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Reinventing Student Ministry

This weekend I had the honor of participating in the ReInvent Conference at Southern Seminary. I enjoyed catching up with old friends, including some phenomenal student pastors and Dr. Troy Temple who teaches at SBTS. I finally met in the flesh Dr. Dave Adams, a legend in student ministry.

Wherever I go, whether I am speaking with a local church and its leaders or a gathering of student pastors, one thing is clear in all these discussions. And that one thing was the point of this weekend:
student ministry in the Western Church needs a revolution. Not a tweaking. Not an enhancing. A revolution. Okay, some believe it needs annihilation, but I am more prone to think we need a revolution.

On Friday night something remarkable happened. One of the founders of what is probably the largest, most influential student ministry organizations in my lifetime made a confession. Wayne Rice, who co-founded Youth Specialties, said this in part: “We got what we wanted. We turned youth ministry into the toy department of the church. Churches now hire professionals to lead youth ministry. We got relevance but we created a generation of teenagers who are a mile wide and are an inch deep.”

That, my friends, is a remarkable confession. Why do so many student finish high school and drop out (actually many drop out when they get their drivers license)? Because we created a youth ministry culture that taught them to do so. We have not equipped students to be adults, who understand the gospel and live as missionaries. We created a “cool” subculture where they could be treated like the center of the universe and given a bunch of stuff. And not enough Jesus, Scripture, or character.

I am tired of meeting young adults who tell me what they remember from their youth group experience is “invite a friend” and “don’t have sex.”

To his credit, Wayne Rice then argued for three changes:
1. Turn student ministry back over to the church. Youth pastors should be seeking to work themselves out of a job as they help youth become incorporated into the life of the church.
2. We can no longer ignore the role of the parents.
3. We can offer them nothing better than the gospel

I am really trying at this point not to inject a great deal of sarcasm. I will instead say how much I appreciate the fact that this leader has admitted the abject failure of so much of youth ministry over the past generation. I could add so much about cultural influences, about how leaders in youth ministry over a generation have been captive to the immediate culture and seemingly unable to step back and see that immediate, short term “success” must always be weighed against both the Word of God and the long term implications of a given emphasis or activity. But that will have to be considered another day.

I want to agree with Wayne Rice. We need a new paradigm. I want to offer my thoughts on what that paradigm should emphasize:

First, God. We need a new vision of God. his vastness, His involvement in everything, His power, His love and justice. If your students have a lot better grasp on who you are as the student pastor than who God is as the mighty creator of the universe who sustains the world by the word of his power, you have a problem. If your students understand the latest stats on sexuality in America more than they know the attributes of God and how He is King over all of life, you have a serious problem. We need student pastors, national and parachurch leaders who are better at theology than at new ideas. Wayne noted that the founders of Young Life said it is a sin to make Christianity boring. Agreed. And it is a greater sin to make Christianity silly, which is what has happened. We must exalt a great God and give focus to His Word.

Second, the gospel. The next thing you should read beyond Scripture is not a book on youth ministry. Read Gospel by J.D. Greear. Study The Story by Spread Truth at www.viewthestory.com. We have taken the good news of the gospel and taken it off the headlines of our ministries where it should be always, and we have put it in the advice column part of our youth groups. We pull the gospel out to give advice rather than showing students how Jesus is the hero of all of Scripture, all of life, all the parts of their lives, and how the gospel makes sense of everything. Let me remind you that in newspapers, advice columns are next to the cartoons. And that is what we do with the gospel, putting it next to an ipod giveaway instead of showcasing it always as the main event, the one thing that is constantly newsworthy in your ministry. We need a radical, Christocentric transformation, understanding the gospel is for salvation AND sanctification, for saved and unsaved alike. Jesus is the answer to all of life-not the thin, superficial, subcultural Jesus, but the Jesus who cares for the broken and rebukes the self-righteous: the children-loving, disciple-calling, leper-healing, Pharisee-rebuking, humble child born and ultimately the reigning Lord Jesus.

The message of God is central to all of Scripture, all of creation, all of history, and if we rightly understand Christianity, all of life. Jesus and His work on the cross speaks to everything from attitude (see Philippians 2) to forgiveness (see Ephesians 4), from how we understand finances (see 2 Cor

to how we deal with sexual temptation (1 Cor 6), or from how we deal with relationships of the same sex (see Paul and Timothy in 2 Tim 2:1-2) to how we understand marriage (Eph 5:25). Our encouragement in facing persecution for Christ is the gospel (Acts 4:23-31) and our instruction in how to live all of life (2 Cor 10:9-21) is founded in the gospel. So, if students get nothing else but Jesus in His glory and greatness, they have gotten enough. Give them the message of God so they can spend their lives living out the mission of God.

Third, the goal. The goal of student ministry is to develop disciples who see the world as missionaries and live as missionaries. The goal is not to have a great event and have a lot of buzz. Just because organizations like Youth Specialties gets a big crowd at their meetings does not make it significant for the Kingdom of God in eternity. My point is not to be critical of YS or any other youth cottage industry (I have never even been to a YS gathering, I just observe all around me in youth ministry the effects of what Wayne Rice said at the conference). This means we do less student ministry that is based on the lowest common denominator. It means you score success in long-term disciples. It means to help students to grow and to develop their own plan for gospel impact now. If you help individual students to develop a plan for gospel advance in the context of your local church you, will in fact help them to hear from God and be confident in their planning and thus to be better prepared about college, career, etc. this means your role may be less to be the Pied Piper to students and more a developer of leaders who can help students develop uniquely.

Or, it could mean that your focus is not primarily to plan events or even to be a great speaker, but to help student see themselves as artists who were created by God to be remarkable in some way for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel.

Fourth, the gathering. Connect to the whole church, across generations. The generation of teens today is not only the largest, it is also the most fatherless. We must connect students to the larger church and not function as a parachurch ministry within a church building. Students need older believers in their lives. We need a Titus 2 revolution where older men teach younger guys and older women teach younger ladies.

I would love your thoughts. I try really hard not to simply criticize well-meaning people who have tried to help young people. Anybody can take a hammer and tear something down, but we need people to help build up laborers for the Kingdom. I have made more than my share of mistakes. But it is time for a revolution, with the gospel of Jesus Christ at her center.

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alvinreid@churchleaders.com'
Alvin L. Reid (born 1959) serves as Professor of Evangelism and Student Ministry at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he has been since 1995. He is also the founding Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism. Alvin and his wife Michelle have two children: Joshua, a senior at The College at Southeastern, and Hannah, a senior at Wake Forest Rolesville High School. Recently he became more focused at ministry in his local church by being named Young Professionals Director at Richland Creek Community Church. Alvin holds the M.Div and the Ph.D with a major in evangelism from Southwestern Seminary, and the B.A. from Samford University. He has spoken at a variety of conferences in almost every state and continent, and in over 2000 churches, colleges, conferences and events across the United States.