My first experience in youth ministry while in college was in a poor, rural community in Alabama at a baptist church where the overwhelming majority of the 50 or so regular attendees were over the age of 65.  At some point, kids who lived in the small houses and trailer homes nearby discovered that every Wednesday night this church offered a free, warm meal and they started coming in droves.  Suddenly there were 20+ kids aged 7 to 15 at this church.  None of their families were involved in the congregation.  No one in the church had any youth ministry experience.  So they recruited a few students from nearby <a href="http://www.sebc.edu">Southeastern Bible College</a> to come start a youth program.  Eventually the leader of that program recruited me.

We didn’t know what we were doing any more than the people who had called us did, and I’m still not sure how effective we were in our ministry with these kids.  But we played a lot of ping pong and basketball, did our best to teach a few things about God and the Bible, and learned as much as we could as we went along.  Since that experience I’ve had plenty of other opportunities to learn about and practice youth ministry, and though I am convinced that anyone who thinks they have youth ministry "all figured out” is either a lunatic or lying, these experiences have taught me a few important principles that I want to share.

In this article I want to outline a basic “theory” of youth ministry that attempts to address the issues brought up in <a title="Relevance: The Youth Minister’s Questions (Part 1 of 2)" href="http://provoketive.com/2013/03/25/relevant-the-youth-ministers-questions-part-1-of-2/">part one of this series</a>.  The goal is not to create a rigid formula for what every youth ministry should look like.  I don’t have, nor do I think I ever will have, such a formula, so these thoughts are not meant to be a one-size-fits-all solution to every church’s questions.  What I do intend to do is highlight some basic principles that I think are extremely important for any church to think about as they plan and develop their own ministry with youth.  As with <a title="Relevance: The Youth Minister’s Questions (Part 1 of 2)" href="http://provoketive.com/2013/03/25/relevant-the-youth-ministers-questions-part-1-of-2/">part one</a>, this is meant to start a conversation not end one, to provide one perspective on an issue not claim to be the definitive view.  I hope many others will join the discussion that follows and that we will learn more from one another than we could ever claim to know on our own.
<h2>Underlying Principles</h2>
To lay my cards on the table, I have to acknowledge that the core of this theory of youth ministry is based largely on my own faith journey.  My own experiences of wrestling with my faith both while growing up and during my theological training at <a href="http://www.sebc.edu">Southeastern Bible College</a> and <a href="http://divinity.yale.edu">Yale Divinity School</a> have embedded in my thinking three major principles that lie not far beneath the surface of everything else I will argue for in this article (its worth acknowledging that I have been greatly aided in articulating the first two by the research of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195384776/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0195384776&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=musingsandph-20">Christian Smith</a><img style="border: none !important;margin: 0px !important" alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musingsandph-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0195384776" width="1" height="1" border="0" /> and his team of sociologists):

<strong><em>First</em>, students won’t believe what they don’t find important.</strong>  When youth find a worship service boring or scoff at the idea of a missions trip, that isn’t just adolescent angst or a social-networking-age induced inability to sit still.  What they are telling you, implicitly, is that they don’t find these things important.  They don’t think they are things that they need, they don’t see them as valuable.  And what they don’t find valuable or important isn’t likely to be something they continue to do for very long after the pressure of parents or other mentoring adults is gone.  Transfer this principle from the activities of the church to the faith of the church: what happens when youth don’t find their faith valuable or important?  How long will they continue to believe?

<strong><em>Second,</em> students won’t find important what they can’t explain the meaning and significance of themselves.</strong>  Too often when we talk about our faith, especially with youth, its the “expert-in-the-room” who does all the talking.  Which results in our youth being unable to explain for themselves why their faith is important to them.  Over time, this leads them to conclude that it isn’t that important (in the same way that most of us decide understanding multivariable calculus isn’t really important to our lives).  Which, when we are dealing with matters of faith, frequently leads them to question whether they really believe any of it in the first place (circling back to the first principle above).  I’m convinced that successful faith formation with youth has to be about getting our students comfortable explaining what their faith means to them, in their own words using their own voice, so that their faith becomes <em>their</em> faith, something that they find important and worth believing.

<strong><em><a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Eating-Pizza.jpg"><img class="alignright  wp-image-8745" alt="Student Eating Pizza" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Eating-Pizza-300x277.jpg" width="210" height="194" /></a>Third</em>, youth ministry is about students, not the prestige of the youth minister or the reputation of a local church.</strong>  Kids can tell when they are being used.  And while they might put up with that for a while (especially if they are getting something out of it, like free pizza every week), eventually, when the perks run out, they will run away.

Now, with these principles in mind, let’s work back through the questions posed in part one of this series:
<h2>The Goal of Youth Ministry</h2>
The goal of ministry in general is the proclaiming of the gospel.  Which might seem to indicate that of the two possible goals for youth ministry identified in <a title="Relevance: The Youth Minister’s Questions (Part 1 of 2)" href="http://provoketive.com/2013/03/25/relevant-the-youth-ministers-questions-part-1-of-2/">part one</a>-- evangelizing to kids or creating a safe space for kids to relax and feel loved-- we should opt for outright evangelism.

Actually, I think that a successful youth ministry can do both.  Maybe it would be better said I believe a successful youth ministry should and must do both, in a manner of speaking.  Let me explain:

Throughout the Christian tradition, whether it be in the Pauline notion of general revelation, the Catholic doctrine of Natural Law, or the Wesleyan notion of prevenient grace, Christians have believed that the God who stands at the center of all things is reaching out to every person, inviting them to enter into a cosmic drama of redemption.  Twentieth-century theologian <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226803376/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0226803376&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=musingsandph-20">Paul Tillich</a><img style="border: none !important;margin: 0px !important" alt="" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musingsandph-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0226803376" width="1" height="1" border="0" /> famously put it this way: "religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern.”  Perhaps the most effective way for youth (or really, anyone) to discover the value and importance of faith is for them to identify the ways they encounter this "ultimate concern" in their own life, to articulate their own experience of how God has been and is continuing to reach out to them; put another way: to tell the story of their own journey of faith.

Asking students to tell their stories, examining the ways God is at work in their lives, is itself a form of evangelism and can lead to a whole host of incredible conversations about faith.  But it also cannot happen unless students feel safe.  In todays world there are very few places where students will ever be asked questions about an “ultimate concern.”  Answering existential questions about faith and its significance to their lives carries with it a certain degree of risk and requires a certain amount of openness to their peers and youth leaders.  And that, in turn, requires them to feel comfortable with and loved by those who are participating in this process with them.  So before a youth ministry can push its students to really think about faith as something meaningful in their lives, it must have created a space where they are willing to enter into the conversation.
<h2>The Tenor of Youth Ministry</h2>
<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ray-of-Light.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-8746" alt="Ray of Light" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ray-of-Light-300x219.jpg" width="300" height="219" /></a>Inviting students to tell their own stories, examining their own lives to see the ways God is reaching out to them and inviting them to participate in the cosmic drama of redemption, requires that the tenor of a youth ministry strike a particular balance.

As we ask students to analyze their stories and think about what they believe and why it is important and valuable, our conversations must be open to a certain degree of doubt and questioning.  Demanding certainty from students, especially early on in the process of their faith development, leads them to give up on finding their own faith and revert to regurgitating the answers they think we expect.  Room for doubts and honest questions is necessary if we want students to find their own words with which to express their faith.  In a <a href="http://www.youthministryinitiative.org/april-2-2013-dr-andrew-root/">recent talk</a> I heard by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Root/e/B001JS9RFQ/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;qid=1365627665&amp;sr=1-4&amp;tag=musingsandph-20" target="_blank">Andy Root</a><img style="border: none !important;margin: 0px !important" alt="" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musingsandph-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" />, Professor of Youth Ministry at Luther Seminary in Minneapolis, he described the balance that has to be struck this way: “we can say to young people, ‘continue to doubt, continue to wrestle with questions, but continue to do that here.'”

This tenor is set through our own modeling of what we are hoping our students will do.  In the same talk, Andy went on to point out that “we learn to tell our stories by hearing stories.”  When we model the process of exploring our own stories, describing our faith journeys, and articulating what we believe and why its important for our lives, we open up our students to engaging in the same kind of process for themselves.  When we model what a confident, vibrant, faith looks like we set a tone for our students to follow.  When we utilize theological language to explain the ways we have come to articulate our own faith, we equip students by giving them language with which to describe their experience of God working in their own lives.
<h2>The Content of Youth Ministry</h2>
Striking this balance in the tenor of our ministry while inviting students to tell their own faith stories allows us to strike a balance in the content of our ministry between focusing on theology and focusing on practical living.

Theology will be important to a youth ministry because of how it helps us to explain our own faith journeys and helps to equip our students with the language to talk about theirs.  By helping us to articulate our faith clearly, theological language plays a significant role by helping to underscore the importance of our faith.  Simply put: its easier to see the importance of something when you have a clearer understanding of it.

At the same time, most often our faith stories will themselves reflect our <i>experiences</i> of God in life, and many of the most important questions we will have about our faith have to do with the way it practically effects of our lives.  That means that in inviting students to reflect on what they believe, we also have to invite them to consider the practical importance and significance of those beliefs in their everyday lives.
<h2>Youth Ministry in the Life of the Church</h2>
<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Inviting-People-In.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-8747" alt="Inviting People In" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Inviting-People-In-196x300.jpg" width="196" height="300" /></a>In the first part of this series, I posed a question about how youth should be engaged in the life of a church.  Alternatively, it seems, we can keep kids in worship with the larger church community, often at the risk of letting them become bored or disengaged, or we can keep kids in an “age-appropriate” ministry separate form the rest of the church which then runs the risk of leaving kids without a sense of what the church community really is.

In reality, of course, we can have both an age-appropriate youth ministry and invite kids to participate in the larger community on Sunday mornings.  The latter part of that, however, is a bit trickier.  How do we make kids feel like they are part of the larger church community, especially when much of that community is made up of adults they may not have had previous meaningful relationships with?

In <a title="Relevance: The Youth Minister’s Questions (Part 1 of 2)" href="http://provoketive.com/2013/03/25/relevant-the-youth-ministers-questions-part-1-of-2/">part one</a> I paraphrased a parable from <a href="http://www.youthministryinitiative.org/february-5-2013-dr-roland-martinson/">Roland Martinson</a> on the importance of having youth be connected to the community in what he refers to as “inter-generational ministry.”  My own feeling, echoing his and grounded in my own experience of church, is that when youth have ways to be involved in worship-- whether that be helping with music, ushering, or setting up chairs-- they gain a sense of ownership that encourages them to want to be part of the community.  Likewise, as a commenter on the first part of this series pointed out, when the congregation’s worship contains at least a few elements intentionally aimed at engaging youth, they are more likely to be interested in sticking around.  By both reaching out to youth and inviting them to become more involved in the community, churches can keep youth engaged in the larger community on Sunday mornings even while also providing them with an “age-appropriate” ministry at other times during the week.
<h2>Leadership and How to Do That Here</h2>
Two of the most pressing and difficult issues for many churches when it comes to youth ministry are, as it was put in <a title="Relevance: The Youth Minister’s Questions (Part 1 of 2)" href="http://provoketive.com/2013/03/25/relevant-the-youth-ministers-questions-part-1-of-2/">part one</a>, “who is going to lead it?” and “how do we do that at our church?”  In a way, these are closely related questions: whoever leads a youth ministry is in effect tasked with figuring out how to make it happen.

At the most basic level, the leader of a youth ministry must be committed to youth, skilled at teaching, and capable of providing pastoral care and thoughtful mentoring to students traveling through a formative period of life.  Such a role could be filled by a lay person or an ordained minister, a “professional” member of the church staff or a volunteer from within the congregation.  Ultimately, I believe, this should be a combination of many people led by a staff “point-person,” likely a pastor or designated youth minister.

In part this team approach is ideal because it helps to ensure that whoever is responsible for leading or overseeing a youth ministry has the support of the congregation.  One of the commenters on part one of this series noted that youth ministry can often feel like a lonely job.  I remember about six months into one of my first roles in youth ministry being asked by a member of the congregation after the service if I was a new visitor at the church.  To be honest, I was taken aback by the question.  “No, actually, I’m on the staff here,” I managed to mutter.  The question revealed the distance between the congregation and the youth ministry and its leadership.  Such a distance can quickly burn out a youth leader.  For their ministry to be successful, youth leaders need to have the support and backing of the larger church.  That means, I believe, supporting whoever the “point-person” for the youth ministry is with volunteers from the congregation.  It also means ensuring that the youth leader is integrated into the community of other adults at the church and not relegated to always being “with the kids.”

What is not required to be a successful youth minister, I believe, is being a young, extreme extrovert, who can’t sit still and understands all the newest trends of youth culture.  Nor does a church need a massive youth budget or the ability to simulate the experience of a rock concert.  More on this in a moment, but suffice it to say that I think people with a variety of personalities, teaching styles, and visions for what their ministry will look like can be very effective in their role provided that they are genuine to themselves and minister to their students out of a love for seeing those students grow and learn in their faith.
<h2>To Be Relevant, or Not to Be Relevant?</h2>
<a href="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Mega-Church-Interior.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-8748" alt="Mega-Church Interior" src="http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Mega-Church-Interior-300x225.jpg" width="300" height="225" /></a>That is the question, perhaps the most disputed one amongst youth ministers today.  It also has a lot do with the practical question of how a particular youth ministry will look on the ground.  Do you need flashy video promos and rock band?  Do you need to be up on all the latest trends in teen pop culture?  Well… probably not.

Relevance in a youth ministry takes three forms:

<em>First,</em> when we are genuinely invested in the lives of our youth, we will become aware of the things that they are interested in.  The more we learn about those things, either through our conversations with them or through listening to the music they are all singing along to in the car on our way to an event or watching some of the you-tube videos they are talking about before youth group, the more we will understand about their world, and, consequently, the more “relevant” our ministry will be, even if we aren’t actively designing a ministry that looks like their culture.

<em>Second,</em> I think relevance is also a factor of empowering student leaders.  One of the most significant things that every happened to me in my journey toward ministry was being asked to plan and lead the music for my high school youth group.  When we make a move to bring students into leadership roles within our group, asking them to help plan activities or lead worship, invariably they will bring something of their own tastes and interests and passions to the table.  And as their creativity impacts what the group looks like, our community and its worship start to look more “relevant” to our youth because they are shaping it, not us.

<em>Third,</em> I think relevance also emerges from youth leaders being themselves.  While the movies we grew up on or the music we love might not always be what our youth are into now, if we are doing the work of building meaningful, ministering relationships with them they will humor us when we share our interests and often times find something about it they like, too.  Relevance doesn’t have to be about staying on the cutting edge of current trends in pop culture, it’s about finding a common language with which to share our experiences with the youth we are serving.

When we find such a common language, whether it be through the terms of our own interests or the things our youth are excited about, we create a space where they feel at home and comfortable, opening up the door for them to be willing to engage serious questions about their faith and its meaning for their lives, and allowing us to work with them, helping them learn to articulate this faith and connect with the God who loves them.

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<em>Alexander Marshall is an experienced youth worker, blogger, writer, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall">Twitter</a>, or by <a href="http://apmarshall.wordpress.com/">visiting his blog</a>.</em>

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