A great group from CERT school number 51 in Dubuque, IA! After hanging out with this wonderful crew for three days I finished up the following thoughts...
“D@#$%! Soccer”
“*&^%$ Dance Line”
“^&*(# Marching Band”
“!@#$% Football, basketball, hockey, debate, and let’s not forget the chess team or whatever else is getting in the way of my (Oops, I mean) their first priority, which centers around being at my (there I go again) their church programs. What are their parents teaching anyway?!!!”
I hear forms of this lament everywhere I go. “I just had to cancel another event because my kids are too busy,” I am told this often by those who work with kids in the church. Big church, small church, big town, little town, it doesn’t matter; the kids and their parents are overly busy with a smorgasbord of opportunities that leaves little time for one more church event.
But… What if! (I personally love those words.) What if the soccer team, dance line, marching band and chess team are exactly where kids belong as ministers? What if we stopped seeing events as the competition, the enemy, and saw the relationships formed in the midst of teams, casts, and bands as the very places real youth ministry happens? What if youth, wherever they are, and whoever they are with, are living what we call youth ministry? What if the congregation is primarily an equipping and supportive place for youth to be Peer Ministers?
If I am honest about my youth ministry scorecard I have to realize that kids showing up at meetings or events are not a measurement of success, no matter how much fun they have. My real desired outcomes are kids who live with a vibrant faith that cares and welcomes all people, in all places, and at all times as a results of being loved and graced by God.
Here is how it might work! Granted, you have to gather kids to equip them, and you will still need adults who will train and support kids. Kids participate in Peer Ministry training they complete the training, they move into the phase of being supported and resourced by their leaders. What if, when your kids are busily engaged with the demands of all those other programs and places, you and your adult leaders each called kids and asked questions like:
“How is your ministry going?”
“How have you been using your skills this week?”
“What are the issues that you are most concerned about?”
“What support or resources or people can I guide you to?”
“What can I pray for you this week?”
One group tallied the number of times and topics their 16 Peer Ministers reported over a semester. The group reported over 2,000 times they used Peer Ministry skills! Let me emphasize this again, over 2,000 times they said they used the skills of caring and welcoming their neighbor. After sharing this, one skeptic said, “I suppose after awhile they think every conversation is a Peer Ministry conversation.”
I just smiled. “Wouldn’t that be too bad?” What if kids understood that God was part of every conversation and every relationship. “Hmmmm…,” wouldn’t I want these Peer Ministers hanging out with the sports teams, art departments, and chests teams?
Just by making such calls kids, get the message that we assume they already are ministers. This alone begins to change the view kids have about Christian leadership and ministry. Leadership would no longer be just about microphones and committees, the images constantly presented by those of us who speak, preach, sing, teach, and those of us who gather for meeting after meeting, necessary tasks but, not the whole ministry. Microphones and committees work best when they empower people to leave the room and go and do ministry in the midst of the everyday activities.
If your congregation is ranting and lamenting that kids are too busy to come, then maybe it is time to rethink the youth ministry scorecard. Help kids discover that the very things they are most concerned about, their relationships, are ministry. We just forgot to tell them. Now, maybe it is time.
Peer Ministry
We train adult facilitators,
Who train your youth,
Who use Peer Ministry skills every day, in every relationship.
952-405-7300
From The Youth & Family Institute
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