Keep It Simple
It was, and to this day, is, the single coolest drummer’s name I’d ever heard: Tony Beats. If you know him, let him know that his name was an inspiration. He came to the house for a drum audition for our band. We were set at keys, vocals, guitar, and bass. All we needed was a drummer.
When he introduced himself and began to load in, I was impressed by the kit he brought. It was, once assembled, a Neil Pert type of set. That means he had everything mounted on a cage. There were toms of many sizes, electronics I’d never seen before, a huge kick drum, cymbals on top of cymbals. It had to have cost him as much as a pretty nice car.
We kicked off rehearsal and one thing was evident. Tony was lost in his own tool set. He missed drums, lacked rhythm and, sometimes, it felt like he was spinning in circles.In spite of the incredible name and drum kit, we didn’t pick Tony.
The next drum audition came from a guy who looked like Jesus. I mean that literally. We invited him in because, well, He was knocking at the door.
He brought a bass kick, a snare, one cymbal and a high hat. Four pieces in all. We asked him if he had more and he assured us he did, but this was an audition and if he couldn’t impress us with the pieces he brought, then all of the other pieces were unnecessary. He was right.
He felt the band’s direction intuitively and in one truly spiritual moment caught a rhythmic hitch perfectly. It was a movie scene. The kind where a singer sings perfectly including lyrics she has never heard. Like that. He joined the band. Our new drummer was an expert at the fundamental basics.
Today, youth workers have more tools than an octopus plumber. They are surrounded by tools; many of these are excellent. Discipleship apps, game sites, cohorts, mentors, seminary degrees, specific translation and study Bibles, online curriculum, video resources, AI announcements, skit scripts, speakers, seminars, conferences, bands, comedians, magicians, artists, networks, subscriptions, and affordable pizza. Despite the glut of help most youth ministries are in decline or, maintaining status quo. What’s the problem?
Well some of the struggle to attract and minister to students is cultural shift. Smart phones, the 15 year, unrestricted experiment on unsupervised teenagers. The Anxious Generation, a 2022 study on the effect of the rewiring of the adolescent brain by Jonathan Haidt, sites students becoming less engaged by real life, addicted to their own dopamine and strangled by a pressure to gain social media approval. The average amount of time spent on social media, and this does not include zoom classrooms or homework, is over 7 hours a day.
The sequestering of our teenagers to their own rooms during Covid has also born ill effect. Decision making, risk-taking and physical challenges have been tragically hampered. The most difficult piece to the research, at least by page 150, is, we are not sure if the effects can be reversed.
It may feel as if youth workers have an impossible task to accomplish. The feelings are most likely right. But then again, ministry has always been an impossible task. But not to God.
Students are still primarily interested in answering three questions.
In their book, 3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager, Kara Powell and Brad Griffin discuss the same 3 questions, I believe teenagers have always asked. Who am I? Where do I fit? What difference can I make? Doesn’t seem like rocket science, does it? Over the next several months I will be adding a blog about each of these core principles.
Youth workers should wrestle down expertise in just a few areas. A four piece kit may be the ticket to effectively communicating to today’s students. After all, we signed up with a deeply seated belief: “Our obedience, empowered by God’s faithfulness to His promises amounts to a mobilized, energized, discipled body of teenagers. These six areas of concentration originally came through Dann Spader at Sonlife. Over the last 25 years of rural ministry
1. God’s Word abides.
Anything in my own authority or pulled from my own experience is likely to become subjective and even irrelevant. God speaks to us through His Word. I have referred to the process as the Greatest Relational Miracle. Infinite God, speaks timeless wisdom to flawed man. Man uses the imperfect tool of writing it all down. 2000 years later we pick up the ancient manuscript and read the words of God with our imperfect minds, skewed contexts and sinful hearts. They reach into our souls and we understand something of God.
When we are under the authority of God’s Word, we can discern and speak with the Holy Spirit. That matters. Becoming a communicator of God’s Word is more than being a critic, reader, or paraphraser of it. Discect it. Digest it. Apply it. Simplify it and learn how to engage with it!
2. Be concerned about the right image.
Some ministries attempt to give students something they are not interested in pursuing. Students are interested in relationships but afraid of the risks involved. When we are investing in students and the things they are interested in, we are sending the message that real relationships can be trusted. Time spent with, words spoken and things done for, are still primary love languages. Forgetting my agenda and legitimately pursuing teenagers is an area of expertise.I need to know where to find students, what they really like, who they respect and where they are making their investments.
I have discovered most youth workers are actually driven by their own middle-aged agendas. If students do not share that same agenda, you can expect diminishing results.Students will show up to perception. In other words, they will trust the hype, right or wrong. That’s how people ended up paying good money to see, The Last of the Airbenders. There wasn’t a sequel because the image did not match the perception.
Are we about Jesus, relationships, life-transformation or God’s Word? Figure out your values and then form your image.
3. Love them through the tough days.
You don’t plan tragedy. You just know it’s always around the bend. Family strife, disappointments, breakups and doubts are commonplace. Unfortunately, so is illness, death and spiritual struggle. We can only be there when it happens. Timing is important. By the way, more students in your care equals more time spent in care for your students. You need a system of care. It involves more people than you because the problems, difficulty and struggle will be greater than your ability to deal with them.
4. Create community which connects.
The fight against a culture where permanence has been obliterated is difficult, endless work. Students, volunteers and staff all are looking for meaningful relationships which unite them in a cause. Make sure that you take every chance to draw people together into loving, invested, recognizable families; families, in this case, meaning groups of like-spirited people. By the way, this never happens accidentally. It is something you refine, commit to, mull over and prepare for.
5. Pray as a commitment.
None of us can do this alone. The needs are too great, especially if your ministry begins to attract more students. Prayer is not the expressing platitudes to God. Prayer is the heart cry, the desperate longings and submission to the will of the Father. It is also access to the power of God Almighty! It is the very presence of God. It is our reliance and His demonstration. In Exodus 33:15 Moses begs God, “If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here.”I wonder how our ministries would look if this was our daily prayer.
6. Live like Jesus Christ.
This is the part where sharing faith, inviting, humility and death happens. It seems if I could keep this thought at the forefront of my mind each day, I would naturally accomplish each of the above goals. There is no science to effective youth ministry. It is all God’s, and it is completely supernatural. I want my ministry to reflect Him… not me.