Archives for the Bookshelf category

30 September 2009

Sustainable Youth Ministry 3

I was sent a link to an article this week that just appeared in Christianity Today – it is by Kara Powell and it asks the question: “Is the day of age segregated ministry over?” You can read it at: http://tr.im/A5OF

This is certainly not a new debate in youth ministry and this won’t be the end of it either.  While everyone has their own opinion, just this morning I launched into Chapter 11 of the book by Mark DeVries, Sustainable Youth Ministry, which I now consider to be the most significant book on youth ministry released in the past 5 years at least. I came across some interesting insights that are well worth sharing.

Mark’s previous book was Family Based Youth Ministry. In that book he made a compelling argument for ministry that is congregation or family based. Now, based on new research, he is saying: “Um! Hold on just a minute – here are some new insights that need to be considered.” And he proceeds to focus on the importance of peer-based ministry. See the extract below.

Now, in no way is he suggesting that adults and church involvement is unimportant – in fact, he is raising the bar considerably on that front (with ideas like: (1) we don’t just need one leader involved in the life of each teenager, but each student needs multiple godly adults involved in their lives; and (2) the youth pastor should be primarily the architect of a constellation of relationships!) – but it is pushing the debate back towards a more inclusive approach that looks at youth ministry as a vital part of the church, led by adult leaders with significant adult involvement, yet with space for age specific connections where teens get to be with their peers and trained to minister as leader themselves.

Here is the extract from chapter 11 of Mark’s book:

THE COOL CHURCH

Because of my strong emphasis on family-based youth ministry over the past fifteen years or so, I’ve argued passionately that what kids need most is not just a group of Christian peers but also droves of durable, Christian adults. But I’m starting to broaden my appreciation for the unique role the youth themselves can play.

No one brought this principle home to me as clearly as Rick Lawrence did in Group Magazine’s fascinating study of ten thousand youth group kids. They asked students, “If you were choosing a church, how important would the following things be?” Check out the first two responses, both of which ranked way above all the others (numbers represent the percentage of kids who rated this item as “very important”):

1. a welcoming environment where I can be myself: 73 percent

2. quality relationships with teenagers: 70 percent

When kids are thinking about the church they might want to be a part of, they’re not-at least not initially-thinking about the adult leaders. They’re asking, “Are these the kind of people I would like to be friends with?” Interestingly, the third-highest response, coming in at 59 percent, was “a senior pastor who understands and loves teenagers.” Coming in near the bottom of the list was “quality relationships with adults” (only 36 percent). And bringing up the rear with only 21 percent was “a fast-paced, high-tech, entertaining ministry approach.”

The article that reported this study, incidentally, was called “The Cool Church.” If we were to borrow Catie’s language, this would not be a church that looks cool to everyone who comes, but rather a church in which “I feel cool enough” to belong.

Please understand. Youth not ranking “relationships with adults” high on the list does not minimize the profound role adults play. Long-term, sustainable faith is most deeply influenced by the adults that surround our kids, not just their peers. But as we look at what causes kids to stay in groups, peers playa central role, a role that most adults simply can’t play.

As I look back on my experience as the new kid at church, the results of this study ring true. At eleven years old, I moved to Texas with my mom, and we quickly found Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Waco. The service was predictable enough, the adults were nice enough, but when it came time for “fellowship hour,” I wanted to throw up.

As my mother “fellowshiped” with all the other fellowshipers, I was left to stand in my prepubescent body by the ten-cent Coke machine. Kids of all ages with dimes in hand walked past me to the Coke machine, gathered their bargain prize and walked away. Though a few gave a polite hello, most were just as uncomfortable having a new kid around as I was standing there.

It wasn’t until Thereasa, an angelic tenth-grader, introduced herself to me that my terror started to thaw, and I began to think there might be a chance I would find a place. Every time she invited me to sit next to her, it was an affirmation that I had a place, that 1 really was starting to belong.

Thereasa did what the adults in the group couldn’t have done. She made me feel like part of the group. It’s not that adults were insignificant (they became more important as time went on), but adults could not be the sticky paper that kept me connected to the church. Friends had to be.

Once I began to grasp the power of these principles a few years ago, our youth ministry team decided we wanted to make our group the safest, most welcoming place in the city for teenagers, a place where no one could ever walk away saying “I could never be cool enough” to fit in there.

26 September 2009

Sustainable Youth Ministry 2

The youth staff at His People Church met this week for a well deserved end of term breakfast meeting at our improved version of Starbucks in south Africa, called Mugg ‘n Bean. We spent a significant amount of time reflecting on Mark DeVries’ book, Sustainable Youth Ministry. Mark says:

“Every church can build a sustainable youth ministry by attending first to the two key components of system’s thinking in youth ministry:  (1) Architecture – the structures of sustainability; and (2) Atmosphere (the culture, climate and ethos that sustains the health of an organisation.”

In chapter 5 Mark suggests that the Architecture includes certain controlling and visioning documents. The Controlling Documents include: (a) Directory of Youth, Leaders and Staff that is kept up to date; (b) Annual Events Calendar; (c) Job Descriptions of All Leadership Positions; (d) Master Recruiting Lists for enlarging the volunteer data base; (e) Curriculum template. The Visioning Documents include: (a) Mission Statement; (b) Measurable Three-Year-Goals; (c) Statements of Values; and (d) Organisational Chart.

In chapter 6 Mark suggests that the Atmosphere includes the following objectives: (a) Deliverable Results, (b) Trusting the Process (see my previous blog post on this one); (c) Importing Joy into the Chaos; (d) Instil Stories and Metaphors; and (e) Embrace Rituals, Traditions, Signs and symbols.

We spent our time reflecting on what we already have in place and what needs to be added. We also spent a significant amount of out time discussing our approach to teaching – we do not have a long terms list of what we will cover – even though we have clearly defined outcomes for each level of our faith journey and booklets that are taught at each level. We want to stay open to the leading of the Holy Spirit along the way so that we can adapt to issues that arise in the lives of our teens – as well as responding to themes that are set by the wider church family.

We believe that one of our strengths as a movement, and particularly as a youth leadership team is that we pursue strategic leadership with a prophetic edge. We seek to integrate two seemingly opposing approaches to ministry – strategic thinking and forward planning with adaptability and spiritual discernment.

Sustainable Youth Ministry 1

I am reading a book by Mark DeVries entitled: Sustainable Youth Ministry. It is truly fresh and challenging. Here is an excerpt that lept out at me as I read it (it resonates well with the insights from the Jim Collin’s book that I blogged about last week, How The Mighty Fall yet it pre-dates Jim’s book):

Moving from where we are to where we want to be takes time-so much time, in fact, that many, youth directors short-circuit the process. If we’re going to engineer a climate of transformation for our youth ministries, we will not do it by stepping in with guns blazing.

Sustainable change happens when leaders recognize the power of incremental revolution, the power of one small change after another, until the incremental changes result in exponential change. Architecting a healthy climate for ministry is usually a lot more like growing bamboo than like a construction project.

Try watching bamboo grow sometime. (You won’t be entertained.) After waiting for weeks, then months, then up to three years, you may begin to wonder whether your plant has issues. You might compare your inferior specimen to the other successful bamboo plants you’ve seen. You might be tempted to exhume your mutant plant, to analyze its problems.

But people who know bamboo relax when they see no visible signs of growth in the first few years. They know the process, and they trust it. If the environmental conditions are right, eventually the tipping point comes, and growth happens. In fact, some bamboo plants, when they hit their growth season, can grow up to four feet in twenty-four hours.

Those of us who work with junior-high-schoolers know the feeling, don’t we? For years we wonder if we’ll ever see signs of change, if anything is sinking in. Then suddenly the process takes hold, and those young people begin to explode with questions, with honesty, often with compassion and faithfulness that must have been buried beneath the surface for years.

Too many churches and youth ministers distrust the process and find themselves changing focus every few years, gambling their hopes on the next superstar on the court. As a result, they never experience the profound momentum that builds when a team moves together in the same direction for years.

Sustainable Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries (Page 88-84)

24 September 2009

How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins

In recent weeks I have been gleaning incredible insights from the new book by Jim Collin, entitled: How The Might Fall. In the past he researched factors that are critical for building long terms organisations (Built to Last), then how to move from an average company to an excellent one  (Good to Great) and now he has now turned his research and thinking to what causes companies to decline and he has even identified the five stages of decline (How The Might Fall).

This book is a must read for leaders of companies and churches. When we experience success we conclude that it was all our own doing and before long we are taking on more than we can handle, we forget to keep doing those things that helped bring success in the first place and we begin to deny the warning signs that things are unravelling at the seams and before long we are grasping for salvation or a silver bullet to rescue us from disaster.

We’d do well to learn from Jim’s incredible insights in this book and pursue excellence over the long haul.

Read my notes on the book and download a spreadsheet that I have created to check whether your team is on the way up or the way down from my website (http://www.ymresourcer.com) and on the Summaries page (which includes many other summaries worth reading).

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