microsoft® Kin commercial?). They give social gestures such as link, friend, dig, tweet, tag, add, like, and follow in an instant to people all around the world. They upload stories, images, and videos of their life in real time. They can give running commentary on a plethora of activities and events that are happening thousands of miles away from them. As youth workers, the question that follows is, What are our students learning from their use of social media?

Naming the Unreal: The prophets had the difficult task of naming the unreal to those who believed otherwise. For Israel, Amos declared that their religious practices, which were believed to be a sign of faithfulness to God, were actually hollow acts because they did not lead to justice for the oppressed. For our students, we must point out the "unreal" which social media peddles. Specifically, they believe social media produces community, connection, and relationships. However, the unreal is that all interactions produced by social media are disembodied or "virtual community."

The problem with virtual community is that it is not human community. We cannot hope to separate the self from the body and believe that what results is authentic humanity. Our bodies ground us in a specific place and provide us the means of interacting with people. Social media provides us with a technological buffer. It promises interactions with other people, but what we actually get are interactions with technology. Therefore, it provides a way for a person to collaborate with content and interact with objects. It does not provide a human (self and body) encounter with another person.

Practicing the Real: We cannot simply stop at naming the unreal for students, though. We need to move on to experience community as God intended. So we attempt to cultivate practices which open us up to being community. Hospitality, prayer, singing praise to God, keeping Sabbath, and other Christian practices are means by which we learn authentic human relationship.

Extensions of the Real: Though community cannot be realized through social media, I do believe that students can extend Christian practices through social media. They can participate in the virtual community in ways that point to reality.

Three elements to aid our discernment of social media practices are Christian practices, relationality, and contextuality. First, Christian practices inform our imaginations in discerning ways to interact with others. For instance, what implications does keeping Sabbath have on constant tweeting? Second, relationality emphasizes the need for social media practices to have their origin and end in a community. In other words, are our teens sharing stories and images from their days to keep up with friends, or are they trying to "meet" people? Finally, contextuality emphasizes the need to see social media practices, like any practice, as being embedded in God's story. Thus, we should be asking ourselves, Is my social media practice a participation in what God is doing in the world?

Paul is a youth pastor at Grandview Church of the Nazarene and is well versed in technology. He has been involved in youth ministry for 10 years and lives in Kansas City with his wife and their newborn son.

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