I have recently been doing a bit of thinking around what we are doing in youth ministry. I think something is missing. I have come to the conclusion that we are not telling the story. By THE STORY I mean the biblical story of the grace of Jesus Christ. (That is what I call it). I think that the Bible is one cohesive story, yes it has lots of bits and diversions but central to the Bible is a narrative about a man named Jesus.
Here is the problem... most youth workers don't realise this, and most small group leaders in youth ministry can't tell the story, therefore most young people in our youth groups will never hear the story. (What then are they respponding to when they raise their hands to follow Jesus?). In addition to this, I want adolescents to more than hear the story, I want them to experience the story!
By that I mean I want adolescents to come to a place that is continuous with the environment of the life and grace of Jesus Christ. That may seem a little harsh at times... an environment that is consistent with the pain of a death on the cross... yes... dying is a part of the experience but the cross is perhaps the greatest expression of grace as Jesus says "Father forgive them they don't know what they do". That took character on the part of Christ. In the midst of his own dying he exhibited grace... he maintained a gracious attitude and created an environment of grace about himself. That is what we need to be doing in youth ministry to allow teenagers to experience the story! This requires a depth of character on the part of those who are creating the environment in any youth ministry program or setting.
My conclusion is that the key tasks of any Christian youth worker are this: To continually and creatively tell the story of the grace of Christ in an environment that is continuous with the story. What do you think?
Next post will consider ourselves as the continuation of the story!
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1 comment:
Yes, I think that's a fantastic Idea. Youth should be so familiar with the story. They should all know the key parts and how it all fits together.
I think the challenge is communicating the story in an exciting and relevant way. Although insaying that it is not incredibly challenging because stories, told well at least, are the most exciting and gripping ways of communicating.
Tom Wright says "That, in fact, is (I believe) one of the reasons why God has given us so much story, so much narrative in scripture. Story authority, as Jesus knew only too well, is the authority that really works. Throw a rule book at people’s head, or offer them a list of doctrines, and they can duck or avoid it, or simply disagree and go away. Tell them a story, though, and you invite them to come into a different world; you invite them to share a world-view or better still a ‘God-view’. That, actually, is what the parables are all about. They offer, as all genuine Christian story-telling the does, a world-view which, as someone comes into it and finds how compelling it is, quietly shatters the world-view that they were in already. Stories determine how people see themselves and how they see the world. Stories determine how they experience God, and the world, and themselves, and others. Great revolutionary movements have told stories about the past and present and future. They have invited people to see themselves in that light, and people’s lives have been changed. If that happens at a merely human level, how much more when it is God himself, the creator, breathing through his word."(1991)
In fact he says alot and 99% of it in incredible so I encourage anyone to read him.
But anyway telling stories is exciting it's how Jesus communicated alot of the time and is how the Bible i written to be read.
We need to immerse oursleves as Youth Leaders in the story and immerse our kids in the story because we are apart of that same story and we need to know the characters the plot lines the scenes so well that we can live out a life that is faithful to that story and therefore faithful for God's incredible redemptive plan for this world!!!
So what do I think, I think that your last paragraph is a fantastic quote and I may steal (don't worry I'll reference). Imagine where we will be with hundreds of Youth who know the Biblical story and have an intergrated Biblical Worldview, Watch out New Zealand, no, watch out World!
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