Exerpts from my philosophy of ministry

Continued

 

What is our job?
Our primary job as a youth staff is to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, might, wisdom, ability, money, time, effort, pizzaz, personality, every thought, every feeling, every indescribably miniscule of our personality –to be fully and completely absorbed in Him. Then to say, what is our job as a youth ministry is not to create anything different, but to say, “How do we accomplish loving God while we walk in love with people who are younger than us?” Youth ministry is all about your love for God, but it is a love for God placed within community such that it intentionally relates to other people.

Here are the goals for students and staff

To love God with every aspect of our being
and
To be indistinguishable from Christ

Our goals are extreme. But it is the extremity of the calling that shows the worthwhileness of the treasure. Any less effort is blasphemy to His calling. Christ made the sacrifice so that we can have His Spirit. God’s Spirit is able to make every human into the spitting image of the Son. I will show you a more detailed picture of these goals in later days. For now, I want to focus on what keeps us from reaching such a high plateau.
Albeit for many reasons, most ministries do not even attempt to achieve this goal. Most fall somewhere along these lines.
“We have always had a youth ministry!”                          - Traditional
“We just want to have fun.”                                            - Overgrown Students
“We need activities to keep our kids out of trouble.”         - Baby Sitters
“We’re losing touch with our kids.”                                   -Surrogates
“A youth ministry will attract people to our church.”            - Bean Counters
“A new and improved youth program has just come out!”    - Pragmatists
“The youth culture is so bad the church needs to help.”       - Alarmists
“We want to add excitement to our church.”                         - Pew Potatoes

While those things may not be particularly bad, basing a ministry on those needs will result in a ministry that fulfills those needs. A ministry designed to make parents happy will be designed in such a way as to accomplish that goal and as such will be insufficient for accomplishing the goal of reproducing the work of Christ in our times and community. Youth ministry exists because the upward call of Christ consumes our person and our relationships (especially with the younger generations). As we begin to blueprint the kind of ministry we are to become, we must keep this in mind.