UNCHURCHED YOUTH
and the
COMMITMENT LEVEL MODEL

I was out at a shopping centre on Friday night, traditional youth group time, and amazed to see the number of young people 'out and about'. I have been challenged to think out reaching out to these folk - instead of waiting until they come in! So what ideas and advice does the group have for programmes, presentation, organisation, approach, content etc. Karl Monnik, Pretoria.

A two-fold strategy is essential in reaching youth in one's community: (a) ministry on 'their' turf (going to where youth congregate and reaching them there) and (b) ministry on 'our' turf (offering events on the group's turf to attract and assimilate youth into the group). I feel that youth groups are more effective at (b), but must offer a combination of both approaches.

Before we explore ministry among the unchurched it is important to understand them. Unchurched youth are probably postmodern in their thinking. A key feature of their thinking is relativism. While they don’t believe in absolute truth, they often dismiss Christianity because it is not true. To engage with postmodern youth leaders must find common ground and ways to explore their view of truth and reality. Doug Murren suggests key aspects of postmodern youth: relativistic, individualistic, syncretic, sceptical, emotionally broken, multi-sensory learners, participative, hyper-segmented, time starved, overly stimulated, and resistant to commitment and guilt (Strategies for Today’s Leader, Summer 1994, Page 11).

An unchurched youth: (1) has rejected youth group, but not necessarily God; (2) is morally adrift, but secretly wants an anchor; (3) resists rules but responds to reasons; (4) doesn’t understand Christianity, but is ignorant of what they believe; (5) doesn’t just ask, “Is Christianity true?” but “Does it work?”; (6) wants to experience something, not just know it; (7) wants to be somebody’s friend, not their project; (8) isn’t much of a joiner, but is hungry for a cause to connect with; (9) is tolerant of different faiths, but thinks Christians are narrow-minded; and (10) may try youth group if invited by a friend, but this may do more harm than good (adapted from Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary, by Lee Strobel, Page 44-81).

Other characteristics of unchurched youth include: (1) they do not know or understand religious language; (2) guilt no longer motivates them; (3) sin is not their issue as they think in terms of their hurts and needs; (4) they lack hope; and (5) they are on a spiritual quest (Tim Wright, Strategies for Today’s Leader, Summer 1994, Page 7).

These insights about unchurched youth reveal many areas of openness for Christians to make genuine contact with them and engage them in conversations that will lead them to consider spiritual matters.

Once we have made an effort to understand unchurched youth, bother generally, and specifically those in our area, we should start to consider ministry among unchurched youth in two dimensions:

1. Ministry on Their Turf
Unchurched youth do not hang out at Christian youth groups, nor are they found in church on a Sunday morning. If youth groups are going to reach them, they will have to go where they are. In order to make contact with unchurched or de-churched youth, we need to take note of Christ's commission - to GO into the world. A youth group must provide events/activities that take place where these youth congregate. Going to a shopping centre and placing a leaflet into these kids hands, that invites them to the group, will probably not be sufficient to reach them for Christ. What we must do is create a presence in places where young people spend their time, praying that God will reveal to us ways and means of reaching them with the gospel. I believe that evangelism is a process and not just an event or programme. It involves making contact with people; developing a relationship with them where we earn the right to share with them; sharing the truth of Christ with them; and following them up.

As a youth group we don't yet know how to reach youth who congregate in shopping malls. We were at a local shopping center on Friday night as a youth group and took note of the hundreds of youth simply hanging around. We are providing activities at present that take place at a local swimming pool where we meet as a group, put up a volleyball net, or play a game of soccer and invite youth at the pool to join in. We will during the course of the activity, or our time at the pool, let youth know that we are a youth group in the community and give them a leaflet that invites them to an upcoming event. This is one way of creating a presence in the community.

Sharlene Swartz, a Scripture Union worker, suggests that leaders develop the art of Creative Hanging: "Train a group of volunteers in significant conversation and constructive hanging around. Send them to where youth already are: at sports events, schools, skateboard ramps, shopping centres. Evangelism doesn't become a one off hit-and-run ministry because leaders are committed to significantly hanging out at these venues, where they become known and trusted. Then they are able to share the gospel after having won the right to speak."

We feel uncomfortable with preaching in public, as we have a church group who does this in our area, with a very negative, even hostile reaction from community members. We would be happy to use a street-style evangelism approach that made use of music and drama, or a multi-media presentation rather than soap-box style communication. I was involved in co-ordinating a Beach Reach at the Durban Beachfront during December 1992, using music and drama, followed by one-on-one evangelism by team members among the crowds who gathered to watch and listen.

In order to get to know unchurched youth, leaders must: (1) spend time asking God for strength and guidance; (2) research the local area to find out where youth congregate; (3) visit the places where youth congregate and hang around to discover all they can about the youth; (4) visit these places over a period of time and look for God’s leading regarding whom to relate to; and (5) decide on which group of young people God is leading them to (Pete Ward, Youth Culture and the Gospel, Page 54-56).

David Veerman suggests the following rules of contacting: remember names; look for ways to serve kids; remember to think constantly about walking in the Spirit; expand your field of contacts through the kids you already know; ask intelligent, feeling questions and listen to their answers; be casual, at ease, cheerful, friendly and enthusiastic; develop a sense of humour; don’t try to be a teenager yourself; and don’t talk too much about yourself (Youth Evangelism, Page 67).

2. Ministry on Our Turf
The other dimension of ministry is providing events that will attract youth people to the youth group. George Barna, in Evangelism That Works, says: "The first, and most successful (strategy), is for churched people to build honest, caring relationships with nonchurched people and eventually to invite them to attend the church. The second is for the church to sponsor nonreligious events such as sports leagues, community fairs, social extravaganzas, community assistance projects, and concerts or seminars of interest to the nonchurched, and to invite those who attend the activities to consider attending the church's services. A third possibility is sending top-quality brochures about the church to people's homes to inform them and to invite them to attend the church" (page 64).

I don't know if you know about Vision South Africa (VSA) - Franklin Graham Campaign? They are also bringing Michael W Smith from the USA in April 25-27 for the campaign meetings. Although this concert is FREE they have printed complementary tickets to attract youth to this event. Maybe one way of reaching these young people is to distribute these complementary tickets to the youth at the shopping centres with your contact details if they need transport. Wayne Hughes.

I think this is an excellent idea to get unchurched youth to attend a Christian event. Michael W Smith is, I think, pretty well known among youth today, and certainly for a fair segment of the population would be a draw card. Our group will consider this suggestion seriously. It would be possible for a youth group to wander around a shopping center handing out free tickets to a contemporary concert. I must add that as we do this we should be open, or look for openings, to talk with youth, especially if they begin to ask questions. We could have a brochure with details of our youth group meetings (particularly those that are targeted at the unchurched) to hand to people who seeem interested.

We provide special events, though a strategy that is designed to attract, evangelize and assimilate unchurched youth into the group. We get the Christian youth in the group to target non-Christian friends in their school or their community, and invite them to the event.

We use a four week programming strategy to accomplish this: the first week of the month is a Mega Rave - where we present a fun event that would appeal to youth in the area (each group must determine the kind of events that would attract young people living in their area), such as go-karting, ice-skating, adventure golf, etc. On Friday night at our group, Yvette, one of the core members, said that it is not acceptable to invite friends to a youth group (as it is 'uncool') but better to invite them to come 'go karting' for example. This programme does NOT start with prayer NOR end with a message - it has one aim: to attract unchurched youth and give them a positive first-time experience with the group. The core group is trained and encouraged to make significant contact with newcomers during the evening. Vital to the success of this programming strategy is the promotion of the next weeks programme, by word of mouth, group announcement and by placing a leaflet in their hands.

The second week is a Gospel Rave - this is also a fun event, or special outing event, but it includes a ten minute gospel presentation. We use speakers who have a special gift in youth evangelism to deliver the message. Youth are given an opportunity to make a response to the message. This message also includes time for relationship building, as this will help the process of assimilating the newcomers into the life of the group. We believe that if we can get youth to return after the first visit, have a positive second visit, and even return on the third week, then we are well on the way to incorporating them into the group.

The third week is a Christian Rave - again revolving around a fun event that is the draw card, but also including some spiritual input, that follows up on the previous weeks gospel presentation. This is to give those who have heard the gospel for the first time the chance to hear it again, and consider the claims of Christ more seriously.

The fourth week is an Issues Rave - where we address a current issue that young people are dealing with in a group context. For example, we will be taking youth to a local clinic to hand out flowers and a card expressing Christian care and prayer for recovery. Then we will return to the youth group meeting place for an input with group discussion on "Where is God when it hurts?" We believe that young people want to wrestle with issues that affect their life and will support such an event, especially if it is a part of the four-week programming strategy.

We encourage our core youth to make a special effort to attract newcomers to the first week in the cycle (we have two cycles in each term) in order to apply this process of assimilation most effectively, although we find that youth join the group throughout the term.

Behind our four-week programming approach lies that realisation that people do not change their beliefs or practises suddenly. They need time for adoption. People go through a process to adopt the Christian message, as when they adopt any new truth, practise or lifestyle.

According to George Hunter, in How to Speak to Secular People, there are six stages in the adoption process:

A. Awareness - Of Christianity, as a particular movement, group of people or church.

B. Relevance - People perceive the relevance of that form of Christianity as it relates to an unmet need or driving motive in their life, group or society.

C. Interest - They respond with active interest as they ask questions, read a book, attend a seminar, or visit a church.

D. Trial - They then enter a trial stage, in which they consider the possibility, imagine what life would be like if they adopted, and perhaps engage in conversation as if they are already Christians.

E. Adoption - They now consciously adopt the faith, and are baptised or received into church membership.

F. Reinforcement - After adoption, they experience a period of uncertainty or ambiguity about what has happened to them, so they need experiences that reinforce their decision.

What is the experience of other churches out there - do you have groups that are working (ie growing numerically, and reaching the unchurched)? What approach have you used?

The one thing that we have found in targeting the unchurched, is that the people who bring newcomers to the events are mostly people who were unchurched themselves up until about a year ago, or those who have not been Christian for very long. We thought that the secret to numerical growth lay with the committed Christian youth....but this does not seem to be the case. Maybe Christians just don't have non-Christian friends (I have read of statistics that say the longer a person is a member of a local church, the less unchurched friends they have), or maybe when they invite people to the group they use an ineffective approach (because the don't understand the felt needs of unchurched youth), or possibly they turn people off due to the critical, narrow-minded way in which they portray Christianity. This may all sound rather critical, but we must ask the hard questions of why Christians these days seem to be so slack in bringing others to church, or youth groups!

My wife and I, when we moved into out home about two years ago, set out to influence our neighbours for Christ. We made contact with the family next door as soon as possible, and began praying that God would bring them to Himself. We invited their two children in Sunday School and the Children's Group and ensured that either the parents or we provided the transport. After about two months I invited the husband to a church service, but he said that he only goes to church when someone gets married or dies. We decided to back off a bit, but continue to develop the relationship with them. We were not critical of their life style, we chose to overlook the fact that they drank, gambled, etc. We simply considered these issues inappropriate to raise at this stage. In the beginning I purposefully did not say that I was a 'minister', and when pressed about my profession, I initially said that I trained people who worked with young people (I hoped that would think I was into some form of social work...possibly a bit devious, but I never told a lie). There were times that we provided them our services, such as looking after their children, transporting them when necessary, and even counselling them through minor crises.

Obviously, it did not take too long for them to find out that we were Christians, and that I lectured youth ministry at a theological college. In fact, the husband remarked how surprised he was to discover this, and that I was so unlike the stereotypes that he had of Christians in full-time ministry (forgive me if this sounds self-promoting, it is not intended in that way!!!).

After about fourteen months, we thought that we were not getting very far with them. Suddenly a tragedy occurred in their lives - a friend, also a mother of two small children, died. Our neighbours immediately turned to God! Ironically, he had said that he would attend church if someone died! They began attending our church and have since committed their lives to Christ and have been assimilated into the life of the Fellowship. To see them involved in a new-convert Bible study group is awesome!!!

Although I would not say that we converted them (that is the God's work), I do believe that he used us as a channel through which to reach them. I am not sure that they would have turned to God and the church during the time of tragedy if their negative concepts and objections had not being dealt with and if they dd not have a relationships with someone from within the church to provide the bridge they needed.

Read about Intergating Unchurched Youth into the group.