CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Danny

Discoveries of a Youth Pastor

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Equip1Qcover.jpgThere are certain lessons I have learned over the last decade and a half in youth ministry. I learned early on that taking students to play paintball really means open season on the youth pastor, and I learned that something always gets broken during a lock-in. I figured out that playing dodge ball allows me the opportunity to get back at “that” student, and I realized that the back seat of the church van provides students with way too much privacy. I have observed that youth group couples rarely last and that most parents judge a youth program by whether their child is having a good time at youth group. I found out that playing youth group games in the sanctuary never ends well and that students seldom bring Bibles to church. I also realized that the most effective way to help students connect the dots between faith and life is having a youth group that worships together, prays for each other, and participates in missions experiences.

taking students to play paintball really means open season on the youth pastor…

At YXL this past summer (CEP’s denominational leadership conference for high school students), the Lord blessed us with great times of worship and prayer. It seemed to the leadership of the conference that the next step would be to take on a mission trip as many of these students who would like to go. Though we attempt each summer to incorporate some type of ministry experience into the conference, like street evangelism or a service project, this would be our first attempt at a full blown mission trip. Because as a conference YXL hopes to help students better understand how to be leaders in both the church and the kingdom, it was important that our mission trip be connected with a local church and allow students to engage with people who are not involved in a church.

On December 27th, students and adults from seven states and one foreign country gathered at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, GA for a day of training, team building, and corporate Sabbath worship before heading to our final destination, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our host church, New City Fellowship Chattanooga (www.newcityfellowship.com), allowed us to join with their new church plant in the East Lake neighborhood of Chattanooga to lead a Christmas VBS program and do work projects in the community. Hope for the Inner City (www.hope4.org) provided our lodging and Brian McKeon, director of 3RInternational mission agency, served as our coordinator for the trip. During the course of the week, we painted rooms, cleaned church basements, raked leaves, went door to door visiting folks from the neighborhood, picked up kids in the church van and put on a one of a kind YXL Christmas VBS program. But of all the things that happened during the week, it was the times I saw the light bulb switch on in students’ minds about the relevancy of their faith to all of life that made the late nights, early mornings, and sleeping on the floor worth it.

In certain circles it is currently en vogue to question the effectiveness of what has been happening in youth ministry over the last three decades. As a result, many of us are rethinking our youth ministry paradigms and methodologies. However, I left my week in Chattanooga reminded again of the many lessons I have learned in youth ministry. Foremost on my mind was the connection between faith and life for students that happens when they worship together, pray for each other, and participate in missions experiences. Perhaps the answer to all our questions about effective youth ministry can be found by allowing students to do those three things.

For more information about YXL, check out our website – www.pcacep.org/yxl – or the website about our sister conference in Glorieta, New Mexico – www.yxlglorieta.org.

The Future of the Church?

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Equip4thQtr2008.jpg

Perhaps I am a little biased on this subject, but I have to admit that each time I hear someone referring to high school students as the “future of the church” a part of me cringes, Don’t get me wrong. I agree with the idea that teenagers must be trained and equipped to one day become the leaders of the church. However, it seems to me that we do a disservice to the next generation if we treat youth ministry as a holding pen for students until they are old enough to do the real work of the church.

Just a few years ago, the Baylor University School of Social Work conducted a study where they found the students with the most mature, vibrant faith that carried on from the teen years to adulthood were those who were actively involved in the ministries of a church as teenagers and those who were engaged in meeting the needs of people in their communities. Given the overwhelmingly negative statistics concerning young adults and church involvement, I am willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that engaging teenagers in the life of your congregation is one of the more important things you can do in your student ministry. Stepping a little further out on the limb, let me also suggest that though the application of the Great Commission must be contextualized, the call to make disciples is equally as valid for the teenagers in your congregation as it is for the adults who inhabit your pews.

I was reminded of these truths again this summer as I had the privilege of directing Youth Excelling in Leadership (YXL), CEP’s denominational student leadership conference, and taking part in our sister conference, YXL Glorieta, held in Glorieta, New Mexico. The goal of both conferences is similar: to develop student leaders through the strong preaching of the Word. dynamic worship experiences, interactive leadership initiatives, leadership assessment, and the expansion of their biblical world and life view. One unique aspect of the YXL conferences is that the local church is asked to identify and recommend high school students that are ready for a week of intense Christian leadership training.

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This past summer, over 100 students and adults participated in YXL at Covenant College and another 85 took part in YXL Glorieta. In keeping with YXL’s theme of COMMIT, men such as Southern Methodist University RUF Campus Minister Chad Scruggs, Covenant College Chaplain Aaron Messner, and Assistant Pastor of Redemption Fellowship EJ Childs challenged students to explore more fully the commitment that Jesus expects from his disciples. The worship leader, Kirk Ward, Worship Director at New City Fellowship in Saint Louis, added music from around the world to encourage students to think more globally as they worship together. Add to the list a ministry project with Hope for the Inner City (www.hope4.org), paintball, caving in Raccoon Mountain, hiking on Lookout Mountain, and dozens of other leadership activities and YXL 2008 at Covenant College was a life transforming experience for not only the students who attended but for many adults there as well.

At YXL Glorieta, students were encouraged to RISE UP because “the resurrection changes everything.” Under the direction of John Ranheim, Development Director at Covenant Seminary, YXL Glorieta was a huge success. RUF campus pastors Justin Clement and Tom Franklin unpacked from Scripture the resurrection and helped students understand the implications of this event in their lives. Musician Ryan Anderson used his unique music style to draw students into wonderful worship experiences. The natural beauty of Glorieta, New Mexico, coupled with paintball, whitewater rafting, high ropes, and various leadership initiatives help set YXL Glorieta apart as a premier Christian leadership conference for PCA churches in the western United States.

However, it was during the nightly prayer times as I listened to high school students at both conferences crying out, grieving over personal and corporate sin issues, with almost childlike faith asking to be used of God that I realized again that students are more than just the future of the church.

I have been a believer for a little over two decades. For most of that time I have been involved in youth ministry. I am seminary trained and will soon possess the necessary credentials to be a pastor in the PCA, but I don’t know that I can recall many adult prayer meetings where prayers were offered with the sincerity and abandon that I experienced at YXL and YXL Glorieta this summer. let me go as far out on the proverbial limb as Ican this time and make one last suggestion. Perhaps the next time your church has a significant prayer need, you should move your teenagers out of the “future of the church” holding pen and into the ministry of your church by asking them to lead the prayer meeting. Based on my YXL experiences this summer, I have a sneaking suspicion that the adults of your church may be encouraged and challenged at the way the Holy Spirit can use young people to further the kingdom of God.

UnChristian: What a New Generation Thinks About Christianity… And Why It Matters

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Because I am increasingly wary of books that describe how bad things are in the American evangelical church, I was initially skeptical after being handed a copy of UnChristian. My growing dissatisfaction with these books comes from my concern that many of the authors have forgotten that in spite of her numerous warts, Christ loves his bride. In my opinion, it is time to move away from pointing out the issues of the church and move toward finding biblical solutions to those problems. Much to my surprise, I found that the authors of UnChristian worked hard to strike the appropriate balance between critique of the church and solutions for the church.

The basis of the author’s critique comes from extensive research done among older Mosaics, people born between 1984 and 2002, and among younger Busters, people born between 1965 and 1983.While some of the research was conducted among young adults who considered themselves “born again,” the majority was done with those considered by the authors to be “outsiders,” or people who are looking at the Christian faith from the outside. To this research, Dave Kinnaman brings his expertise as the president of the Barna Research Group; and Gabe Lyons brings his insights as the founder of a collective of leaders who are seeking to make a positive contribution to culture known as the Fermi Project (www.fermiproject.com).

The results of their research are not for the faint of heart, as the data reveals that young outsiders find much of the behavior of Christians to be, in their own minds, un-Christian. If the statistics hold true among the 24 million 16-29 year-old outsiders in America, then the Church has an image problem. The six issues that are given as the biggest stumbling blocks to young outsiders are that Christians are hypocrites, focused only on getting converts, anti-homosexual, too sheltered, too political, and too judgmental. This type of data leads Kinnaman and Lyons to conclude that as Christians we are “famous for what we oppose, rather than what we stand for.”

If UnChristian had ended with this negative critique, I would have been reluctant to recommend it. Thankfully, the authors balance the opinions of the young outsiders with their own ideas for improving the image of the Church. I found the strength of this book, and one of the main reasons I am recommending it be read, is that the authors allow dozens of other voices from evangelical America into this discussion, ranging from theologians like John Stott to pastors such as Shayne Wheeler, pastor of All Souls Fellowship PCA, from Emergent Church leaders such as Brian McLaren to cultural apologists like Charles Colson. Admittedly, I was at times frustrated by the suggestions of these men and women. However, for the most part, I found the essays at the end of the chapters to be not only worth considering but personally beneficial as I wrestle with the challenges the church faces as it tries to minister to the 24 million young outsiders in America.

Asking the Right Questions About Youth Ministry, Part 2

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Equip1stQtr2008.jpgI have a confession to make. The pressure was on and in the heat of the moment I succumbed to what Jason Stephenson, youth director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, labels the “pragmatism of youth ministry.” In the last issue of Equip to Disciple, I stated that the first question that should be asked about youth ministry is not programmatic, but should concern itself with the theological foundation. Yet when a pastor looking for a youth director called and asked what the distinctives of a Reformed youth ministry were, I forgot my own sage advice. After describing the discipleship programs of several PCA youth ministries, the pastor stopped me and pointed out that nothing I had described was distinct to a Reformed youth program. Without intending to, I had fallen into the trap that so many of us who are engaged in student ministry find ourselves in: looking for a program or event to solve all the problems in our youth ministry. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with programs or events; however, I am more and more convinced the proper foundation on which to build and sustain a youth program is God’s covenant relationship with humanity.

From the origin of your calling to work with the next generation to the importance of assisting parents in raising their children, a covenantal understanding of scripture has multiple implications for youth ministry. Let me try to whet your appetite by highlighting just two of the many aspects of this special relationship between God and man that have direct bearing on how we do youth ministry.

First, the covenant is relational. In it the Lord declares that He is our God and we are His people. This statement helps us begin to develop a proper view of both God and man. How many self-absorbed or self-loathing teenagers could use a youth ministry which helps them understand this distinction? Implicit in this relationship is responsibility. For example, we have a missional responsibility to be a blessing to others. This gives a better foundation for why we do those summer mission trips to exotic locations and those service projects in the inner city.

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The second aspect which has direct bearing on youth ministry is that the covenant is about community. Through salvation we are brought into a community that not only shares a common bond in Christ but also shares in joy, pain, and accountability. That one idea of covenant community alone can help us better know how to address the inevitable issue of cliques within our youth groups.

Now, I know that in today’s spiritual climate words like doctrine and theology are often labeled as boring and irrelevant. I know for some the thought of trying to teach a doctrine as deep as the covenant to a room full of junior high boys causes you to break out in a cold sweat. I also fully appreciate that advertising your next retreat as “The Retreat of the Covenant” would be a tough sell to high school students. That being said, what I am suggesting is that we should think theology before programs and work to understand and integrate the covenant implications of our relationship with the Lord into the DNA of all we do in youth ministry. Our challenge is to avoid the temptation of running to and fro looking for the next big thing in youth ministry until we have evaluated our programs based on our covenant relationship with God. Then maybe, just maybe, the next time a pastor calls asking about the theology of youth ministry, I can remember my own advice.

1. For further reading on the subject of the covenants, I recommend the classic The Christ of the Covenants by O. Palmer Robertson. For those who want a good summation of the doctrine, I recommend Making Kingdom Disciples by Charles Dunahoo. See especially chapter 5. For those who want to understand the covenants in relation to teaching it to the next generation, I recommend Heirs of the Covenant by Susan Hunt. For those interested in a primer on Covenant Theology for high school students, new believers, or people investigating the doctrine for the first time I recommend What is Covenant Theology: A Contemporary Explanation of Biblical Covenants by J.H. Varner.

Asking the Right Questions About Youth Ministry, Part 1

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I recently heard a veteran PCA youth pastor say that only 6% of the current generation of students claim to be evangelical Christians, compared to 65% of the Baby Boomer generation. I then read an online study conducted by LifeWay Research (www.lifeway.com) which found that two-thirds of adults between the ages of 18-22 who were involved in church as high school students will stop attending church for at least a year, with only 35% of those returning to regular church attendance. Also, researchers such as George Barna, Walt Mueller, and Christian Smith are finding a disconnect between what evangelical teens profess to believe and the moral choices they are making, especially in the area of sexual activity.

It is hard to know what to make of these statistics, but I am convinced that they should lead those of us involved in youth ministry to start asking each other honest, hard questions about student ministry in the PCA. Jamie Lambert, youth director at Covenant Presbyterian in Fayetteville, Georgia, pointed out to me that in order to find the right answer, you have to ask the right question. I believe this axiom can be rightly applied to the trends above with the question being: What is the theological foundation that empowers youth ministry?

My concern is that without a clearly-developed theological foundation, we a re building our youth programs on sinking sand. For example, there was a time when those of us in youth ministry thought the answers to the spiritual problems facing teenagers could be found by getting them to attend youth events. So we spent money on technology and marketing, wore chicken suits at youth group, and gave away t-shirts at every event. Success was determined by how many students showed up. We then read that we needed to be “relational” to be successful. Borrowing ideas from Young Life, we started “meeting students on their turf.” Then someone informed us that we needed to be relevant, so we learned the idioms of the day, grew goatees, listened to popular music, and added a few profanities to our vocabulary. Doug Fields came along and told us to have a “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,” so we all wrote carefully-crafted purpose statements. Now the Emerging Church folks are pushing us to be missional, authentic, and to rediscover the ancient (for more on this topic see A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee). So we are burning candles in our youth rooms, working to build community in our youth groups, and talking about social injustices around the world. Yet no matter which of the latest methods we try, the statistics continue to grow more alarming.

This is why I believe the first question of youth ministry is one of theological foundation. I am convinced that the particular model of ministry that a church uses is secondary to the theological foundation on which the model is built. I will suggest in the next issue of Equip that God’s covenant relationship with humanity is the proper theological foundation for youth ministry. However, I am afraid that all too often the theological implications of that relationship have little to do with the planning of our youth ministry calendars.

Is youth ministry a lost cause in the PCA? Absolutely not. There are hundreds of churches doing great work around the country, as well as a number of quality youth ministry resources within the Reformed community. For a list of these refer to the youth ministry section of the CE&P website www.pcacep.org. However, for many of us it is time to deconstruct much of what we have been doing in youth ministry in order to build a proper theological foundation. Somehow the cart (the ministry model) has gotten ahead of the horse (the theological foundation). Getting those back in the proper order is, I believe, a process that will begin when we start asking the right question. What is the theological foundation that empowers youth ministry?