UYWI friend and frequent co-conspirator Rudy Carrasco has championed market-oriented solutions to youth poverty and joblessness for years. He summarizes his call for holistic economic justice as “Protest and Invest,” where we broaden our call for justice beyond assigning blame about the causes of poverty to asset creation and control. He’s been writing and communicating his ideas for years, for example:

• Protest and Invest and Other Insights into Urban and Multiethnic Ministry, Second Edition (Urban Onramps Publishing: 2009)
• “Protest & Invest: Being Holistic about Justice Ministry,” UYWI workshop audio (2006)
• “Habits of Highly Effective Justice Workers,” Christianity Today (2006)

There is no shortage of protest across the political spectrum. Some promote fair trade over free trade and argue for turning the minimum wage into a living wage; they seek to strengthen immigrant rights and oppose racism. Others object to activist judges, family-hostile state laws and school curricula, and porous borders. But increasingly, all these concerns are framed in terms of concern for the most vulnerable members of society. These issues rouse people out of their living rooms, out of the pews, and into society to work for change.

While I celebrate this development, I worry that we are perilously weak at walking alongside the poor, at investing directly into the lives of individuals to give them what they truly need—not what we believe they need or what our policy statements tell us they need. I’ve found that it’s relatively easy to raise a voice in protest, but unfathomably hard to invest in a life.

• “Protest and Invest” Prism magazine (Summer 2004)

After leading or co-leading Harambee Christian Family Center for almost twenty years, a youth-oriented community development corporation in Pasadena, California, in 2009 Rudy joined the staff of Partners Worldwide as U.S. regional facilitator.  In addition to speaking regularly at conferences, colleges, and churches, Rudy is a frequent lecturer for the Acton Institute think tank. Below is a recent talk he gave for Acton, “Business as Mission 2.0.”

I was reminded of Rudy’s advocacy this week after visiting Turkey Hill in Lancaster County, PA. Founded by a devoted Christian 75 years ago, Turkey Hill has grown into a major regional dairy, and their frozen yogurt is one of the country’s largest brands.

During my visit, Quintin Frey, the current president and the founder’s grandson, shared with me his father’s paraphrase of Romans 12:11-21. Romans 12 is the chapter that begins by exploring what it means to be living sacrifices transformed by the renewing of our minds, and ends with an exploration of love that is sincere. Mr. Frey’s paraphrase explores what sincere love looks like for business owners.

“Work hard at your business, but keep a proper balance between your fervor for it and the Lord’s business, which you are also doing.

The hope of success spurs you hopefully on, but watch out, there will be many times when you lose money, so pray continually.

This formula permits you to have money to give to people in need, and to entertain others in your home and in your church.

Bless those who levy taxes and controls, those who take your customers, your market, or your money. Don’t get angry about it.

Be happy when the other fellow is successful. Be sympathetic with those who are having a hard time of it.

Don’t get high-minded a stuck-up when you succeed, but act as though you had failed and were poor. Don’t think your success was all because of you.

Don’t try to beat the ‘sharpie’ salesman or businessman because he pulled a fast deal on you. Let your dealing have an honest ring to your employees, your customers, and your fellow businessmen.

Some customers you can never satisfy, and some inspectors you can never please, but keep trying without getting huffy.

Dear fellow businessmen and women, don’t think you must win every time. If you lose, don’t try to make it up on the next deal. The Lord will take care of those characters.

Instead, do him a good turn; that will really roast him out.

Don’t let evil cause you to fail; let good make you successful.”

Quintin Frey honors his father and grandfather by keeping this vision central to Turkey Hill’s business mission. Mr. Frey’s business remains a generous supporter of youth ministries throughout the region, not to mention a principal employer in Lancaster County.

Rural dairies. Business as mission. Urban youth ministry. Is there a connection? What say you?

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“Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.” – Isaiah 43:19, The Message

A generation of prophets cries out. They are, in appearance, humble; in sustenance, meager; in approach, gruff. Do you hear them?

Americanized evangelicals – those for whom Christianity has as much to do with attaining the “blessed life” (more commonly known as the “American Dream”) as it does following Christ – don’t know what to make of them. Clearly they have something to offer. But we approach with caution, skepticism, and, at times, outright fear or resentment.

Some call them “emerging” or “next” or “future.” Others say “Emergent” or “new” or “Spirit-led.” Critics describe them as know-nothing idealists or do-nothing demagogues. Often they are relegated to subculture ghettoes (an unfortunate redundancy) of ministry “departments” or labeled paternalistically as “urban” or “Gen X” or “millennial” or “postmodern” or “youth” and/or “young adult.”

Like The Baptist of old, their cry resonates and convicts: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.” Do you hear them?

The kingdom they proclaim defies evangelical niceties. They trade tailored suits for weather-worn camel skins, upscale cuisine for locusts and honey, gated communities for wilderness cave dwellings, and luxury rides for calloused and blistered feet. Their cause is justice for the vulnerable, love for the lonely, healing for the weak, mercy for the powerful, grace for the lowly, holiness without judgment, and righteousness in both pulpit and pew. The keys to this Kingdom unlock the gates of Hell itself.

The sin they expose resides as much within the “white washed tombs” of our houses of worship and “broods of vipers” with ecclesiastical titles as it does the heart of everyman. They do not, in themselves, offer salvation. But they herald the One who does.

They wrestle with complexity and embrace uncertainty and yet trust completely Him whose shoes they are unfit to untie. Do you hear them?

They speak on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves. If Christians are those who’ve been “born again,” they are prenatal caregivers who nurture the pre-born and minimize high-risk birth conditions. When complications arise, they do neo-natal intensive care real well.

Their message meets a mixed reception because their eternal Kingdom disrupts and threatens that which is temporary. “If you have two coats,” they say, “give one away. Don’t collect more taxes than are required. Don’t extort money or accuse people falsely. Be content with your pay, and respect what doesn’t belong to you.” (Luke 3:10-14, 19-20 paraphrased.)

Some hear and repent. Many remain indifferent, and others, infuriated. But the One who matters most meets them in the water. “Baptize me,” He requests as fulfillment of that which was foretold. Do you hear what He hears?

The resistance at times causes the prophets to doubt. Rejection, persecution, and imprisonment demoralize and frustrate. Still, the King of kings reassures them. They glimpse the fulfillment of the truth they proclaim as the Kingdom invades their space and invites transcendence.

Those who pay the supreme price do so at the hands of disgruntled listeners who fail to hear the message. But their sacrifice represents the highest honor in this Kingdom. Though the King of kings meets us on our terms, they live life on His.

Let those who have ears, hear. (Matthew 11:15, paraphrased.)

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Love it when unlikely sources celebrate unconventional urban youth ministries. I bought the May 2012 issue of Fast Company magazine because Steve Jobs was on the cover. I’m keeping it because of the 4,000+ word article celebrating the life and legacy of Father Gregory Boyle’s redemptive work with former Los Angeles gang members.

(The cover story about the lessons Jobs learned during the “wilderness years” between his firing and return to Apple was worth the cover price. For example: “There was one other big lesson he learned from his Hollywood adventure: People remember stories more than products. ‘The technology we’ve been laboring on over the past 20 years becomes part of the sedimentary layer,’ he told me once. ‘But when Snow White was re-released [on DVD, in 2001], we were one of the 28 million families that went out and bought a copy of it. This was a film that is 60 years old, and my son was watching it and loving it. I don’t think anybody’s going to be beating on a Macintosh 60 years from now.’” But this blog post isn’t about wilderness lessons or even storytelling, per se. It’s about a phenomenal, if unconventional, youth worker and the transformational impact his ministry has on previously lost souls.)

Rather than summarize the article, I’m going to excerpt a bit here, and encourage you to read the rest.

When he arrived in Boyle Heights, back in the 1980s, Boyle began preaching at Dolores Mission, a little yellow church with a Spanish-tile roof and a hardy old tree by the door, a statue of Mary nestled where its two trunks diverge. At night, he would walk. No one knew what to make of this at first. The young men who lingered on the corners stayed aloof. Police stopped him outside a housing project, assuming he was there for drugs. But whenever guys would get beaten up or shot, he would visit them in the hospital. He had an ear for the neighborhood’s slang, and he adopted it as his own. And he was a Jesuit priest, in a neighborhood where gang members were mostly Latino. (“They’ll be running from the police, and they’ll still cross themselves when they pass a church,” Boyle jokes.) …

Eventually, some neighbors pooled their money and bought him a bicycle, so his walks, which seemed to have a calming effect, might cover more ground. After that, they would see the priest just about every night, pedaling through the projects.

It occurred to Boyle during those rides that the biggest problem facing his community was the lack of work–especially for young men who had spent time in prison–and, by extension, a pervasive sense of hopelessness. So he started looking for jobs for the men. When he couldn’t find nearly enough, he decided to create some. In 1992, with a large donation from a movie producer, Boyle took over a small, shuttered bakery and founded Homeboy Industries.

By 2010, Homeboy was the country’s largest gang-intervention program, employing hundreds of felons–Boyle calls them his “homies”–at a cafe, a silk-screen shop, and other small businesses, and offering services such as free tattoo removal, GED classes, and counseling to thousands more. …

And:

Boyle had never planned to offer free tattoo removal. But when he kept failing to find a job for a young man with an especially unfortunate tattoo (f*** the world, on his forehead), he found a doctor who could erase it.

Homeboy’s businesses were born in much the same way. Boyle opened Homeboy Bakery because a bakery across the street had closed. “If it had been an upholstery shop, we would have opened Homeboy Upholstery,” he said. From Boyle’s perspective, Homeboy was primarily in the business of hiring people: “We don’t hire homies to bake bread. We bake bread to hire homies.”

And:

There was a theological point: “I always have a funny story at communion time that underscores that no one is perfect, and that communion is not for perfect people but for hungry people,” Boyle told me. But that probably matters less than this: The girls were rapt. After Mass, they came to him and lingered as long as they could. He spoke to each one in turn, as if she were his favorite niece: “You are so much more than the worst thing you’ve ever done.” He asked when they were getting out and gave them all his card, with his cell-phone number. “Come see me,” he said. “We have jobs.”

Back at Homeboy, young people kept arriving in Boyle’s office straight from prison, looking for work or money. “Have you eaten anything today?” Boyle asked a skinny, dull-eyed teenager. The boy shook his head. Boyle reached across the desk, slipping him a folded twenty in a handshake, and then squeezed his fist, instead of bumping it.
Boyle looked out into the lobby. “My God, where do all these people come from?” he said.

There are 1.6 million people in U.S. prisons, and very few are in for life. The rest have to go somewhere, and do something. In California, 65% end up reincarcerated within three years, at an average annual cost of $46,700 per adult prisoner–and much more for Division of Juvenile Justice inmates. The recession has forced states to think about ways to reduce their prison rolls. In October, California began an 18-month process of cutting its state-prison population by 33,000, in part by transferring responsibility for some inmates to county authorities. Other states are watching closely.

Finally:

“You don’t know me,” the woman began. Her hair was pulled back into a thin braid that fell to the middle of her back. Her face was hard, opaque. “When my daughter was growing up, I was never able to put new clothes on her for school, not one time,” she said. Her voice started to shake a bit, but she kept going. Her daughter was grown now, with her own kids. The woman had started at Homeboy two weeks ago, as a janitor, and today, she got her first paycheck.

“I told my daughter I’m going to buy her kids an outfit for school,” she said. She tried to continue, but she started to cry, and then sob, her whole body shaking. “I wanted to thank you,” she said, struggling to speak. “I’m going to tell her how you helped me.”

“No,” Boyle said. “No, tell her you did it. You did it.”

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Pitch Like a Closer

With the start of baseball season I was reminded of a youth worker who was preparing to pitch her most impassioned ministry idea to her pastor. She asked for help organizing her thoughts and anticipating the pastor’s questions and concerns. We framed the presentation as a story, and like every good storyteller, answered six essential questions.

1. What?

(a) What is your vision? This is the single most important question to answer. Be prepared to give a two sentence soundbite answer or a thirty minute presentation depending on how much time the pastor gives you. Phrase the short answer to provoke the listener to want to know more. Remember KISS: “Keep it simple, stupid.” No need to over-complicate this, but make it compelling. For example, God’s vision, through millennia of history, could be summed up in one sentence: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.”

(b) What is the need you’re serving? How does your vision respond to a felt need within the community?

2. Why?

Why does your vision matter? Personalize the why. Be prepared with stats and data and demographics and whatever other reasons you might have, but what’s going to win pastor over is the people your vision is going to reach, not numbers and data. Tell a story or two or three about the difference your services/passion can make in someone’s life. “We overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb, and the word of our TESTIMONY!”

3. Who?

(a) Who are you called to serve? Who benefits?

(b) Who else (organizations, individuals, congregations) needs to be part of the team: staff, volunteers, advisers, etc? Generally, the more the merrier, but be realistic in your assessment of this. It’s probably best to build with a small group initially and expand from there. Remember, Jesus picked twelve, and they took his message and changed the world.

(c) Who are competitors and/or partners in the cause? Paint a picture of the current landscape.

4. How?

How do you propose to get the job done? This is where you should be prepared with as much detail as possible about your plans (keeping in mind he may not even ask), such as budgets, strategy, programs, services, hours, operations, staff, volunteers, and organizational structure (e.g. separate nonprofit, ministry of the church, initiative of a collaboration or network, extension of some other ministry, etc.).

5. Where?

Where do you see the vision being implemented: neighborhood, city, region, state, nationally, or internationally? Is it contained in a storefront, a church office, rented space, or an entire facility of its own?

6. When?

When do you see the plan being executed and the vision coming to life? Do you have a timeline and what milestones do you expect to achieve along the way?

Additional Considerations

When pitching your vision to a boss or accountability group (elder board, ministry council, whatever), be prepared, if asked, to describe more personally why this vision matters to you, not just in general, and whether you have explored other options to possibly see the vision materialize. I.e., does it have to be a church initiative or a new organization? Are there other options, like pursuing existing jobs in the field?

Also, don’t be intimidated by questions or feel like you have to have an answer for everything. Do your homework and get prepared as much as possible at this stage of the process, but your pastor is not going to be surprised that you’re still doing research and planning. In fact, to some degree it’s best not to have all the answers because it gives him and/or the congregation reason to get plugged in. If you could handle it on your own, why should they bother?

Lastly, be conversational, but professional. The last thing pastor wants is to feel like someone’s selling him something and he’s going to get stuck with a huge bill. To the extent you communicate your passion conversationally, rather than some forced, rehearsed script, the better off you’ll be. But remain professional. You are the visionary here — i.e. the one to whom God entrusted this dream — and as such you’re responsible to lead and show others the way.

It wasn’t that long ago that the evangelical world eagerly awaited the release of what was being lauded as “the greatest evangelistic tool of our time.” The anticipation built as a brilliant marketing campaign invited pastors and church leaders to pre-screen Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ movie, and its trailer spread virally online. An anti-Semitism controversy notwithstanding, evangelicals and Catholics worldwide pre-purchased tickets for opening night. I was one of those awash in buzz for the film, and our youth group was one of thousands that attended screenings opening weekend.

Now that the furor’s dissipated and another Holy Week invites further reflection, the fervor that surrounded the film begs several difficult questions: Why did the world have to wait for a Hollywood epic to glimpse Christ’s passion? Didn’t He challenge those who would be disciples to take up our crosses daily? Didn’t He charge us to model for unbelievers His incarnated love?

In other words, shouldn’t Christ’s passion be demonstrated tangibly everyday in our homes, communities, workplaces, and schools through our obedience of Him? Shouldn’t, then, Mel’s movie and other artistic statements like it, more appropriately serve as reminders of His love and not revelations of it?

Jesus gave the great commission and its corollary great commandment to actual human beings, not artistic renderings or other inanimate objects. But apart from this movie this movie, how many evangelicals regarded Mel Gibson as a great evangelist or even as a “Christian actor”? He was more commonly known as a devout Catholic who occasionally made films containing Messianic overtones and spiritual subtexts. All of a sudden he was credited with creating the greatest evangelistic tool of our time?

That’s because we’re still stuck in a world where the term “evangelism” means the proclamation of a tidy Gospel presentation, followed by an altar call, sinner’s prayer, and follow-up card.

Not so the Christ model. Contrary to conventional 21st century wisdom, Jesus chose to live among the people He would serve, learning their language, understanding their customs, practicing their traditions, and paying his cultural dues for thirty years before opening his mouth to preach. The almighty Maker of heaven and earth who measures the universe with a span clothed himself in the form of created man; chose to be born in a barn of an unmarried woman, at a time when unmarried pregnancy was a crime punishable by death; endured his childhood as a political refugee in Egypt; spent his adolescence and young adulthood in a Judean ghetto (“What good comes out of Nazareth?”); lived as a de facto slave to imperial Rome; and practiced blue collar work for thirty years before beginning his “ministry.”

When he came of age as a rabbi, his preferred ministry practice was to meet people’s needs before teaching them. He’d open blind eyes, treat 5,000 of his closest friends to dinner out of a little boy’s lunch sack, disrupt funerals to revitalize the deceased, and restock the booze at a wedding in order to relate to people. Only then would he preach, and then by talking about ordinary things that ordinary people would understand: money, farming, taxes. He wouldn’t manipulate his crowd numbers and chose to keep his immediate following small.

By most modern evangelical standards, Jesus would be voted least likely to succeed as an evangelist. History tells a different story, though, because for Him, evangelism wasn’t something He did, it is who He is. Reaching people was His life. Relating to and serving them was his methodology. Loving them was His passion, and He invented ways to do it.

That’s what the crucifixion represents, and what Mel’s movie depicts: Christ’s ultimate act of service. He laid down His life – His heavenly throne and all that went with it – to pay the supreme price for our sin because He loved us, even though we rejected Him.

St. Francis of Assisi once said his mission in life was to “share Christ and use words when necessary.” We evangelicals have it in reverse. We tend to use words to share Christ while our actions preach something altogether different.

Mel’s movie was indeed a triumph. Not just of great movie making or as a legitimate depiction of the crucifixion, but as an historical moment for the Church. It set a new bar for what can come from a crucified life, devoted to Christ, and passionate about serving others.

Mel earned the right to make his movie, and the respect of his would-be audience, because for the prior 25 years, as an actor and director he met audiences on their terms. After rediscovering his faith, he continued nurturing his craft and making good movies. The spiritual truths contained in many have been well received because they avoided the preachy trap. His resulting credibility as an artist, combined with the courage of his convictions and $30 million of his own money, produced a film about our loving Savior that the entire world paused to notice.

In the years since Passion, Mel’s personal life has been a bit of a train wreck, and any self-righteous delusions have been tempered. But the film remains a triumph worth celebrating, and a reminder of what is possible from an inspired, crucified life.

Question

How is your youth ministry encouraging youth to take up their crosses daily, and how are youth leaders modeling this by example?

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Every youth leader understands the value of quality youth workers.  We are constantly on the hunt for them, trying to weed them out from the crowds of church attendees we interact with every day. But the truth of the matter is quality leaders aren’t just found, they are developed. And it is our job as their leader to help them in this process.

In this audio teaching, Pastor Lee Wilson shows you how you can develop your leaders into quality leaders.

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Download MP3: Developing Quality Youth Workers

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“Mama, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry, but tonight I’m cleanin’ out my closet.” – Eminem, in Cleanin’ out My Closet

He trusted her. That’s what little brothers do, so when his eight year old sister and her friend called him into a field, four year old Malik (named changed) went. There he entered a world without boundaries. Beginning that afternoon, for the next six or seven years his sister and her friends touched him, made him touch them, violated him.

To whom could he turn? Not mom, who had divorced his father when Malik was one. Whenever he would visit, she would walk around the house naked. More often, she simply ignored him. Dad was one of six ex-husbands, plus lovers. Nor was his physically violent and verbally abusive father a better option.

At a friend’s house, Malik discovered pornography stacked as high as him in a spare room. The images made his experience seem normal. As he grew older, he found his body changing; part of him liked the way it responded to his sister and her friends. The other part felt indescribable shame. He had never experienced non-sexual touch from a woman, and aggressively pursued lust with girls his age. Out of control, his mind had become a sexual playpen.

The summer after his freshman year in college, a friend invited him to church, and during worship Malik was engulfed by God’s love. He attended religiously for two years before transferring to a Christian college to prepare for full-time ministry. But something was wrong. Although he met Christ at church, the congregation forced him to “pretend to ignore” his personal demons, so he feared his sexuality and legalistically avoided women.

Convinced that he was healed, Malik started dating a Christian girl as a senior. But his private anguish continued to torment him. He sought help from the dean of students and a local pastor who counseled him that he needed to read his Bible and to pray more and all would be fine. He memorized half the book of Galatians, but failed to improve. When the dysfunctional relationship ended, Malik wanted more.

Finally in 1998, he woke up to the idea that, “Wounds run deeper than convictions.” With the help of a professional counselor, whose anger at his story “shocked [him] out of numbness,” he began to confront his past. Over the next six years, he moved from denial to awareness, then from anger and pain to grief and bitterness, and lastly to forgiveness and emotional wholeness. Through this process and God’s grace, Malik has even experienced reconciliation with his family.

Now a youth pastor, Malik attributes his healing to the grace of God at work through authentic community. His counselor helped him realize that his childhood abuse had created need deficiencies that could only be satisfied in healthy relationships.

At a recent ministry training event, Malik’s transparency helped open the door for unconventional ministry to occur right there in the classroom. As he and others shared, leaders felt safe to unload pain and struggle that they had confided to no one else before. Through tears and self-disclosure, they experienced emotional breakthroughs that only Spirit and Truth can bring.

In a passage describing the “Good News” mission Jesus embraced at the start of his earthly ministry, Isaiah prophetically writes: “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners … to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

Evangelical churches preach this Good News and pray Isaiah’s words over communities. Yet the experience of many ministry leaders – where broken people, beloved of God, feel compelled to pretend everything is fine when, in fact, they grapple in their inmost being with shameful hurts and long for an opportunity to be real – reflects the norm.

Malik’s story is far more common than we care to admit. One in three girls and one in six boys are sexually abused in childhood, and twenty percent of women have had at least one incestuous experience before 18. Given these and other realities, what happens when God answers our prayers and His word, sharper than a two-edged sword, cuts deep to expose the cancers of life?

For starters, it gets uncomfortable. Many in our pews and pulpits cannot stomach the gore of the surgeon’s scalpel. Many cannot fathom the prolonged recovery time, or extend grace when the affects of emotional chemo cause ugly side issues to surface.

But as Malik’s story demonstrates, wounds that fester for years do not always heal in response to a single altar call or pat solutions like “more prayer.” The hard work of restoration may require years of intentional treatment. And intentionality requires a willingness to create an environment where masks can be removed without fear of reprisals. Only then will broken hearts be bound, prisoners set free, mourners comforted, and ashes exchanged for beauty.

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[Continued from Part 1]

Opportunity

Not “me.” I wasn’t going to make this happen. We. Raw, gritty, spiritually immature street kids included, and whoever else wanted to help. We were going to have to lead this effort. Together.

Not everyone from that initial meeting rose to the challenge. But thirteen of them did, ages 14-22. Most were struggling high schoolers, 16-18. Only one was a college grad. The others remained friends and members of the youth group. But something special happened within and through those thirteen who were given an opportunity to lead.

They led. And people followed. Within five months, we had secured a fully furnished space in a housing project rent-free; seven college students paid to intern with us that first summer; and Generation Xcel’s doors opened as a drop-in center. Within our first year, 250 kids registered at the center, and outreach events like talent shows and basketball tournaments drew up to 400. Within two years, the testimony of our teens’ leadership was broadcast throughout the city on WNBC and NY1, and a personal audience with then Mayor Giuliani generated favor from city officials. Seven years later, ten teens followed their example and started a second youth center, in a different neighborhood serving different ages with different activities.

For fifteen years, kids were reached because of the leadership of those thirteen unqualified young people. Even better, those teens, now young adults, continue to lead. One of the co-founders is the dean of the public middle school across the street from Xcel; another directs a Salvation Army after school center in Rockland County; another directs a transitional home for teen mothers in North Carolina; another is a detective with the NYPD; another is a nurse at NYU Medical Center; another is the regional sales rep for a biomedical company; another owns her own business; another manages a Starbucks; the then youngest is studying to be an Air Force chaplain; one is sharing this story. Even better, successive generations of leaders have followed their lead, including a Dove award winning singer, a middle school math teacher, an associate pastor, a program director at a national ministry, and many more.

And it’s funny, but boredom became a non-issue.

JC’s Model

In real-time, we were usually too busy to notice the similarities between our experience and Christ’s model. But his ministry career involved calling twelve of the least likely members of his community to follow him. They lived together; traveled together; ate together; laughed and cried and experienced hardship together. Their ranks were motley, and their qualifications nonexistent. He spent three short years with them, and throughout he trusted them to lead.

Sometimes they failed him. Their emotions betrayed them; their faith evaporated; they acted out violently. His unorthodox ways mystified and confused them. They made messes that he was forced to clean, enraged villages, and caused some to question his judgment. Still, he trusted them. All the while he was preparing them to continue leading in his absence.

Cultivating spiritual maturity

When Christ called his disciples as fishers of men and commissioned them as sheep among wolves, he knew full well that they would abandon him, deny him, and cower in fear after his arrest. Yet he didn’t wait for Acts 2 to equip and empower them to do the work of ministry. The more room He gave them to fall down and get back up again, the more He watched them succeed.

So too, teenagers live inherently tumultuous lives. Their bodies are changing, hormones raging, identities forming, boundaries stretching, expectations growing. Relationships are becoming more complex. Go with it. Don’t wait for some ill-defined maturity before trusting them.

Embrace the mess. Let them become who God has called them uniquely to be. Then watch them grow.

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“It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.”
- Harvey S. Firestone

Every youth pastor understands the challenge they face when students finally become seniors.  They seem to unplug. They complain that the programming is “too young” for them.  There are very few programs they want to connect to.  Let’s face it, it’s the busiest time of their lives. Several years ago, when we transitioned out a large group of seniors, I started to ask myself how we could keep them plugged in while preparing them for what lies ahead.  In a sense, we would use the transition ahead to keep them plugged in now.  It seemed like a brilliant plan.  But did we offer words of advice or did we give them the tools they actually needed to succeed in the next phase of life.  I talked to many of our graduated seniors and asked them to be honest with me.  What necessary knowledge did they miss out on that they wished they had learned prior to entering college or the work force?  We found that many of them wished they had been better prepared in three major areas. So we began a new ministry called NEXT: the Senior Life Transition program.  We knew that one of the first things a new college student would be asked to take part in was a party.  So we designed Senior House Parties, a party held every 2-3 months at the home of one of our volunteers. We found people in our church body who had the knowledge and experience we needed to teach our students how to prepare in each of these major areas.

Preparation and Finances

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. NIV

It was amazing how many seniors just didn’t know where to start. They might have a general direction where they wanted to go, but they had no idea how to get there. In this first senior house party, we focus on teaching the seniors how to define their vision for their life and how to seek God. This party is always a wake up call.  We ask them challenging questions as they transition into adulthood.

• How do you form a budget and pay bills?
• What are the dangers of credit cards?
• How do you sign up for financial aid?

We bring in volunteers with financial expertise that teach them how to manage their finances in the future, how to understand their financial aid process if college is what lies ahead for them, and more importantly, how to prioritize their income to include regular tithes and offerings.

Beliefs and Ethics

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. NIV

Then we found that many feared their way of life would be tested, more importantly, their faith.  According to recent research, somewhere between 70 and 88 percent of Christian teenagers are leaving the church by their second year in college. We discovered many seniors came to this end result because they never took ownership of their faith.  Many were “piggy backing” off the faith of their parents or their friends.  When away from these influences, other influences took their places, and they succumbed to the temptations of the environments they were in.  We brought in some amazing teachers that taught them how to maintain their faith outside of the youth ministry.

• What do you do if you find out your roommate doesn’t believe in God?
• What would you do if a teacher asks you to defend an atheistic author?
• What do you do when people ask you why you’re a virgin?

They best way to do this was to ask them situational questions.  What would you do when faced with this situation? How can you prepare now for what lies ahead? Giving them the simple tool of knowledge gave them a confidence to face what lies ahead.

Church and Service

Hebrews 10:24-25 ²⁴ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. NKJV

And finally, most were generally concerned with the process of finding another church and with the principle of membership in the local church. We found that if they did not go in with a plan to find a new church home, they would end up floating from church to church or sleeping in on Sundays.  We heard all the excuses. I can’t find a church like my church. I am trying out churches right now.  I just haven’t found the right one.  There are others options out there other than going to a church building.  We stressed the importance of connecting together with a church family, entering under the covering of a local pastor, and finally, serving God with your gifts and talents.

• How do I find the right church?
• Where should I serve?
• Where do I send my tithes and offerings?

Since the introduction of this program, our seniors have remained plugged into our program.  They feel ready to face their new futures with assurance and confidence.  And we as staff now feel the pleasure of knowing we have done all we can to prepare them for what’s next.

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