As I talk with my fellow youth directors, I see issues in my ministry inherent to all youth ministries, at least those in suburban, upper-middle-class churches. What you’re reading is my attempt to work through it. Your comments and insights are appreciated.
The issues are no surprise. High schoolers are overcommitted, over-scheduled, and over-homeworked. (It’s a word now.) Church is one activity among many and it’s one with few consequences attached to it. If you don’t make practice, you don’t play in the game. If you don’t make rehearsals, you don’t sing the solo. You don’t lose much if you miss church. You’re welcomed back if you haven’t been there in a while. (We desperately want you to come back.) High schoolers join certain activities to build a resume for college. I’m not sure what place church has in that resume.
My parents came up during the 40s and 50s. The picture they painted for me was that church made for an orderly society. Good Christians were good citizens, orderly and respectful of authority. Back in 1993, I heard one of William F. Buckley’s Firing Line debates on the proposition “We have nothing to fear from the Religious Right.” Buckley’s opening and closing statements were about how orderly our society would be if we followed the principles championed by the Religious Right. The debate itself never addressed that point. I heard it from my parents and others, Christianity was valuable enough that if it didn’t exist, it would have to be invented.
If Christianity is such a useful tool that its absence would require its invention, maybe that’s what we did.
Not that we invented Christianity, but we invented the Christianity we practiced. The Buddhists tell us, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” That Buddha would not be the true Buddha, but one’s own idea of what the Buddha should be, an invented Buddha. One must kill the invented Buddha to find the real one. What we’re experiencing today may be the consequences of our invented Christianity. Church ties on the resume are no longer the credentials of the well-mannered ideal citizen. If the object is to develop an intelligent, socialized, and productive citizen, there are other ways to do it.
So . . . what does that mean for youth ministry? I’m not entirely sure; I’m blogging to help figure it out. Here are some random thoughts in no particular order.
Instead of asking how the church can compete, maybe we should ask what it means to think the church must compete. Our Christian faith should be the eyes we look through to evaluate everything else. Christianity must speak to the fundamentals of being human, not how to thrive in the social system we invented. That’s oversimplified, but it’s my starting point.
We need to find a way to get teenagers to step back and look at life at a time when they’re struggling to find a place for themselves.
We need to be clear to ourselves about what we intend to accomplish. I want my youth to know there is a God who loves and cares for them, who is as close to them as their breath, and who is with them always. I want them to have ways of getting in touch with the spiritual resources available to them for comfort and for guidance. I want them to be able to look back on a time when instead of talk about God, there was God.
This is a work in progress, an ongoing conversation and internal debate. I’d appreciate your comments.
The Feral Deacon 