CONTACT STRATEGY
for the
COMMITMENT LEVEL MODEL

The Windsor Youth Group's first level of ministry is called the Contact Event. This is ministry aimed at unchurched youth who will not attend a church service or a youth group event. The only way they will be reached is by going to where they are. The youth group has events in the community at places where young people hang out: such as at a swimming pool; at the mall or at a roller blading rink. The strategy is to make contact with unchurched youth, build meaningful relationships with them, proclaim God's plan of salvation to them, nurture them in the faith and integrate them into the local Church.

All youth workers would agree, at least in theory, that it is their responsibility to reach out to all youth. But youth groups have limitations. They will not be able to bridge the many social groupings which exist in the local community. Youth groups work best when youth are free to reach out to their friends. To reach beyond the fringes of the youth group requires fresh approaches.

While most youth groups work from the Inside Out to the fringes, there is another approach that can be taken, working from the Outside In to the church. Both of these approaches involve outreach and nurture of youth in the faith. There remains a tension between the needs of churched and unchurched youth.

Pete Ward, in Youthwork and the Mission of God (click on the book title to order this book on-line), has written about these two disciplines or styles of youth ministry: one style works within the church (Inside Out) while the other style works within the community (Outside In). Inside Out involves ministry from a local church where youth draw their friends to church. Outside In involves people going outside the church to reach youth where they are with the ultimate aim of drawing them into the church. View a chart that shows the contrasts between the two styles of ministry.

The Outside In approach to ministry, in fact all ministry, finds it motivation in The Mission of God.

Read a summary of a seminar presented by Pete Ward on the two disciplines during March 2000 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Outside In youth ministry strategy could work in practise as follows: a youth worker is employed by a local church with the goal of reaching youth in the area. The youth worker sets out to develop relationships with unchurched youth on their turf. They get to know the worker who spends time with them. In time they start to drop by at the workers office and may even end up attending a youth group gathering.

This style of ministry involves an incarnation of the faith among unchurched people. This is ‘ministry among the 99’ - reaching the masses of youth who are outside the church. It can be called ‘frontier ministry’ (a frontier is the unexplored beyond the point we have reached) as it involves relationships and commitments that are less clear and more challenging than ministry in youth groups. Long-term presence in a community is the starting point for outside in ministry. It is incarnational in that it involves going with an emphasis on identification with youth that allows for the sharing in the lives of those we are sent to. Incarnation is not just about presence, it also refers to the way in which relationships are formed. It is presence without oppression. Through relationships we earn the right to speak to people.

An incarnational strategy involves: (1) recognise what is happening in the lives of people you meet - what is God already doing; (2) build up a common language - find out what words and concepts mean to the unchurched; and (3) share your story and the Gospel Story as and when appropriate.

Pete Ward presents a strategy for outside in youth work (Relational Ministry, Lynx, 1995): (1) go where youth go; (2) spend time doing what they do; (3) develop personal friendships with them; (4) share in common activities such as visits and concerts; (5) provide care through your family members and friends who are in a position to care for them; (6) let youth view your relationship up close and in the ‘real world’; (7) allow for mutual growth and learning between you and youth; and (8) get groups of youth on the faith journey to gather together for worship and study.

In an upcoming book to be released later this year, Pete Ward suggests the following five step strategy in relational youthwork, or outside in ministry: (1) contact; (2) extended contact; (3) proclamation; (4) nurture; and (5) church.

In an address at Baptist Theological College in Randburg, South Africa, during 1997, Professor Dean Borgman shared the following Biblical foundation for incarnational youth ministry: An inside out approach is based on Jesus’ incarnational ministry approach. Jesus said: “As the Father has sent me, so send I you” (John 20:21b). This verse captures the truth of the incarnation. God the creator of the universe - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - limited himself to a body forever. He said: “I am going to be like these guys for the rest of eternity.” In John 1 we read that the Word became flesh and moved into our neighbourhood (The Message) - He camped among us. Trapped in a teenage peasant foetus. The God of glory needed to be burped, changed and suckled. We read in Philippians 2: that he did not hold on to his divine prerogatives but took on the identity of a human being, male, Jew - without losing his divine identity and so entered human culture. He was so human as to be tempted.

We are all called to leave the security of church/adult culture to become part of the youth culture but without losing our own identity. We must keep our own identity while understanding and taking on much of that culture. Jesus could have been a great Rabbi if that was his choice. He could have gone down to the temple and made Jerusalem his base. He could have developed from that place a programme to invite people to come to the temple. But Christ turned this tendency on its head by leaving the synagogue and the temple when he went to the people. When we are with people we can find a place and develop a programme. But without the people the place and the programme are useless.

Jesus clashed with the establishment. He identified himself as God. He undermined the Jewish link to the Roman Caesar. As a Rabbi he was disreputable because he went to parties (In John 1 the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, in John 2 the Word went to a party). One of the reason why he hung on a cross is because he pushed the incarnation too far - he identified with sinner. Somehow, without sacrificing our standards of holiness, we must radically go to people fish are. We will not catch fish by getting into the most beautify boat but by going to where they are. Young people notice us when we notice them. They look for our response and react to that. They come over and then we have established contact with them. They will then be able to tell us about themselves. Everybody needs and wants to be noticed doing thing - such as singing, drawing, playing, etc. God made us for relationships - we instinctively reach out to make friends. People want to touch somebody and be touched; to develop a relationship that will last. God decided to come into our park, he sat down with us and noticed what we were doing.

On a previous visit to South Africa, Dean Borgman spoke of the following principles of incarnational ministry: (1) boldness - in Luke 4 Jesus crowded the people who were crowding him; (2) gentleness - in John 8 Jesus was sensitive to the woman caught in adultery; (3) concern - in Matthew 8 Jesus touched a leper to heal him; and (4) relationships - in Luke 19:1-10 Jesus started a relationship with an outcast.

Dean went on to suggest that from Jesus’ ministry with Zacchaeus we learn four principles of relational ministry: (1) Jesus stopped and looked up - he did not get so wrapped up in the programme that he forgot to notice people. We need to take time to be in the park, the school, the mall. (2) Jesus knew Zacchaeus’ name - How? He could have asked someone: “What is that little guy’s name?” A name gives a person their identity. (3) Jesus spent time with Zacchaeus - to be with a person is to get to know them - to know a person is to be with them. (4) Zacchaeus’ life changed - because of his contact with Jesus. He developed a heart for other people.

Dean Borgman's presented a strategy for incarnational youth ministry: (1) build a support team to educate about incarnation and to ensure we don’t loose our identity; (2) find a group of young people who need you the most; (3) pray about and over the group; (4) find ways to penetrate the group; and (5) share the good news with members of the group - make it short and filled with stories.

How do the two disciplines of ministry relate to the commitment level model?

While the model allows for the contacting of unchurched youth at the first stage of ministry, but it is primarily a model aimed at working inside out and not outside in. In reality, most youth groups using the model are primarily engaged in ministry among churched youth, and where evangelism takes place on a regular basis it is usually through events that target the friends of churched youth (who tend to be more like the churched youth than dislike them socially and economically), or it consists of once-off evangelistic raids into the community. Not many youth groups are significantly engaged in the kind of incarnational youth ministry being suggested by Pete Ward and Dean Borgman.

Is it possible to integrate the two approaches into one model of ministry?

Mark Senter in his model of youth ministry, suggests that the contact work so vital to an outside in approach is included in what could be considered a primarily inside out model of ministry. He speaks of four stages in ministry: Bringing, Converting, Strengthening and Sending. Follow this link to further information on his model.

Here the starting point seems to be bringing people to the youth group where they are evangelised and discipled. I mentioned to him via email that the commitment level model includes all of the dimensions that he used - but that it adds a fifth dimension, Contacting - where we reach youth away from the group - on their turf. His reply was: “While you may want to isolate Contacting as a fifth dimension, I see it as the starting point for all of youth ministry (inside the church or outside).” He is quite correct, but the difference is that in outside in youth ministry we do not see the youth group as the sphere in which the evangelism and discipleship of unchurched youth takes place (this is the case with the original Commitment Level Model presented by Duffy Robbins as well). Also, contacting could be reduced to ministry among groups of youth who are like the youth in the youth group - and could hinder reaching the groups of youth who are culturally and socially different to groups within the church - such as mall rats; bladers; ravers; etc. The commitment level model implies reaching unchurched youth on their turf, but it gives the impression that the goal is to bring them into the youth group - ie. we want to get youth from the Humanity to the Come level where they are evangelised in the youth group context.

There is a real danger in seeking to assimilate unchurched youth into a youth group - especially if the context that they come out of is radically different to the Christian culture they are encouraged to embrace. Read more about the challenge of integrating non-Christians into a youth group.

The value of outside in ministry lies in the application of the strategy used in contemporary missiology. Here an unreached people group that is being targeted with the gospel is encouraged to develop their own understanding of how the Christian faith relates to their culture, rather than the missionary imposing their culture on the converts. If this is to happen successfully then it may be necessary to follow the full outside in approach in ministry among unchurched youth, ie. establishing contact; developing extended contact; proclaiming the Gospel; nurturing converts and then seeking to integrate them into a church.

Are the two disciples so different and demanding that a youthworker cannot do both?

Fuzz Kitto, in The Church and Youth Ministry, edited by Pete Ward, says: "the Church culture which grew out of the Christendom paradigm developed a style of youth ministry that was church-based. Primarily it concentrated on teaching the Bible and community customs, and aimed at holding young people in the church through fun, games, activities and group membership. Some have argued that it was a holding pattern. It seemed that the aim was to maintain interest in coming to church, or at least church buildings, until they became adults and could become real Christians. The other anomaly which grew out of the more recent church culture was the professional youthworker, who would work out there with those other young people outside the church. They did frontier youthwork for the church as it started to notice that the frontiers were getting closer to their doors. Many times a rift was caused between the community and the church. These youthworkers became known in some areas as detached youthworkers. So youthworkers, would become either church-based or community-based, working with those who were in or those who were out. A tension for youthworkers has been that they have often wanted to work with both. The Christendom paradigm does not easily allow for this. What worked in Christendom worked for Christendom, but does not work anymore."

He proceeds to describe a number of ways in which the youthwork in a mission culture and a churched culture differ from each other:

Pete Ward suggests that it may not be possible for a youth group to engage in both disciplines. Also, local churches are probably not going to support a full-time youthworker who specialises in outside in ministry - at least not if such ministry takes a major part of his/her time. Most churches are light years away from employing two full-time workers: one to do inside out and one to do outside in ministry. So what do we do?

How can we deal with both approaches in a local church context?

One way in which these two approaches could be integrated is for the youth worker to engage in outside in ministry up to the contact and extended contact levels, and then use the youth group to provide the proclamation, nurture and church aspects of the pattern suggested by Pete Ward. One potential hazard to this approach is that if we make contact with a group of unchurched youth, engage in extended contact ministry and then channel youth into the youth group, unless the youth group is highly geared to evangelise unchurched youth, they would probably be lost to the church. And even in contexts where the groups is engaged in effective evangelism how would the church subculture affect their assimilation into the group or the church? My fear is that in many cases assimilation would not take place.

Another approach could be to develop a funnel for outside in ministry alongside a funnel for inside out ministry - and have the outside in funnel feed into the inside out funnel at the Disciple, Develop and Multiply levels. The outside in funnel would include the five stages developed by Pete Ward: Contact; Extended Contact; Proclamation; Nurture and Church. It is only at the Church stage in outside in ministry that we seek to integrate youth into the mainstream life of the local church or youth group.

Is it too idealistic to attempt to engage in ‘pure’ outside in ministry that seeks to make contact with unchurched youth on their turf and help them find ways, once they are converted, to express the gospel within their own context; while at the same time engaging in inside out ministry? I take this question as a challenge. Rather than looking to the youth group to handle the evangelism, follow-up and discipleship, I would like to have the opportunity with a group of young people to take them through the whole outside in ministry process. I am busy with incarnational ministry among a group of bladers at present and want to withstand the temptation to do what is natural, ie. invite them to the youth group where they can be evangelised and discipled. Instead I hope to follow the outside in approach of Contact; Extended Contact; Proclamation; Nurture and Church in order to see them come to know Christ, and develop an understanding and practise of the Christian faith that is relevant to them as bladers and which will lead to ongoing evangelism and discipleship within the blading subculture.

I feel that somehow we need to get to a place where the two disciplines are pursued independently and yet interdependently. I accept that the youth group and church is vital to outside in ministry; but I remain concerned that when we try to run the two ministries together we tend to focus on the safer inside out ministry and as a result are being less that effective in reaching youth who are culturally distant from the church. Pete Ward’s concerns in his book: Growing up Evangelical: Youthwork and the Making of a Subculture. London: SPCK, 1996. are noted in this regard. (click on the link to order this book online). The challenge is to integrate the approaches without allowing such integration to lead to the assimilation of one into the other or the practise of one over the other.