Youth – The future of the church, NOW!

It was a rude wake up call for me, as I sat with a student who had been rushed to hospital with a suspected neck injury.

This senior student told me how he had been taking flying lessons. “Flying lesson?! They actually let you fly a plane?” It was then I realized that much of what we do in youth ministry and the church would have little appeal to this young man. It was then I also realized that partly it was because we ask and expect too little of young people in the church.

Over the years I have been in youth ministry I have met so many accomplished young people who achieved things that I found hard to fathom, that in some ways I have ceased to be amazed. But what does amaze and dismay me is that in the church we so often hold young people back and tell them to wait. In the end many prefer to take up the challenges of the world so they can “strut their stuff” and show how competent and capable they are. Alternatively they may turn to more dangerous options to gain attention. This is a problem we need to address in the church but we are not alone in the need to address it.

Recently sociologist Michael Ungar published a book called Too Safe for Their Own Good that has emerged from his years of practice working with young people. He says a lot of young people fall into two categories – the undersupervised and the over protected – both of these groups tend to engage in negative risk taking behaviour – one to be noticed, the other to escape the confines of their safety. Ungar believes that all young people, all people for that matter, need challenge to grow. If they do not have any opportunities to risk themselves in a safe way, they will do it in any way that society offers, including drugs and other potentially destructive behaviors. The challenge is to offer young people the right amount of risk in order for them to be satisfied but safe.

Ungar talks at length about how young people and children use risk taking behaviour as a way of learning and growing. It is, he says, part of their way of sharing their identity and affirming their worth. Parents need to balance the amount of protection they offer, with their child’s need for freedom to explore his world on his own terms. When adults can offer a young person more risk and responsibility, within the scaffolding of a safe environment, they are communicating that “You belong, you’re trustworthy, you’re responsible and you’re capable”. These are messages young people need to experience, not just hear. If we stop young people doing things because they are not 'safe' - we prevent them from acquiring the tools they need to grow up.

So what does Ungar’s work have to do with us in the church? Far too often young people are excluded from real and exciting ministry opportunities. Ministry is seen as something responsible and capable adults do. But young people want to be responsible and capable too, it is part of growing up. If there are no opportunities for them to take risks and learn in their faith life, then they will place their attention somewhere else.

Part of the problem is that the mode of much youth ministry is to minister to young people. We need to turn this around so that young people become the ministers. This is especially the case in an age when peer communication and support is so dominant. If we want to reach out to young people, share the Gospel with them, heal their hurts, then we need young people to do it. Therefore we, in the church, need to provide a supportive structure of opportunities for young people to learn and grow in ministry from a young age. This might include learning how to pray with their friends, teaching peers about the bible, volunteering in social justice initiatives, running programs for other young people or even preaching in church. Obviously youth ministers can only take this process so far without greater permission being given by the leadership of the church.

Ungar states in his book that “we are not doing our job properly as parents if we do not prepare our children properly for life outside our homes". I believe that it is also equally true that we are not doing our job properly if we don’t prepare young people for life outside of the safe confines of the church and youth group. This means we need to take a risk in order to give young people real ministry opportunities and experience. We need to equip and allow them to be ministers in their own communities now; to be preachers and teachers and evangelists and healers and prophets and leaders. We cannot wait till they grow – if we do – they will not be here. Now is the time for them to know they are valued and needed by their community. Now is the time for us to tell them that we require something of them. Now is the time for them to lead and serve and build and grow.

www.thesource4ym.com
This website is jam packed full of all sorts of helpful resources for youth ministry including: games, team builders, activity ideas, movie reviews, youth culture windows and much more. Although this site emerges from an American context it still contains many useful and cutting-edge resources for youth ministers.

Edited by Stephen Harrison
Director of Youth, Children’s, & Family Ministry
Anglican Diocese of Brisbane.