Youth Work according to St Paul

Pretend you’re the youth pastor. Ok, that wasn’t hard. Now pretend that the apostle Paul is the head pastor. What would that be like?

First thought: not good. Paul is driven, argumentative, full-on and non-stop. Day off? Are you kidding? He’s there talking all night until people doze off and drop out of the windows (it happened, check out Acts 20:7– 9). Second thought: great! If you and Paul have a mutual opponent, you won’t recognise them once Paul slices and dices. Listen to the sarcasm he flings at the full-of-themselves Corinthians: ‘Oh, right, you are already basking in spiritual riches, already you have transformed into spiritual kings and queens! (I wish it were true, it’d be useful to have an in with royalty!) But I can’t talk to you as if you were mature spiritual beings, instead you’re infants… and I have to give you formula; I’m keeping the little jars of strained carrots and apple sauce on the shelf till you’re old enough for them.’ (1 Corinthians 4:8; 3:1; slightly paraphrased by me.)

I think Paul is great. I’ve written a book about how to like Paul again, called (appropriately) How to like Paul again. In it there are 15 chapters, and you’re holding the missing sixteenth in your hands. If there was a special youth workers’ edition, this is what I’d have added at the end.

I want to do two things in this pseudochapter: first, show you three things that I think Paul would call you out on, and second, just say a word or two about Bible studies.

Paul in practice

Let’s be tactful and start with the good news. Here’s what I guess you’re already doing:

1. Paul was totally committed to following his Lord and sharing his faith. For most youth workers I know, this is their main qualification.

2. Paul doesn’t think he knows everything. If you haven’t read the book, you’ll have to take my word for it here. But again, no problem here for most of you; when (or if) you’ve been in the game for ages, watch out! But for now, you’re probably safe on this one.

3. Paul practiced what he preached and was willing to stand up and be counted. It got him into all sorts of trouble from others who just wanted to be comfortable. Most youth workers I know don’t always find this easy, but they still take a deep breath, step out and try.

4. Paul was an even better listener than communicator. His letters are very different to each other and the differences bear witness to this: he knows and understands his audiences because he’s listened. This is another thing I find truer of youth workers than most people. Maybe it’s because young people are more willing to open up to you than the average church-goer is willing to open up to a head pastor.

5. Paul is a clever and creative communicator, using a variety of methods to get his message across; including a poem about love in 1 Corinthians 13 or dense prose arguments in parts of Romans. Flexible creative communication is one of the things most youth workers work hardest at, and it’s wonderful for the rest of us to watch!

But here are three things that I think youth workers in our culture struggle with:

Sacrificing cool

First, are Paul’s ministry sacrifices. Usually we think of sacrificial ministry as financial; youth workers excel in putting up with financial sacrifices. But while researching and writing my book, I discovered Paul to be willing to take sacrifices of other types as well — most notably sacrifices of status and prestige. Paul was willing to do the Christian thing even if it meant that people thought less of him for it.

This is understandably very difficult for youth workers. We want to tell people about God and have them say ‘wow’, not ‘whatever.’ When we’re in front of young people, most of us — even absurdly old goats like me — can’t help wanting to be, in some way, cool. Ah, but see the shift there? We, just like our audience, too easily glide from the coolness of the message to the coolness of the messenger. It is understandable that I try to be cool so that they’ll listen to my message. But maybe part of my message should be that it’s better to listen to ordinary but authentic human beings rather than celebrities. Maybe instead of constructing a replica but ‘baptised’ celebrity culture, we should be demonstrating an alternative culture.

Here’s challenge number one: do not aim for your youth group to believe you because you’re cool. Aim for your youth group to be amazed at God’s wonders being poured out of such an ordinary, like-them, vessel.

I scratch your back, you scratch mine

The second thing is pretty closely related for our purposes: when you listen to people, you discover their tastes and preferences, including how they want to be seen and thought of. And if you play along with these, then they’ll play along with you - and it looks for all the world like a win-win situation. Not only will they look up to you as ‘their kind of leader’, but others will see you as the head of the group. By making them feel and look good, you can make yourself look good.

This mutual backscratching isn’t always the best way to proceed. We have all had experiences where scratching the insect bite or sore makes it worse rather than better. This was the case with Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians. He knew that the Corinthians wanted to be thought of as wise. They wanted to see themselves as devoted and advanced disciples, an inner circle, a first century postgraduate seminar. And if he treated them that way — flattered them with this view of themselves — then they would flatter him as their guru or expert advisor. You or I would probably have scratched their back and acted like the postgraduate supervisor and in that play-acting, tried to fill them up with all the solid Christian teaching that we could.

Paul said no. He went to all kinds of trouble to understand what his audience wanted to hear, but once he understood, he also thought through what was best for them. Then, in very clever ways, he gave them the truth, rather than what would have pleased them, even though it involved putting them down. Read the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians for how Paul conceives of their relationship. In essence, it’s not as postgrads.

Challenge number two: spend time trying to understand your youth group and how they want to think of themselves and think of you. But also understand who they really are and help them grow from there.

Yield to others

Finally, when I compared the letters of Galatians and 1 Corinthians, I found I had been wrong about how Paul treated other people. Bear with me; I have to explain what’s in the Epistles before I can get to the challenge for us. I remembered the prickly old Paul of Galatians. When he writes about Peter in that letter, it is about confrontation and disagreements. There’s a remarkable incident detailed in Galatians 2:11-14 where Paul caught Peter being a hypocrite, and recounts how he publicly shamed Peter: ‘When I saw what he was doing, I said to Peter, to his face, in front of everyone…’

I thought this was what Paul was like - argumentative and uncompromising. But when you turn to 1 Corinthians, you won’t believe that it is the same Paul! In 1 Corinthians 15:8, Paul talks about hardly being worthy of the title ‘apostle’, because the risen Jesus appeared to him last of all. But go back a few to verse five and you’ll find that Paul goes out of his way to single Peter out as the first to see the resurrected Jesus. He doesn’t have to — he could have just said ‘the twelve’, but instead he emphasises Peter. He writes that he, Paul, is a late after-thought, and emphasises that Peter was the first one Jesus went to! Earlier in 1 Corinthians (9:4- 14), Paul brings up a matter that appears to have been contentious: a contrast between how Peter and Paul accepted support. Here, too, Paul says that Peter is doing the right thing. It is he, Paul, who is acting out of the ordinary by not accepting what is his right.

What is the difference between the two letters? Was Galatians written when Paul and Peter had had a fight and 1 Corinthians after they’d made up? No, the difference is the audience. Look at the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians and you’ll find that there are factions in Corinth; some say ‘I follow Paul’ and others ‘I follow Peter.’ I’m afraid that most of us in a competitive situation like that would not act as Paul does. In a competitive situation we’d want to stake our claim over the other person. Paul does exactly the opposite and sets up a beautiful example.

Imagine a group of people arguing about whether an iPhone or Android was better. Then they get a letter from Jony Ive, lead designer at Apple. The letter says ‘Android does it right, and in important ways, Android is ahead of us.’ Unthinkable! Think what a witness Paul’s letter would have been to the faction who wanted Paul to win! I’ll leave it to you to figure out why it was ok to disagree with Peter to the Galatians. But one thing I will point out: Paul says nothing about Peter to the Galatians that he hasn’t said to Peter’s face, in public.

So the final challenge: guard what you say and how you say it whenever talking about other leaders or other churches, especially those perceived as ‘rivals.’

As this is the mysterious ‘16th chapter’ of my book, I have done it very differently to most Bible studies about youth work. I hope you see the difference: too often, we make our questions the agenda and use the Bible. I’d encourage you to always come at things from the other direction. Make it your priority to find what questions and answers God has given us in the Bible and then see how to apply them to our lives. Don’t just look for what’s relevant to you; look for what is God’s truth, then make that relevant. Let’s allow God’s word to set the agenda, and let God use us.

Three challenges from a study of Paul’s letters then: make the message cool, not yourself; root the relationship in truth, rather than mutual flattery; whether you or someone else preaches the message should matter less than that the gospel is accepted and absorbed. By all means work hard at polishing your youth ministry — but not to make it eye-catching. Polish it up so that it disappears, more perfectly reflecting the Light.