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Join the Youthworks Ministry Support Team as they discuss how to have an effective youth and children’s ministry in every church in conversation with local ministry workers as well as national and international voices.
Get in touch - effectiveministrypodcast@youthworks.net
AL: And so if love for God is expressive.
And if the implication of that is
that our, youth ministry should be
active participation, not just passive
consumption, well then if loving God is
responsive to him, then our ministries
must palpably show him for who he is
because it has to be God on display.
Which young people can then, in
response, express love towards him in
thought, word, deed, action, service,
Welcome back to the
effective ministry podcast.
The podcast that helps you have
an effective youth and children's
ministry in your church.
A genuine love for God seen in
the young people where discipling
has got to be one of the markers
of an effective youth ministry.
And that's what we want.
Right?
Genuine lasting, real relationships with
the God of the universe, through the life
giving message of the gospel of Jesus.
Ultimately the work of fostering
that love for God is his work
in the hearts of young people.
But because in youth ministry,
we're being called to disciple
young people into that love for him.
We want to be thoughtful about the
ministry that we can do to help
that genuine love for God grow.
I had the privilege of leading
a seminar at the registration
conference in may on the topic.
And it was a really fruitful time
of wrestling with what loving God
might look like in youth ministry.
And some of the things that we can
do to help young people grow in that.
So this week we'll hear an
edited version of that seminar,
which I hope you find helpful.
While next week we'll hear from people
in to Sydney, churches reflect on how
they help young people love God in youth
ministry, in their specific contexts.
The seminar you'll hear shortly had
three aims, one consider what loving
God looks like for young people to
think about some of the barriers
to youth loving God and three.
Think about some of the ways to
help youth foster a love for God.
And we started with a question.
AL: Well, the first thing that we
want to do is think about, well, what
does it actually mean to love God?
So with people around you, there's a
box there on page two, That question,
what do we mean by youth loving God?
And so what I want you to do
with the people around you
is try to explain loving God.
, but you're not allowed
to use the word love.
So we're going to try and get
some other words for that to get
behind what we really mean by it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks, man.
Um, so, yes.
Um, uh, That would be, that would be the
first thing I've thought of for, like,
I don't know if there's anything to make
it too mainstream.
Which kind of stuff?
And some of these things we're going
to, we're going to kind of get behind
some of these things in a moment,
but there's two things that I want
to say about loving God, which may
be self evident, um, but also we
derive as we look at the scriptures
and we look at the kind of language
that's used and, and how it works.
And these two things are that
loving God is expressive.
See you.
Looking at Mark chapter 12, verse 30,
you know, love the Lord, your God,
Jesus says this with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all
your mind and with all your strength.
Loving God is expressive.
You're using your mind and your
strength and your soul, it's
directional, you know, it's
from, a young person towards God.
Loving God isn't something that could
be done to a young person, okay?
It needs to be directional towards God
so there's an expressive
element to loving God.
Now I stopped short of saying that
is by definition, expressive and
directional because we've got things
like this, you know, deriving joy,
that's a direction towards you.
But if in some sense.
Loving God is something that
comes from me towards God.
Well, then we can say
that it's expressive.
And so what I want to say about that
is that if loving God is expressive,
then our youth ministry should
involve active participation,
not just passive consumption.
Okay.
So that is our youth ministry
should involve young people.
from who they are, from them as the kind
of center, expressing love in all kinds
of different ways, whether it's in word
or deed or thought or action or in service
or whatever it is, but it's going to
come from them directional towards God.
It's giving God the glory.
Okay, so there's, loving
God is expressive.
Chap Clark, who is a youth ministry
researcher from the States, he says that
when young people have what he calls
contributive purpose, they buy into
the body of Christ more meaningfully.
That is when there's an
opportunity for them to express
their love for God in some way.
So whether that is in service, or in
action, or in welcoming their friend,
or in praying for their friend, or in
giving great answers in discussion group
that edify , whatever it is, there's when
there's meaningful purpose, they're more
likely to buy into the body of Christ.
And I take that that kind
of fits with the idea that.
We express our love for God in some way.
There's a directional element to it.
Okay.
So the big thing there is if loving God
is expressive, then our youth ministry
should involve active participation,
not only passive consumption.
There's going to be some
kind of passive consumption.
You're going to preach the word
and they're going to listen
and they're going to hear it.
Okay.
But if it stops there, And there's
no opportunity for young people to
express love in some way, whether
it's in thought or word or deed or in
service or in action, then I reckon
we're selling discipleship short
so first of all, expressive.
Secondly, and this is
really, really important.
And we get this from Psalm 116 and a whole
bunch of other places, but, this idea of
responsive love for God is responsive.
And I think I want to say
it's only ever responsive.
Okay.
So Psalm 116 says, I love the
Lord for he heard my voice.
He heard my cry for mercy , because
he turned his ear to me, I will
call on him as long as I live.
So I love the Lord for he heard my voice.
He heard my cry for mercy.
And so God has done something
which someone can respond to.
by loving God.
Okay, so we've got the expressive
element and you could take that
down a really bad rabbit hole.
You could go, too far in that direction
that it's all about me and , what
I can give to God, but it's only
ever responsive to God as well.
Okay, so, , , we love God because,
and you can just insert all
sorts of things here, right?
He first loved us.
He heard my cry for mercy.
He saved me.
He is good.
He is holy.
He is creator.
He is judge.
We love God because Christ died for us.
Or he is powerful.
And so we love God because of
who he is and what he has done.
And so if love for God is expressive.
And if the implication of that is
that our youth ministry should be
active participation, not just passive
consumption, well then if loving God is
responsive to him, then our ministries
must palpably show him for who he is
because it has to be God on display.
Which young people can then, in
response, express love towards him
in thought, word, deed, action,
service, all the kinds of things.
Okay, so if loving God is responsive
to him, then our ministries must
palpably show him for who he is.
, research shows that youth ministry
that is substantial rather than shallow
leads to lasting faith long term.
And I take it because there's a
genuine love for God, you know,
and all of the other things within,
within the ecosystem as well.
But, but that kind of, that genuine
affection for who God is and what he
has done, which leads to lasting faith.
Okay, so we've got expressive.
We've got responsive.
If it's expressive, then
it's gonna be participative.
If it's responsive, then our ministries
must be substantial and show, palpably
show, who he is and what he's done.
And so then we want to think a little
bit about the shape of youth loving God.
And so I want to hand
over to you for this.
What evidence do you expect to
see when youth are loving God?
it's
foundations of digital transcription.
Like it's, it's all good stuff.
Like there's stuff, you know,
there's stuff on, there's all kinds.
Yep.
Um, so that's one option.
Where are you from?
Um, country Victoria.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks, man.
Um, so, yes.
Um,
uh, That would be, that would
be the first thing I've Okay.
So.
One of the things that we just want
to kind of notice about these things
is really hard to know what's
actually going on in their heart.
And we just need to acknowledge that.
I think we can measure certain things.
We can observe certain things.
But in many ways, ministry in general,
but also youth ministry is an exercise
in trusting God diligently exercising
your care and love and concern for these
young people that they would know and
love and follow and stick with Jesus.
And yet, in the end, we've got to
trust God that He is doing the work
and that's what we believe, isn't it?
That God is doing the work.
Uh, so we're going to see
lots of different things.
I want to just point out,
two, things to notice.
And the first is sometimes the evidence
of loving God will be in actions.
And then there's also affections, which
we think about as the more sort of
inward or internal kinds of things, um,
where there's a, a sense of feeling.
There's a sense of emotion towards
God that we want to, we want
to see, we want to cultivate.
, which is based on truth, but
also in the heart as well.
, and I think what I want to just
point out is that sometimes the
affections are schooling the actions.
But we do know as well
brain science tells us
sometimes our actions can
also school our affections.
And so, you know, we've got the expressive
and the responsive, um, and we've also
got the actions and the affections.
And I want to say that we can't
really divorce them from one another.
So even as we distinguish and focus
maybe on the affections in one moment,
we can't divorce them from the actions.
So that's just, I think, a
quandary that we kind of deal with.
We don't always know what's coming first.
But I guess we, again, give thanks to God
for them and we, we pray that whichever
direction, the love for God, that is
expressed is genuine and lasting.
it's
foundations of digital transcription.
Like it's, it's all good stuff.
Like there's stuff, you know,
there's stuff on, there's all kinds.
Yep.
Um, so that's one option.
Where are you from?
Um, country Victoria.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, What barriers do the young
people in your patch, your ministry
context face when it comes to loving God?
. Yes.
Yeah.
So Coe said, sometimes expectations
of parents can be, um, something
that makes things really, really,
other people feeling that sometimes.
Yeah.
Um, Adam.
Yeah, so family.
So we've got someone who wants to
come to church on Sunday but the
parents won't take, the parents
won't take her because it's boring.
. Yeah?
Uh, kids are just so selfish,
they just care about themselves.
Yeah, yeah.
At this age particularly.
Yeah, so kids are selfish and there's
an egocentrism that doesn't lift
until, I don't know, how old am I, 43?
Something like that.
Um.
But you're right.
There's a developmental thing going
on there, which is, is tricky.
Kids are self centered.
So the idea of lifting their eyes
to anyone that's even immediate
to them is tricky, let alone to
God who feels abstract to them.
That can be a real barrier.
Absolutely.
What else are we facing?
Yes.
Yeah, the culture, the cultural water
they're swimming in is kind of an instant
gratification, have whatever, whatever
they want, whenever they want it.
And so the idea of slowing down, but
the passive consumption element of loving
God is receiving God's word, slowing
down and understanding it such that
there can be a response of loving God.
Yes.
So a dissonance between what they
know and what they experience.
So they know that God loves them,
but maybe they don't, they don't
experience that or they don't, it
doesn't, it doesn't make its way
into their experiential kind of life.
Yes.
Their friends don't love God and the
power of, um, peers, those kind of
plausibility structures around them.
Um, yeah.
Not wanting to stand out and
not wanting to kind of, yeah.
Uh, be noticed in that sense.
I want to say a few things about the
affections, which are sometimes the most
slippery things to try to get behind.
I have not giving you any silver
bullets at all, but number one, it's
God's work to change the affections.
It just is.
And ministry influences that, but
it's God's work to make the change.
Number two, play the long game.
Um, with affections, with kind of
that affectional side of loving God.
Play the long game because it, it's
often you won't see it until 10
years down the track where you, when
you run into the person that you
are the youth group leader of and
they're, you know, they're loving God.
Okay.
And then third, don't just play the
long game, but measure the long game.
And that is, developmental
psychology helps us to understand
that teenagers try on all sorts
of different aspects of identity.
And so they're going to go through psychos
I had, I had a young person come up to
me when I was in youth ministry and he
said, um, I've been looking into satanism.
And I was like, in my head, I'm like, Oh,
um, but he was just kind of trying it on.
He moved away from Satanism, praise God.
so that's, that's affections.
You've got to play the long game.
You've got to measure the long game.
Your ministry may not seem
fruitful in the moment.
, but, uh, we want to be
looking at the long game.
All right.
Uh, we're going to spend a little
bit of time thinking about steps
to foster youth loving God.
And this, this section kind of
really leans in a way on, um,
the two things that we noticed at
the start, the expressive and the
affectional aspects , of loving God.
And so, um, if love for God is
expressive, then we want to aim for active
participation in our programs, right?
So we want them to be participating in
faith in all sorts of different realms,
and maybe, hopefully, some of your young
people will be serving in other programs.
So for example, it's quite
common for senior youth to
be serving in kids ministry.
That's really good.
I guess I want to say that the
thing that sometimes gets forgotten
is the in the program stuff.
And so that's why we're sort of
focusing on this at this moment.
And I guess the question we have here
is what opportunities are there for
love, for God to be in the actions of
young people in your youth program?
And, I want to just point out a
potential model that you could use
to just think through What are those
moments where young people can
express love for God through action,
whether it's formal or informal ways.
At the bottom of , page three, there
is a, a little graph there with guided
up the top and autonomous down the
bottom and then formal in the program.
Um, In the left hand column, informal
in the program and out of the program.
And what this is, is kind of a chance
for you to audit your ministry and
go, , either where am I already
seeing young people expressing love
for God in various kinds of actions,
thoughts, words, deeds, that kind
of thing, whether they're formal,
informal, or not even in the program.
Or to kind of go, well, here are some
moments or here are some kind of aspects
of the program that we can actually
dive into and think up some things.
And so the, the kind of thing we're
talking about is in the top left, , box,
you might have testimony, right?
And that testimony that you've asked
someone to give, they've never given
one before you, you have to provide
some training for them in order
for them to kind of express their
love for God through testimony.
Okay.
Okay.
But there might be another person
that already has training in how
to do a testimony or is extremely
gifted for whatever reason.
And so bottom left, there might be a
testimony down there, but it's, it's
formal, but, it's more autonomous.
They don't need as much training.
Okay.
They don't need as much hand holding.
Okay.
Um, so you might scaffold that.
Okay.
So provide the structure
such that it can take place.
Maybe that's an invitation.
Maybe it's, uh, maybe it's even just
sort of saying from the front who'd like
to share something, that kind of thing.
In the middle box, we've
got informal and in program.
Okay.
So, uh, it might be that someone
shares their testimony there, but
they haven't been asked to do it.
They're just kind of,
they're just doing it.
Okay.
It's at youth.
It's on a Friday night.
They just share, Oh, you know
what God did the other night?
You know, I was reading God's Word
and da da da da da, and God really
showed me that, whatever, okay?
So it's not formal, it's informal,
but that's the kind of thing that
we want to be modeling and we want
to be celebrating as well, okay?
And then in the bottom right
box, maybe someone shares their
testimony at lunchtime at school.
You know, and so their love for God is
not just located within the program,
but it bleeds out of the program through
training, through scaffolding, through
modeling, um, and then out of the program,
we want to celebrate those moments.
Okay.
So you can see there on the
right there, we've got training,
scaffolding, modeling, and celebrating.
And what I mean by celebrating is when
you hear a story about how a young
person has expressed love for God
in some way, can you find a moment
in your program to highlight that?
and to give glory to God for that.
You know, I guess we're shaping
the culture and we're building the
plausibility structures to take it
from a, you know, a sociological
point of view such that young people
can go, Hey, that's what they did.
It's possible that I could do that too.
And that might be a case of the
actions then schooling the affections.
Um, and we want those affections
to be increased towards God.
, and the last thing to say about
that, I guess, as well, is because
it's responsive, because love
for God is responsive, you must
have the teaching behind it.
This gets the shallow, um, the shallow
versus substantial kind of thing as well.
You can do all those things, but
without the truth of God present.
Okay, so people can kind of say those
things, but we want to have a substantial
engagement with the gospel of, of Jesus.
standing behind any of those actions
such that we've got heart and mind
working together into the actions.
So there's a model you can look at.
Um, I've got a training paper
kind of on that as well.
Which if you are interested in,
you can get in contact with me
and I can share that with you.
, the second thing though, so first of all,
aim for participation in your program.
Second thing is give opportunity
in your program for love, for God
to be on the lips of young people.
Okay.
So it's not just in the
actions, but also on the lips.
, we want to be giving voice to young
people, um, because we recognize
that love for God is expressive.
Okay.
So we, we want, we want to hear
young people, not just leaders
modeling, excellent thing to do.
Leaders should model
their love for God 100%.
, but we want to also see young people
doing it because they are disciples.
Hey, they're not.
They are disciples in waiting, okay?
They are disciples of Jesus
Christ at the church of today.
And so we want to see, , those
things on the lips of young people.
If love, love for God is responsive, I've
got a list of five things that we want to
be thinking about in our youth ministry.
First of all, um, it's the thing that goes
without saying, and so we must say it.
And that is.
That if love for God is responsive, you
must teach unashamedly from the Bible
about who God is and what he has done.
It has to be a priority.
Okay?
It's got to be there.
Um, it's got to be an
important part of what you do.
Because we want there to be a
substantive, substantial, um, truth based,
coherent, robust picture of who God is.
Okay?
That's the first thing.
Second thing is this.
When you're teaching about God, you know,
and you have these truths about God that
stand in the background of your, of your
ministry and in the foreground as you,
as you teach that, we want to then draw
connections between God's character, which
you're elucidating as you're teaching,
um, and expressions of love for God.
That is expressions of love for God are
not detached from the truths about who
God is and, and, and what he's done.
Okay, so when young people serve, and
the language that you cultivate around
that is really important, um, or when
they reflect godly character or they
praise God in song or they praise God
in speech you want to highlight the
connection between these expressions
of love for God with who God is.
Okay, so they serve
because God served them.
Okay, God is just.
And so we pursue fairness, even in
something as trivial as the handball
game that's happening out of, out the
front of youth group before it starts.
Okay.
So we're going to draw connections
between those aspects of loving for
God, those expressions of love for God,
um, and the truth of who God is, right?
Um, that might not happen
in the moment, right?
So you might not, as the person,
you know, doesn't cheat in handball.
You might not say, well,
God is a God of justice.
And, I mean.
You know, you're expressing that
right, that, you know, there, it
needs to be in the background of
what you're doing all the time.
It needs to be part of the language that
you're cultivating , around love for God
and around the Christian life as well.
So that's number two, draw
connections between God's character
and expressions of love for God.
Number three, model responding to
who God is and what he has done.
Uh, and you know, I don't want to
say lots about this, um, but, um,
We need to be modeling what it looks
like to express our love for God.
Okay.
And so the thing I've got written
down here is don't let God be far
from your conversations, you know,
always have him there, um, and ready
to bring into the conversation.
Um, number four, celebrate and tell
stories of when young people respond to an
aspect of who God is and what he has done.
Uh, so you want to celebrate the
behavior that you want to see.
And this sort of goes back to
the diagram that I showed you
a little bit a moment ago.
Okay.
So we want to celebrate the
things that we want to see.
We want to, you know, get people
up the front to tell their story.
Maybe it's open sharing from the
floor about what someone, you know,
how someone kind of, uh, you know,
there's an old Euthanasia book that
talks about raising a flag for Jesus.
Um, you know, who's raised
a flag for Jesus this week?
And then they share stories about how
they have expressed their love for God
in action or thought or word or deed.
Okay.
That's also putting it
on the lips of people.
Okay, but we want to celebrate that.
Um, and we want to draw that connection
between , how people have responded
to God and what God has done.
And then number five, I feel
a bit silly putting this here.
Um, but actually, as I've listened to,
um, snippets of the talks that I've been
hearing all week, um, actually love God.
Brothers and sisters.
actually love God.
Um, it would be really, really easy
to point over there at all the things,
you know, look, they're modeling
that they're modeling love for God.
Oh, look there.
We should celebrate their love for God.
Oh, look, that thing that they
did, we can draw a connection
between their love for God.
And.
and what they've done.
Okay.
They're all things that we can point to,
but one of the most powerful things as
we know, as we've been hearing throughout
this week is that our love for God as
leaders is one of the most powerful things
in cultivating love for God in our youth.
And so we want to have that
personally, but we also want that
personal relationship, that personal
love that we have for God to be
infused in our program all the time.
And, you know, as we, as we talk about
this, I'm just thinking about, you
know, deep in the word, and I'm thinking
about on mission, I'm thinking all the
different things that all speak into
that idea of love for God, you know,
they're all speaking to each other.
And in many ways, they're all
expressions of each other, aren't they?
Um, but we want to have a genuine and
a real love for God in our programs.
Yeah.
AL: We're going to open
the floor for questions.
Uh, and I'm getting ready.
Yes
Yeah, I so I'll repeat the question
so at the end of the handout There's
a section on a word on affections
and point three was measure the long
game And I think that I put there
measure the long game team now just
try on new affections identities and
What I'm getting at, I guess, more than
a specific metric, um, I'm getting at the
idea that teenagers will go up and down
in all sorts of aspects of their identity.
Okay, so, um, you know, it might
be, they're kind of like, I'm
going to be academic this week.
And, um, You know, their
parents are like, yes!
And then, next week, nah, I'm not
gonna be, I'm gonna be sporty.
Or, I'm gonna be, uh, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna play Undertale.
I'm gonna be a gamer this week.
Or whatever it is.
But, it is, developmentally, we know
that kids will try on different things.
And I guess what I'm saying is
that that can, that can impact
on spiritual matters as well.
Or at least identity, the self
identity around spiritual matters.
And so, if we know that teenagers are
gonna go up and down and try on different
things, We don't freak out when they
say, no longer a Christian necessarily.
I mean, inwardly, we're like freaking out.
But, um, we recognize that,
you know, it may be a really, a
really serious spiritual issue.
Um, uh, but it might just be the kind
of, or I'm really apathetic about God.
And they, they express that somehow.
I think I'm just saying, we know that
teenagers go up and down, and so rather
than kind of go, well I preached a
sermon on being apathetic this week,
and far out, you're apathetic, and being
disheartened or despondent about that,
understanding that, you know, look at
them when they're 25, and the aggregation
of all the ministry that's been done by
you and other people, and their peers,
and their parents, and all those sorts of
things, and go, how is there love for God?
There, as opposed to where it was
that week that I preached on apathy.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, so the question around, um, age
appropriate love for God and what
might the, can I speak a bit more
about the differences that you might
see in an adult versus a teenager?
And how might you measure love for God
in an appropriate way for teenagers?
That's a really, really good question.
Um, and I think, measuring love
for God is actually really tricky.
And so what have you got,
um, that you can see?
Well, you've, you've got
the expressions of love.
Okay, so, um, uh, so I guess I do
want to say, um, Um, think about what
might be the expressions of love for
God that you might see in a teenager.
So, uh, it might be that they, that they
did pick up their Bible or that you know
that, I don't know, um, 70 percent of
them, um, are reading their Bible at
least once a week or something like that.
You can measure those sorts of things.
That isn't, it's an expression, it's a
poor measure because it's in the heart.
It's difficult to know.
Um, but I think, you know, Like
measuring things like the degree
to which they're, they're serving.
Measuring things like the degree
to which they're willing to engage
in conversation with newcomers.
Measuring the degree to which
they're willing to share about
God's activity in their life.
Measuring the degree to which
they're praying meaningful prayers.
Yep.
. Yeah.
Yeah, so, the kind of clarification
on this is speak a little bit more
about the age appropriateness of the
various different expressions of God.
And I think that, that
in itself is slippery.
We know from, um, adolescent psychology
that, you know, 12 to 18, there's
a, so here's a, here's an example.
I think we need to kind of delve a
little bit deeper, but an example
might be, we know that at age 12.
They're coming out of a period of lack
of awareness of other people around them.
We know that.
Like, that's a, that's a
developmental thing that we can
track in psychology and so on.
And over those years from 12 to
18, first of all, they become
more aware of their peers.
And so, you know, 12 and 13
year olds are seriously, kind of
concerned about what their peers
think about, um, think about them.
And, you know, gradually that sort of
world expands and expands and expands,
and they have a capacity more and more
as, you know, as they kind of go through
those ages to lift their eyes to something
that might be a bit more abstract.
So I think that's got to be part of it.
So, um, to, to kind of stake your
ministry on, um, uh, the degree to
which they make professions of love for
God, um, Uh, for a 12 year old might
be tricky, okay, because maybe they're
actually, maybe the countercultural
thing for them is to not, is to just
not care quite as much about what the
people next to them think of them.
And so to have a, a bit more of
a security in the body of Christ
and in, and in God himself.
I know I'm not, I'm not giving you, you
know, hard metrics, but I think we do
need to delve into these sort of changes
that we see, um, over the teenage years.
Um, and kind of think, okay,
well if that is the case then
what might be the measure, the
appropriate measure at that age?
So, really good question, didn't
give you a good answer, but there's
an area for us to look at, right?
Yep.
Um, we've got time for one more question.
Yes?
What are some small changes
you've seen youth groups make that
have made outsized differences?
Yeah, I've got a great story around this.
Um, uh, Um, there's, I've got quite
a few stories in this realm, but a
colleague of mine when he was, um,
when he was running youth ministry,
um, he was having a conversation with
one of his senior youth about, Oh,
how are you going inviting friends?
So I should repeat the question.
What are some of the small changes we
see that have, uh, shown kind of what's
the low hanging fruit to produce big
changes in this area of life of God?
Um, so he was speaking
to his senior youth.
Um, how are you going
inviting your friends?
And the guy said, Oh, look, Matt,
I, you know, I really, I love you.
You're like, we're friends.
You've been my youth minister forever.
Like I love coming to youth group, but
why would I invite my friends here?
Because this is your house, you know, and.
Matt kind of went, my colleague Matt
kind of went, Oh, hang on a sec.
We need to do something about this.
And they had a conversation around
what do we do with the senior youth?
I had a conversation.
What do we do?
How do we shape youth ministry
such that this is no longer Matt's
house, but this is our house.
And so what they did is they formed, you
know, in discussion with the senior, with
the youth group, they formed four teams,
um, the muscle team, the outreach and
care team, the gatherings team, and the.
Other team, which I've forgotten
what it is, but I had four teams.
And everybody that came
to youth was on a team.
Okay, if you were brand new at
youth, you were on the muscle team.
Okay, but there were opportunities to join
other teams and every week at youth they
would have Just five minutes to talk about
what, what next week was going to look
like, make sure everyone, everyone's okay.
That kind of thing, my friend, Matt,
and this is, you know, it's the
ecosystem working together, right?
But, um, uh, what he said he
saw in the next three months
was groundbreaking for them.
They used to never get newcomers coming.
But after that change occurred, because
of the ownership, because this is,
this is our house, not just Matt's
house, because of that change and the
ownership, and the opportunity for them
to express their love for God in these
areas of service, they were seeing a
handful of newcomers every single week.
So I reckon, like, maybe that's not
a tiny change, like to introduce
teams into your ministry, but that
is certainly one that has an outsize.
The idea of youth participating, You
can do that in small ways, you don't
need teams, you know, you can just
let them pray out loud, you know.
The small change is asking the
youth why they're not comfortable.
Yeah, great.
That's a really, really good,
um, uh, helpful reflection there.
The small change in that story
wasn't the change in teams, it was
asking the youth why they didn't feel
comfortable inviting their young people.
That's really, really useful.
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