Editorial

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed by the task at hand in youth ministry?

We dream of seeing a generation of young people reached and transformed by the love of Jesus, but right here, right now, if we’re honest… doesn’t that seem like a pretty tall order?

The Church as a whole is increasingly disconnected from teenagers. The numbers of young people attending or engaging with church has fallen dramatically in recent decades; in the midst of financial downturn, many churches are having to scale back their work with teenagers, or combine youth and children’s ministry. The most recent estimates suggest that half the UK’s churches still don’t do any youth work.

The societal context in which those young people are growing up is changing, and not for the better. Whichever end of the political spectrum you are, it’s hard to deny that our society has become less accepting of (and in places antagonistic towards) the Christian faith and those who practice it. Collective worship and RE are slowly being airbrushed out of the education system. Faith schools or organisations in receipt of government funding are criticised or campaigned against as a symbol of inequality. Parents are in many cases no longer broadly supportive of the Church, but see it as redundant – and tell their children so.

The culture all around these teenagers is rapidly changing too. Consumerism and individualism are the personal gods of the age, creating aspirations around material wealth and instant success. The well-documented sexualisation (or even pornification) of youth culture is an out-of-control juggernaut that is being addressed far too late to prevent some hefty future consequences. Meanwhile, the Church is largely struggling to keep up with the speed of change – counting small victories and grieving for a majority who dismiss them as out of touch.

We’re struggling for relevance, connection, acceptance and a way in – desperate for greater investment from the Church, for reinforcements, for growth. It’s tough out there. Tougher than we’ve ever known it. And yet…

In John 14 v 12, Jesus is comforting his disciples in preparation for his death. He gives them, and us, this promise: ‘Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ Even greater things. Than the one who healed the sick, fed the masses, resurrected the dead and kick-started a movement that grew to two billion people. Greater things than the wisest teacher who ever lived, on whose teachings whole constitutions were founded.

The disciples took some convincing – the evidence of his resurrection was probably a significant faith booster. But Jesus’ words are as true for us now as they were for them then. The Bible ultimately speaks of victory, of renewal, of redemption. We win.

So for us, living in the midst of the now-and-not-yet Kingdom, where things are still not the best version of themselves, the question is this: what does Jesus mean when he tells us we’ll do ‘even greater things?’ What does that mean when things seem to be getting worse, not better? What does that mean for youth ministry in 2013? This issue of Youthwork serves as a companion to the 2013 Youthwork Summit in West Bromwich. Through both the event and the magazine, we’ll be tackling that question from a number of different directions. The teams behind both believe God is calling us to a reality check - to recognise the power we have flowing within us. So we’ll explore three key themes – how God is greater than anything we fear or come up against, how we really can do ‘even greater things’ in Jesus name, and how if we really want him to become greater in our lives and communities, then we must become less.

We’ll also pose the question – to a number of influential leaders – ‘Can we win?’ We’re being playful of course; as many of them point out, that’s probably the wrong question. Yet it does crystallise another question: are we fighting a losing battle? The Bible says no. The evidence, actually, says no. Jesus Christ is the hope for this generation. He is greater. Let’s start acting like it.