First, thanks for all of the great email, text messages, tweets, and smoke signals concerning this series. It seems we have touched on a subject that is on a lot of hearts and minds. Perfect. God is up to something. We highly encourage you to start from the beginning of the series and move forward.
Yesterday I wrote about parents as the primary spiritual leaders of their children. This is the starting place for developing youth ministries that will have a greater impact on the students they lead. Maybe it’s not sexy or in some cases, very difficult, but it is paramount in leading youth toward holiness. Ignore God’s desire and you are merely doing ministry that results in over 65% of high school graduates deciding to walk away from church. Disobedience to God’s expressed desire results in consequences in our personal lives and our ministries. God loves us more than we can wrap our limited minds around and stands committed to His specific plan. Love combined with an omniscient mind is the motivation. I like that.
We move forward today with biblical principles which help shape our ministries into sustainable models. Students are the church.
Intergenerational Service is the Biblical Model for the Body of Christ
Biblical Truth: 1 Corinthians 12: 1-31
It is a mistake to view youth ministry as a separate entity of the church. Maybe we don’t see it as a separate entity, but we often build ministries that are somewhat exclusive and programmed to impact only one aspect of the church community. This creates the perception within local church communities that youth ministries are a ministry unto themselves. This perception is the accepted norm in many church cultures. The youth do their thing, and we do our thing. Some celebrate this division because it keeps those messy, loud, axe body spray-smelling kids away from their more “Serious” ministry.
I spoke with a youth pastor last week who was considering conducting a separate Sunday morning worship service where his students would attend that service instead of the main church service. His rationale was the “Adult” service was boring to his students and didn’t offer relevant content that is important to teenagers. Amen. I digress. I inquired as to what his pastor thought of this idea. I expected resistance from the senior pastor. I was wrong. He said his senior pastor was in favor of the change because the “Kids are so distracting.” Mercy. This became a ”Be careful what you ask because you may not like the answer” situation. I rained on his parade.
It wasn’t so much the idea as the dangerous precedent you can find in most churches today. The overwhelming majority of youth ministries today are designed to separate youth from adults. That’s a bold statement. It’s usually not intentional but is the standard for most ministries. It becomes more clear as you evaluate your ministry model. This is not God’s idea for the body of Christ.
Before you shut me down, please know that I am on board with the principle that youth ministries must provide separate learning opportunities and activities for their students. This is healthy as students are often at a different cognitive level of learning than most adults. The current generation learns in ways that would cause most adults to pull their hair out. The opposite is true. Forcing students into adult learning environments is equivalent to putting them in a prison cell. This is a non-linear generation that learns using non-linear methodologies. If you study the current models for educating students in our public schools you will discover this teaching method. This is also true for activities. Activities should never been seen as a means to an end but as a tool, or “Side-door” into our church communities. They should, however, be attractive to the students we are trying to reach. The activities that attract the current generation are often heresy to the older members of our church. Food Wars? You mean you are going to throw food at each other? Conversely, I can’t imagine a student getting jazzed about a gospel singing or Bingo night. Maybe that’s just me. There is a time and place for age-based learning and activities. I disagree with some of the models that promote the idea of doing away with youth ministries. If you study those models you will find they often throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water and the result is a church with very few students. But we must be careful in assuming these two aspects cannot be accomplished across generational lines.
The problem arises when we design youth ministries that operate as a separate entity, or a body within a body in the church community. We can unintentionally lead a ministry in this direction by developing programs that only promote attendance and service in and through our youth ministry. Make sense? Let’s take the mandate of service. First, we should highly value teaching our students the biblical truths concerning spiritual gifts. Start there. This is critical in their growth toward holiness. When students begin to understand their spiritual gifts, it becomes incredibly important to help them incorporate these gifts into their daily lives. As students begin to understand their God-given gifts through service, it changes their lives. I often say “You are never more like Jesus than when you serve.” This is incredibly important in their spiritual development. What do most youth ministries do? We incorporate our students into service but only within the context of our youth ministries. We have youth praise bands, youth mission activities, youth choir (Lord help us), youth Sunday, on and on, and we fail to incorporate youth within the overall ministry of the church. This is how we create the current perception of division in the local church. Hear me. There is nothing wrong with promoting this type of service within our youth ministry. Again, they have their time and place. It only becomes an issue when their service is limited to youth ministry.
If we read the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, we gain an understanding of God’s desire for the church body. God gives spiritual gift(s) to His followers for His glory and service within the body of Christ. Failure to recognize and subsequently use these God-given gifts within the church body, results in consequences in our personal lives AND the church community. God clearly shows us through Paul’s letter that we are one body. A body with many parts which combines as one functional entity for the purposes and glory of God. God gives us the framework for a healthy body. Students who choose to follow Christ are part of that body. Their gifts are important to the overall health within the local church community. So why do we limit their gifts to only serving within our youth ministries?
Critical Truth: Youth Ministries MUST Embrace the Biblical Principle of Intergenerational Service.
We feel good about saying, “Youth are not the church of the future. They are the church of today.” While this is a true statement as anyone who comes into a relationship with Christ is part of the church, we still treat them as parts of the church who are in some sort of minor league. We only give lip service to this idea if our ministries only allow students to serve within our youth programs. It greatly benefits the church body and the spiritual growth of our students if we develop a system that allows them to use their gifts in the ministry of the entire church body. This is a better model of intergenerational ministry. Adults and students using their spiritual gifts in service together for the glory of God. This is a healthy model and supports God’s desire which always results in spiritual growth. What a cool picture. This idea moves beyond the traditional “Youth Sunday” mentality. You know, the one Sunday a year when our youth lead the service. Nothing wrong with this tradition but when you embrace the biblical principles of intergenerational service, “Youth Sunday” is no longer necessary as students begin serve every week.
As we encourage youth and allow them to serve within all aspects of the church body, they grow to a place of owning their area of ministry and understanding God’s specific desire for their lives. They begin to understand the value of using their spiritual gifts within the context of the total body of the local church. If students are only allowed to serve within the walls of our youth ministries, what happens when they graduate from those ministries? We have, in essence, set them up to fail and in a very real sense promoted their departure after graduation. Now imagine students who are serving within the various church programs. Starting to understand? As we allow students to serve in the overall ministries of the church and expose them to the adults who serve in those areas, they gain a sense of understanding, comfort, acceptance, and growth. This greatly increases the likelihood of their continued service as they move out of our ministries and into adulthood. And can you imagine the benefit to the body of Christ? This is a healthy model for youth ministry that we highly value at our church.
This Sunday morning at the church I serve, a high school sophomore will be in charge of running the sound board for our contemporary worship service. Another very ADHD high school sophomore will help set up the band. Teenagers will sing in the praise teams in our various worship services. Teenagers will help serve communion. Teenagers will read Bible passages and pray in our main worship services. Teenagers will help set up and take down the worship elements and structures. Local, national, and international missions are accomplished with students and adults using their various spiritual gifts, side by side, serving God. Teenagers serve on the leadership team of our church where we make decisions about our entire church structure. Craziness. Truly A beautiful site. Sometimes I worship God more in taking in this scene of intergenerational service than I do the music or preaching. Is that a sin? Well if loving intergenerational service is wrong, I don’t want to be right. What? As they serve and feel a sense of ownership in the different areas of our church, they become more invested in its mission and overall vision. They feel valued and accepted which leads to service and growth beyond their youth ministry years.
It is possible you will meet resistance as you attempt to accomplish this biblical model. Sadly, this is a natural response when the pattern of ministry promotes age segregation. Church leaders settle into this mentality and it becomes their comfort zone. The worship pastor/leader may recoil at the idea of working with hyperactive teenagers. Church pastors may not see the value in students leading in areas that are currently led by adults. You get the idea. Part of the role of youth leadership is helping our church leadership and congregation understand this biblical principle. We might have to put on our big boy pants and help the church leadership understand the biblical principles and value of intergenerational service. In some cases this will be new to them. In other instances it might be like turning on a light in a previously dark area of church service. Patience and honest communication is the key as we introduce this model into our church communities. But imagine the results as students and adults serve God together in our church communities. A constant flow of adults streaming into our students lives and our youth pouring out into the various miniseries of our church. Mercy. I get excited just thinking about it.
I pray you at least consider the biblical principle of intergenerational service in your ministries. I offer you a money back guarantee if this mentality does not greatly enhance the spiritual growth and what Kara Powell of Fuller Youth Institute calls, “Stickiness” of your ministry. Ok. The money back guarantee part comes from watching to many infomercials. My secret passion.
Fuller Youth Ministry Institute offers a wealth of information on intergenerational ministry. I encourage you to spend some time reading their articles at “Fuller Youth Ministry Institute: Intergenerational Ministry.”
I would love to hear your feedback and how you are implementing this biblical principle in your youth ministry.
