By Warwick Moffat
I have had the privilege of being Youth Director at Hornby Presbyterian Community Church for the past (nearly) 10 years now. I am finishing this role at the end of the year, and in light of this was recently asked to offer a few reflections on my time in youth ministry, so the following are a few wee thoughts…
To begin with, I just want to say that young people are AWESOME!!! Not much else needs to be said really, but in the midst of it all (and especially when the dramas pop up?) it can be easy to forget this. But young people really are awesome. As someone once said to me, “young people are not a problem to be solved, but a gift to be shared” And building on from this, people are awesome! We all get frustrated with others (and equally, we all frustrate others), but at the end of the day, we need each other to be effective in what we do and in growing God’s kingdom. And maybe when we do get grumpy with others, we could remember that all we can do is work on our own stuff, make sure our own heart is good, and pray for the other people and allow God to do his work. (Sadly, sometimes it is only in hindsight that I remember this).
I’d also like to say that “it” works! (“It” being youth group/God/faith). Just recently we had a young woman come to faith, after participating in our youth community for at least two years prior to that. She has no church background whatsoever, and has said herself that when she started coming to youth group she was not even interested in what we were doing. But she has journeyed with us for a number of years, and over that time has participated in our community, got to know some of our leaders (who have become very significant people in her life), and has been exposed to God/Christianity in what we do. Then a few months ago, she came to youth group and simply said to one of our leaders that she wanted to become a Christian! So after journeying with us and lots of care from our youth leaders, she has chosen to follow God, and it is fantastic! Again, it’s hardly rocket science, but heartening none the less – especially because she had no prior knowledge. God continues to reveal himself to people and call them to himself.
And this wee story hints at what I believe are a couple of key things for youth ministry. Firstly, that relationships are the basis of good youth work. In fact, I believe that these are much more important than anything else we do. The connections we make between leaders and young people are more important than any programme we might run or any study we might take. Think back to your own time in youth group – what is it that you remember? The studies that you did? Or the people/leaders who were there and took an interest in you, and the fun times you had together? We can easily become focused primarily on our programmes (and Bible studies), but it is our relationships with young people that make all the difference. In fact I would argue that programmes/studies by themselves often have little lasting impact upon people, but that as we connect with people and share our lives with them, this can make all the difference. It is then that people can see who we really are, and that the way we live our lives really does back up what we say, and somehow in this people see God a little more clearly.
I know that in my experience when my focus has shifted more towards running our programmes rather than relating to people, it has been to my/our detriment. At those points it seems like all we are doing is running activities (or even glorified babysitting), and any club or group can do that. But we have something more to offer, and often that is only really passed on as we know and relate to people. I believe that being a leader is all about role-modeling – being a genuine, authentic and accessible follower of God, and living this out 24/7 for our young people to see. Another quote (that I have repeated every year with our leaders) that seems relevant here is “spiritually healthy ministries require spiritually healthy leaders”. Enough said, really. I also wonder if there is something significant in living in the same community as the people we are attempting to minister to. It seems to me there is something very authentic about bumping into our young people not only at youth group, but also as we go to the supermarket, wander through the local park and so on.
Secondly, we need to have a long term perspective. We may journey with people for years before anything significant happens for them in terms of faith, and this is OK! God knows, and he has a plan, and he has a time. This is especially true for those from outside of church - unless they have some sort of Christian/church upbringing, they simply start their journey towards faith from much further away than previous generations. There are often none of the Christian frameworks or understandings that may have existed for older generations, with people lacking even what many of us would call basic understandings. And this is a significant challenge for us as we think about how to present faith in a meaningful way to people. But as was said above, God is still alive and well and revealing himself to people, and it still works!
Thirdly, I would say that it is crucial to be involved in mission – in reaching out beyond our church environments and the young people already there to those who have no connection with us, and therefore possibly no exposure to God/faith at all. And I would say that mission is simply the opportunity for non-Christian young people to participate in our youth communities! For people today, in general, “belonging comes before belief”, which is a significant change from previous generations. So as people participate in our community, we trust that God will be at work, that they will see and experience something of him, and they will “catch” faith amongst it all. And as they belong and catch something of our faith, we can then continue to journey with them and disciple them into their new faith.
For us at Hornby, the most significant mission thing we have ever done was to get involved at the local high school. We do this via the 24-7 YouthWork Programme, where we employ youth workers to work part-time at the local school. (Please note that this is by no means the only model of working in a school, but it has really worked for us). And it has meant that we now have a steady stream of young people regularly coming along to our programmes who we would otherwise have never even come into contact with. And then at our programmes, they are exposed to God, meet our awesome leaders, and a number of them have already become Christians. And I am confident many more will in the future as well!
Anyway, that is my two cents’ worth. I hope that if you’ve got this far you will have found something of value here, and wish you all the best as you join with God in extending his kingdom in your place.