Youth Ministry:
witnesses of transformation

By James Griffin

SHERWOOD, Arkansas—Anyone involved in student ministry has experienced the claim it makes on personal time and the variety of issues that arise.

Where students are involved, personal time and space are rare commodities. The commitment to touch a single student for God’s glory requires no less sacrifice than Christ gave for our reconciliation to the Father: total surrender.

Teens are relational. Their world revolves around the relationships they form. Be it with parents, teachers, friends or God, life is composed of relational bonds. Laying down our lives is testimony to the reality of Christ Jesus. Just as he gave up everything for our reconciliation to the Father, so we must be committed to the cause of Christ for teens.

One factor in opening the doors of the teen heart is the comfort zone. Often, Christians like to invite outsiders in. We open our doors and say, "Come and see what we have to offer." Unfortunately, that involves them coming rather than us going.

When teens enter unfamiliar territory, their shields go up. Contrary to what we seek—receptiveness—the teens are now put on red alert and our message is not top priority to them. If we truly desire to reach teens, we must first meet them on their turf. We cannot expect them to come to us, when we are the ones seeking to share with them.

Once in their territory, consistency is the key to success. When consistent behavior is modeled, a young mind is able to develop trust and feel a sense of security.

The same is true for the church. Consistency in behavior and love breeds trust, openness and a sense of stability. In a world of relativism and doubt, the church should be a place to which the weary can run for shelter. Conveying God’s loyalty will, in time, lay a foundation from which to share the more intimate things of God.

My dad took our family to Sea World when I was young. I had heard so much about Shamu, the dolphins and the rides that our van hardly had time to stop before I was flying out the door to get in the ticket line.

I was beaming with anticipation as my imagination ran wild with hopes for that day. I just knew that Shamu and I would be best friends.

I was wrong. The rides were fun and I got plenty soaked from watching the exhibitions, but I did not get to swim with Shamu. The whole day was shot because of it.

Since then, I have learned that being anxious does not help. Quite to the contrary, being fixed on the future distracts from the now, where our attention needs to be. Paul exhorts us "not [to] be anxious about anything." Instead, we should be patiently working with what we have, and "present [our] requests to God" (Philippians 4:6).

We should not say, "But we only have this many in our youth group," or, "why do we need a youth minister when we have no youths?" When we are first good stewards of what God has already given us, then he will give us more.

Similarly, we should not expect a quick-fix ministry to truly fix much of anything. The Christ-centered model of ministry is not one of immediate transformation. In terms of spiritual riches, we sometimes think that if we make a mega-leap from the secular to the sacred, then God will bless our ministries exceedingly, abundantly. Yes, he will bless our ministries—just not overnight. The transformed life is a journey, not an event. On this journey, God’s timing is imperative in the changing of a life.

Student ministry is abstract. We seek to see lives transformed from the indefinite to the definite; from the lost to the found; from the sick to the healed. We seek to bring true meaning to a life. We long to demonstrate love and hope to a frightened generation.

Although God is a clear reality for those who are in constant communication with him, trying to portray these realities to a lost generation is difficult, dare I say impossible, except by the Holy Spirit. The fact that our task is insurmountable without the Holy Spirit should encourage us to seek God’s aid all the more. God is the originator of transformation and the only one capable of making it happen.

John Stott, author and preacher, wrote in Christian Mission in the Modern World: What the Church Should Be Doing Now!: "It comes more natural to us to shout the gospel at people from a distance than to involve ourselves deeply in their lives, to think ourselves into their culture and their problems, and to feel with them in their pains" (page 25).

But, that’s just it. With transformation as our goal, we must anticipate that the walk will be long and arduous. Our journey is not only time-consuming, but also, involving.

The process of transformation is a measure of success—by the very act of change, not necessarily the product of change. One of my good friends, Scott, told me, "Life is a great mode of travel." When we view life as a mode of travel, we are focused on what is happening now. Our goal is far ahead of us, but our eyes are focused on the road directly before us. We do not look through binoculars while driving. We would be in danger of having an accident. When we drive, we look both directly before us and slightly ahead so that we are fully aware of what we are doing and what is happening all around us. In other words, we are gauging our success continually: both by how far we have come and by how we are doing right now.

When I was growing up, my family would take drives. Dad would say we were going to see some of the houses he had built, but we knew it was just an excuse to go driving. Something in the act of driving itself was achieved that could not be gained by reaching a destination. The same is true in ministry. We set goals and evaluate our progress; however, change takes place continually. No single place exists on the map of progress where we can say, "You have now reached the pinnacle." Room for growth always exists.

The Worldwide Church of God, for some time, has corporately taken an interest in youth ministry. I hope that we are all motivated to take the initiative required for youth ministry within our congregations. History in our old youth program shows that programs are not enough. We must be transformation-oriented, pleading with the Holy Spirit to guide us into what he is blessing.

Then, we must take every opportunity to, as Barb Egbert, assistant director of the Summer Educational Program, says, "Bring them into the presence of the Lord." In doing so, we will witness miracles. Lives will be changed, hearts softened and minds renewed.

My friends, hang in, for we have just begun.

James Griffin is youth leader at Fellowship Christian Center (WCG) in Sherwood, Arkansas, and on the staff of the Summer Educational Program camp in Orr, Minnesota.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2002