Here’s a question: is your youth ministry ‘sustainable’? Often when asked that question my eyes blur as I gaze into the middle distance and imagine five, seven or ten years into the future… could I still be doing what I’m doing? Is your youth ministry sustainable for you? Could you keep going indefinitely?
Resources need tracking down, teams need training and supporting and volunteers need recruiting. You need to be up to date with regulations, safeguarding and the latest ‘on trend’ happenings in the world of youth work. You’ve got to be on top of assemblies, groups which need running and initiating and that niche ‘lads in year nine cell group who like to think they are a bit goth, but aren’t really, and have a propensity for Minecraft’ won’t run itself. Do you ever feel like there is too much happening, too much going on, too much expected, and, well, just too much?
There are significant challenges facing youth ministry at the moment. We have, apparently, more youth workers employed across our churches in the UK than ever before. Yet, collectively we are working with far fewer young people. By 2020, 1.5 million children will have left the Church since 1990. I am in my mid-forties now, and this has happened on my watch as a salaried youth worker and someone who has been in ministry for 28 years. We have managed to wave goodbye to 500,000 children every ten years for three decades in a row as we have increased our youth provision. Can you spot a problem?
There is another way. We need a radical simplification of our youth ministry if we have any hope of sustaining the work we are doing. The buzzwords in environmental sustainability are the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. These have much to teach us about a simpler, more sustainable, youth work.
REDUCE
Less is more. We don’t need a load of programmes to ‘feed’ our young people. There is a danger that our activities and thinking becomes too ‘niche’, and we are constantly analysing whether what we are doing is going to meet the needs (or wants) of the young people in the park, the young people in our local school, the young people who are homeschooled, the young people into sport, the young people who would like to do worship, the young people who like computer games, the young people who want a youth group, or the young people who want a choir. Does feeding the wants of our young people lead to a growing faith? Does it lead to dynamic young disciples? Or are we simply aping culture, nurturing our own set of consumers eager to turn up to what is on offer, but only if we are meeting the specific set of criteria of what will get them there? This leads to diminishing returns, as the more you put on, the less young people engage, and the more disjointed things can become.
Bill Hybels famously apologised for the Willow Creek model that led to literally hundreds of ministries running across the church for people at every stage of life and of every interest. They discovered that running lots of stuff for people to participate in does not produce disciples. If you are anything like me you feel immense pressure to be doing more, offering more and trying to be more. We need a compelling reason to stop, think and change our practice.
Reduce the amount of time and energy you give to youth ministry. Yes, really! Working 70 hours a week (half of which is unpaid overtime) is not healthy for you, your family, or your ministry. If you are a volunteer who, outside of your day job, has nothing else in their life except the youth ministry, make some changes!
Reduce the number of young people you personally disciple. You may be ‘it’ in terms of ministry, so this is a tough call, but consider this: while Jesus had a youth group of 12 or so, he also appeared to have just three who he particularly invested in. James, Peter and John, the three he took up the mountain to witness the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1). Which three young people could you particularly be investing in?
Reduce the number of groups. This is a big one. Maybe, in your heart of hearts, there is group you know has had its time. Maybe you inherited it, or maybe you run something simply because it has always been so. If you stopped the group tomorrow, would it make any impact on the church making young disciples?
Reduce the frequency of some activities. All young people need a balanced diet of input, be it social, mental, physical or theological, but does the social need to be weekly?
Reduce what you do. You might have a team of incredible volunteers, raring to go, but, if you do everything and they are simply warm bodies in the room so you have the right ratio of leaders to young people, you will lose the good ones in no time. If you can delegate, do it. You will develop your team, give value to those working alongside you in ministry and, and give yourself space to focus on doing things well in the areas you are most gifted in.
REUSE
It would be odd, when introducing new worship songs, if we only ever sung them once. They bear repeated singing because they are anointed or say something which makes our spirits soar as we worship. They become ‘classics’ and part of our regular worship diet. Why then, when it comes to our teaching or illustrations, do we tend to only use them once?
Juan Carlos Ortiz, an Argentinian pastor, wrote a book called Disciples in the 1970s at the height of a revival in his country. Ortiz had decided to preach exactly the same message in his church each week until he felt that his congregation was starting to live it out. He started with love. He preached on it until his congregation took hold of the message and began to live out the love of Christ in their daily lives.
What is it that we say and do that bears repeating? What is it that just ‘works’? Sometimes we can feel ‘if it ain’t broke - don’t fix it’ is a cop out, but what if we are expending a whole load of energy and time trying to be down with the latest YouTube clip, musical illustration or hilarious bit of wow factor, when in fact, what we said last week needs saying again?
Reuse a talk or illustration because you will get better at delivering it. The more you get your head around a talk or illustration the more you will be able to do with it. If you really know it, you will be less reliant on notes, more able to interact with your group, and more likely to get discussion going because you are comfortable that you won’t forget your place. If you are drawing on scripture for your talk, you will discover that there is more each time from the same passage. The Bible keeps on giving, so it’s not possible to drain a passage of truth and application.
Reuse a talk or illustration because they weren’t all there the last time. It used to be that you could have a group of 45 young people and, each week, 43 would turn up - generally the same 43. Now, it seems, you can have a group of 45 and you might get 26 one week and a different 26 the week after. Reuse it and revisit it, because those who missed it the first time might also need to hear it. The others might need to hear it again because: the last time you did it you blew it (this happens, don’t beat yourself up about it), they didn’t ‘get it’ last time (some things need repetition, look at Jesus and his disciples), or because it was essential (topics such as the cross are central to our faith).
RECYCLE
There is nothing new under the sun. I have been involved in youth ministry for 28 years and, while there have been some amazing developments, lots of programmes, curriculum, material or resources are, quite frankly, not new. However, stuff needs a ‘recycle’ every now and then to keep it feeling fresh. Alternatively, you can take something that has served its purpose in one area, and can now be used in another.
Throw nothing away without thinking. I am not advocating hoarding, but I am suggesting that just considering what you have got that you no longer want, before throwing it away, is good stewardship. Those polystyrene cups from the BBQ (too many purchased for the amount of hot chocolate that was actually consumed) could now be used for an icebreaker game (get two young people lying on the floor, bin bags covering their tummies, while two teams race to build the highest towers of cups filled with water until the inevitable drenching).
Get yourself to a scrap bank. Strictly speaking this isn’t you recycling, but it is making use of others who have recycled or made stuff available to voluntary organisations, charities and churches through their generosity. When I worked in West London, one of my favourite places to visit was a scrap bank - an Aladdin’s cave of junk at ridiculously cheap prices where the ‘trade’ went to shop for tat. I rarely purchased anything that I then used for its actual purpose, but found great stuff from object lessons for assemblies (especially weird kitchen implements) to huge rolls of paper to crazy inflatables for a holiday club. Do a search, and check out what is near you locally.
Spread the love with a neighbouring church. You might be super-resourced! Money might be no problem and you can purchase what you want for your youth work. Spare a thought for the church up the road where things are a bit tighter.
Adapt and tweak for different age groups. This is my favourite, and probably my most often used ‘recycle’. I take a talk, illustration or idea I have used with a youth group and pull it apart, give it a tweak or simplify it to use with children. I have probably most often done this with assemblies. With a full week, preparing one basic assembly to be delivered in four venues with various ages (with a tweak here or there) makes my week feel more doable than developing four assemblies from scratch.
Simplifying your youth ministry so that it is sustainable for you, and for the future of the church or organisation you work for, should be a priority. Considering these three Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle will help us distill our work down to what is essential, helping us to keep going for the long haul, and allowing us to focus on what’s really important: our relationships with young people, and introducing them into relationship with God.
