10 Things Youth Ministry Needs Less

By Matt · Comments (44)
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Youth Ministry

http://flic.kr/p/4kCruo (creative commons)

There’s been some talk lately about the future of youth ministry. I’ve posted some of my thoughts before, but when I think about the future, there are certain things I’d like to see more and certain things I would like to see less.

Up today, ten things I’d like to see less:

  1. Youth Ministers – Adam McLane has pointed out that there is an inverse relationships between the increasing number of staff and the decreasing attendance in churches over the last three decades. I’m not so sure adding more youth ministry staff will solve our youth ministry problems. As someone who is youth ministry staff at a church, I’m not so sure what to do with this. [Update: I did something about this and voluntarily reduced my hours at church]
  2. Worship Services – Many youth ministries have their own worship services on Sunday or Wednesday night. How many other people in your church, outside of the youth ministry, go to two worship services a week (Sunday morning and the youth ministry service)? If we don’t expect adults to go to two worship services a week, why do we expect youth to do that? Do we really need to do the same thing twice in one week? At a time when people are so busy, I think ministry would be better served by doing something different than Sunday morning. Let students get their corporate worship in on Sunday morning.
  3. Preaching – This is related to the worship services, since preaching is usually a main component in worship services. But more importantly, students need meaningful space to speak and space for authentic relationships to be developed. Neither happens during preaching. Again, leave the preaching to Sunday morning.
  4. Money – I know it is common practice to judge how much a church values its youth by how much money it spends on them. Why is that? Does an increase in financial resources translate into discipleship and evangelism? Is the spread of the gospel dependent on money? China, Africa, and South America seem to say, “no.” Also, see #1. Try cutting your budget by 10% every year and see what happens.
  5. Calendars – I had an interesting experience the other week. I was having a heck of a time getting students to show up to an event that was on the calendar. I gave out notice, told people about it, the usual. But due to extracurricular activities or something, I can’t remember exactly what happened, I think I ended up canceling the event. Then I found out that a group of students self-organized a Bible study with their peers through texting and Facebook in a matter of days. And a lot of people showed up. In addition to reinforcing #1 (they didn’t need an adult to coordinate or lead this), it also made me try and figure out a way to be more spontaneous with discipleship. I’m not sure how to go about this quite yet, but putting things on calendars isn’t working very well for me anymore.
  6. Programs – This goes together with less money and less calendars, but it also has to do with people’s (legitimate) continuing skepticism towards institutions. And what are programs other than institutionalized forms of discipleship? Discipleship is a personal and communal process, not an institutional program.
  7. Hype – Maybe I’m biased because I’m a horrible cheerleader, but I’m pretty sure that the gospel isn’t well-served by hype. To me, hype is irreverent. Hype wants to mask reality. Hype is afraid of the truth. Hype is good for getting people elected but tends to be short on results. Let’s jettison trying to drum up any hype surrounding our ministries or youth ministry trends in general.
  8. Games – Surely we don’t need more of them. So we could probably do with less.
  9. T-Shirts – In case you missed my previous thoughts on this, read them here. I’m kind of serious.
  10. Lock-Ins – Come on, we can all agree on this one, can’t we?

What am I leaving out? What else could we stand to use less?

[Don't like the negativity? Read 10 Things Youth Ministry Needs More.]

Comments (44)
Categories : Youth Ministry
Tags :

Why Do You Read My Blog?

By Matt · Comments (10)
Monday, January 24th, 2011

If you are reading this post, I’m assuming you are one of the people who subscribes to my RSS feed, a loyal reader. As I am in the process of resurrecting the blog, I’m curious:

Why do you read my blog?

(After the last six months of non-blogging, it might be more appropriate to ask, “Why did you read my blog?”)

This whole process of getting back into blogging has not been something I have done spontaneously; I’ve thought about it quite a bit. As I’m trying to be thoughtful about launching back into the blog world I’m curious about what draws my readers back for more.

Basically, I’m trying to narrow down what is most beneficial to the people who read my blog and then focus on that.

So, what is it for you? What keeps drawing you back? Or, what would you like to see more of?

(If you don’t want to drop a comment to answer, email me.)

Comments (10)
Categories : Blogging

New Look & New Host

By Matt · Comments (8)
Friday, January 21st, 2011

This will, hopefully, be the last “status update” post. I decided it was time to update the look of the blog a bit. If you read my blog on your RSS reader, you might want to visit the website proper and see the visual changes that have been made.  It’s still a clean, simple layout, but it looks a bit more fresh than the old theme. There’s still some tweaks here and there to be made, but the site should work just fine for everyone.

And, an invisible change I made was changing website hosts. I used to be with BlueHost and decided it was time to move away from them after what seemed to be a lot of downtime on my site. I had started an account with HostGator a little while ago to work on some web projects and have been pleased with the switch. So, in trying to resurrect the blog, it seemed like the right time to move my personal blog over to HostGator as well. If you want to know why I switched, email me and I’ll give you all the nerdy details. I will spare the rest of you from that.

So, this weekend I will work on cleaning up and tweaking the site, and then blogging should begin Monday morning.

Comments (8)
Categories : Blogroll
Tags : ,

Quick Update

By Matt · Comments (3)
Monday, January 17th, 2011

I’m working on moving my blog to a new host. Regularly scheduled programming may be interrupted until the process is over (which I think will be 24ish hours). Then on to blogging again.

Comments (3)
Categories : Blogging

Coming Out of Hibernation

By Matt · Comments (4)
Monday, January 10th, 2011

Most animals go into hibernation during the winter, but I guess I am a different breed, blog-wise at least. The cold weather and dead grass keeps outdoor activities to a minimum, and the new year brings fresh perspective. So I think it is time to awaken (resurrect?) the blog for a season.

More to come later.

Comments (4)
Categories : Blogging

Is Planning Anti-Missional?

By Matt · Comments (6)
Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Since this spring, when I found out that my wife’s job was going to keep us in the area for another 4 years, I’ve been thinking about what I want the next 4 years of ministry to look like. A little while back I put together a tentative scope and sequence chart that outlines the major topics we’ll cover in our various aspects of ministry. I think it’s a pretty swell plan.

One of my goals is to read at least something from every book in the Bible during high school Sunday school over the next four years. I found myself torn because that meant a lot of good material had to be left out. And then I thought about the kids who were juniors and seniors and who wouldn’t get to experience the “full effect” of this comprehensive plan. I really wanted everyone to be able to experience the whole four years.

And then I realized that in order for anyone to be able to be a part of a plan like this, they have to be here at the beginning and see it through to the end. If they are not freshman, then they miss out. It seemed to me that planning this out made me take an anti-missional stance. The whole idea is predicated on people being here their freshman year. I was working under the assumption that if our group grows and people get involved as sophomores, juniors, or seniors that they won’t get the full benefit of the program. And I didn’t much like thinking that way.

I’m going to probably stick to the rough plan that’s been laid out simply to provide some balance and to make sure that we don’t cover the same things over and over. But what is important is to realize that it’s not the planning or the programs that make our break someone’s faith development. If someone connects with our church and ministry in their senior year, we have to continue to put the impetus of growth and maturity on sustainable relationships that will last beyond and outside of these programs. These structures only serve as a container within which to house and develop some of these relationships.

Or, at least, that’s where I’m at on this whole deal right now.

Does anyone else do comprehensive long-range planning and have the same struggles?

Comments (6)
Categories : Youth Ministry
Tags : , , ,

Linkworthy – 8/13/10

By Matt · Comments (1)
Friday, August 13th, 2010

Youth Ministry

Church and Theology

Random

Comments (1)
Categories : Links

Big Tent Christianity in Big Time Denominations

By Matt · Comments (4)
Thursday, August 12th, 2010

“[It is] urgent … to reclaim a Big Tent Christianity, a centrist return to ‘just Christian’ in word and action. The two poles are driving each other ever further apart, spawning ever deeper hostilities. The solution — in American society as in the church — certainly is not to let the other’s anger fuel my own. As leaders it’s our task to help break the cycle of anger, of rejection leading to rejection, and to foster a radically different understanding of the heart of Christian faith.”

- Philip Clayton

There is an upcoming conference entitled Big Tent Christianity, which attempts to embody the above values and transcend some of the differences between Christian denominations and traditions today. Is it possible to get back to being “just Christian”?

I grew up in a tradition that typically identified itself as “just Christian.” For most of my childhood until I graduated high school my home church was an independent non-denominational Christian church. When anyone would ask us where we went to church and what denomination that was a part of our typical response was, “just Christian.”

For the last four years, however, I have been a part of a church which belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a big-time denomination boasting over 4 million members. When someone asks us about our church and which denomination we belong to, we say the ELCA.

The interesting thing to me, though, is that in my experience the big time denominations are more likely to embrace this idea of Big Tent Christianity than are the smaller, independent churches who already claim to be “just Christian.” People who are presbyterian, methodist, episcopal, and lutheran, to a large extent, do not seem threatened by the idea of seeing Jesus at work in other churches. We tend to hold our theology with an open hand and be open to working together to achieve common goals.

The irony is that in a Big Tent Christianity world, denominations will cease to exist–at least in their current forms. When we are open to working with other churches based on a common mission rather than belonging to a common group, then the obvious outcome will be less and less of a priority on denominationalism.

And that is good news for denominations.

You see, denominations are already facing heavy decline. Denominational leaders are trying hard to keep their huge ships afloat in a world where the waters are becoming more shallow and ever wider, a world build for small, agile boats. What is at stake for many of these denominational leaders, I believe, is mission. There are many great things that 4 million members in the ELCA can do together that we cannot do separately, things like eradicating malaria in Africa. If these huge denominational structures cease to exist, won’t these efforts suffer?

Not in a world of Big Tent Christianity.

Big Tent Christianity seeks to bring people together based on their common missions. Big Tent Christianity transcends denominational borders in order to reach common goals. We can be confident in a world of Big Tent Christianity that Christians can still do Big Things, dream Big Dreams, and tackle Big Problems without resorting to the old forms of bureaucratic denominationalism. Big Tent Christianity will help us continue to do the things that we can do better together, things that we cannot do separately. Big Tent Christianity can continue the mission in the absence of denominations.

Though denominations are dying, the mission of the church is not.

Comments (4)
Categories : Christianity
Tags : , ,

Linkworthy 8/6/10

By Matt · Comments (0)
Friday, August 6th, 2010

Youth Ministry

Church

Random

  • My favorite post of the week was The ethics of ice cream. Best part of the exchange: “One sample per customer.” Stirred by her apparent misunderstanding, I looked at her passionately, full in the face, appealing to her not so much as the gelato girl but as a fellow human being. “But don’t you see,” I said warmly, “it makes no sense to provide one sample! It’s just the same as providing no samples at all! I’m sure I would love many of these flavours – but at the moment, all I know is that I don’t like the melon. Really, if you could just let me try one more, just the caramelised fig…”
  • Doug Rushkoff thinks that not even the corporations will be able to turn a profit for very much longer
  • Cool video: Slow motion lightning strike
Comments (0)
Categories : Links

The Waning Adolescent Rite of Passage: Driving

By Matt · Comments (10)
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

After just reading Teen 2.0 last month, I read in this month’s edition of Car and Driver magazine that the Washington Post reports that only 30 percent of 16 year olds in 2008 received driver’s licenses, as opposed to 45 percent 20 years ago. Methinks the two are related.

I remember being so upset when I learned that my sixteenth birthday occurred on a Sunday because that meant I would have to wait one extra day before getting my license. I was peeved. Why did it matter to me so much? For one, I was (and still am) simply a car guy. There’s something about the confluence of engineering, design, style, do-it-yourself-ness, adrenaline, skill, leisure, performance, and camaraderie that occurs within the car and driving subculture that drew me in years ago and wouldn’t let me go. I admit that most teens likely don’t fall into this category.

But secondly, driving was a rite of passage. It marked a clear demarcation of increased independence. In those days there were no graduated licenses or restrictions once you passed your driving test at sixteen. We got a license, piled as many people as could fit in a car, and hit the road trying to time, to the minute, pulling into the driveway at night with our curfew. There was a load of independence and responsibility that was conferred instantly when we received a driver’s license. It seems like the kind of thing for which Dr. Epstein advocates.

Driving seems to be viewed as more of a practical necessity than a rite of passage, as evidenced by this young man’s comments in the Washington Post story. It’s almost as if teens don’t even want independence, they just want to get to their next athletic practice or student council meeting:

The senior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring has a learner’s permit, but the required 60 hours of practice driving toward a driver’s license have taken a back seat to his Advanced Placement classes, the rowing team, the literary magazine and Web design projects. “It’s hard to spend all that time on driving when I can get places without it,” he said.

Conlon said this as his mother, Eva Sullivan Conlon, was driving him to the store to buy supplies for a school project; she ends up taking him places a few times a week.

The article suggests a few key reasons for this shift in the priority of driving in teens’ lives: increased academic and extracurricular loads and increasingly electronic relationships. Quite simply, it is difficult to find the time to take the courses, study the material, and get in the driving time necessary for acquiring a license on top of AP classes, club involvement, athletics, and fine arts. Add to that the fact that teens today are comfortable relating via Facebook and text messaging, and there is no imperative that teens get a license so they can meet up and hang out together. It’s easier, and common, to just meet up digitally.

I find all these trends troubling. Decreasing independence, increasing commitments to academic and extracurricular activities, and an increasingly digital and un-corporeal relationships seem like things that will have a long-term negative effect on our teens and our culture at large.

What shall we do about it? Car and Driver magazine is launching a Save the Manuals! (manual transmission) campaign. I don’t think it will be that simple, but I’m all for saving manual transmissions. No, there is something deeper going on here that is increasingly enslaving our teens to school and the digital world, and I’m not exactly sure what my role and the churches role should (could?) be in breaking this trend.

What is the church’s role in all of this? Isn’t it getting to the point when enough is enough?

Comments (10)
Categories : Youth Ministry
Tags : , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »

Get Site Updates

Add to GoogleAdd to Google Reader

Click here to learn more about site updates

Favorite Posts

Archives

MattCleaver.com
Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved
Website by Cleaver Solutions