2. Go into the cave on behalf of others.
I love the scene in the last Lord of the Rings film (The Return of the King). The hero-king Aragorn must enter a dark cave where the wraiths of disgraced warriors live. Over the mouth of the cave is an inscription: “The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it. The way is shut.” Aragorn’s response to his friends, who are frightened by the prospect of entering the cave, is simple: “I am not afraid of death.” He enters the cave of death on behalf of his calling as a rescuer—as a good shepherd.
Jesus knows every dark cave embedded in the lives of the teenagers and adults we serve. Each represents a hard reality or painful struggle in the life of one of his beloved sheep. So many are living in the private terror of their own dark cave, and Jesus needs people—us, actually—who will go into those dark caves on his behalf. Put another way, he needs the right tool for the job.
And maybe you’re exactly the right tool for exactly the dark caves Jesus has brought into your life. Our mission for people stuck in their own dark cave is to prove that we’re with them, to remind them of who Jesus is, and to remind them of who they really are. This is “going into the cave” on behalf of others. It’s a key way to avoid youth ministry malpractice.
3. Refuse to accept cultural norms that are directly contrary to the gospel. For example, treating gun violence as entertainment.
The action films and first-person shooter video games that reign over teenagers’ cultural world often get a wink-wink response from those of us trying to build relationships with kids in the real world. We accept many of their cultural crushes simply because rejecting them would be tantamount to rejecting the person. But can we really afford to turn a blind eye to another film trailer or video-game trailer that treats gun violence as entertainment?
America has a gun-violence problem, with about 34,000 gun-related deaths per year. What if we communicate the heartbreaking human cost of gun violence and explore how to respond by paying attention to Jesus’ mission as a shepherd? Sheep will die unless they have a shepherd willing to defend, rescue, and guide them.
And when 34,000 sheep die every year, maybe it’s time for the collective “Good Shepherd”—because our true identity is found in the body of Christ, we’re also the body of the Good Shepherd on earth—to band together to take a stand against gun violence as entertainment. Let kids sign a pledge that they’ll no longer watch gun violence as entertainment in any form and endeavor to influence others to do the same. Start a movement in your community.
This article about youth ministry malpractice originally appeared here.
