Intersection of “Missional” and Youth Ministry
Approximately 100% of youth ministers will declare that their goal in ministry is creating disciples of Jesus Christ–you can change the wording, but that’s the simple gist. In striving towards that goal, a majority of us youth ministers employ an attractional approach: getting kids to youth group is our best means of discipleship. Sometimes getting them to youth group is means of plugging them into a small group. Sometimes youth group is our key platform for teaching. Regardless, for most of us, the thing that butters our bread is getting students to attend youth group. We want students at the youth event.
This is the model I employ. I have for many, many years. But lately I haven’t been very good at it.
Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s the culture of this age. Maybe it’s that so many other things have become so good at attractional that it’s hard to stack up against the competition. Probably it’s all of the above. Whatever the case, it’s gotten me thinking about a new paradigm in discipleship for youth ministry.
The big buzz word gaining momentum is “missional“. Like most church buzz words, it’s definition (at least in the context we often use it) is pretty gray. Vaguely speaking, being “missional” means displaying and enacting missionary behaviors. It’s a frame of mind centered more around being sent out as opposed to drawing in. It’s a divergence from “attractional”.
I want to step forward into a missional paradigm for youth ministry. I have ideas. But I don’t have tried and tested methods. If you do… please give us all a heads up. In the meantime, I’m dedicating this week to being “Missional Youth Ministry Week” on Off the Couch. And I’ll spend the next four days outlining my four ideas for missional youth ministry:
- Get Out
- Get Out Some More
- Get Small
- Give It Up
[See how that worked out with the "G" thing... it's purely coincidence... but clever coincidence...]
Some other folks have already begun fleshing thoughts out on the topic. You can check out Coffee with Chris, Why Is Marko, and the authors of an upcoming book on missional youth ministry.
Related articles
- Youth Ministry in Suburbia (pressingtoward.wordpress.com)
- Two New Missional Books (frankviola.wordpress.com)
i have been wrestling with this idea a ton lately. but maybe the attractional model of student ministry is best, and we are just getting old
http://benjaminkerns.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/your-students-are-not-developmentally-ready-to-live-missionaly/
Oooooo… Old? You’re probably right. You make a great point in your post about us (the old guys) not projecting our spiritual journeys onto students… and I need to keep that in mind. I think it’s possible we can set some missional habits without immersing students fully into the missional game. I think we can even have some missional aims as ministry without overwhelming students. I think really the final point is probably that when people are fully immersed into lives of discipleship, they are naturally missional…
agreed!