Many people get into youth work and ministry because it’s all about the relationships that they can have with kids. Recently, I attended a Christian Youth Workers Conference where the main speaker, Mark deVries, debunked that sentiment. He contends that when someone gets into youth ministry in order to build relationships with kids it becomes about ‘you’ and your ministry ends up supporting (or killing) your own sense of self. It follows then that if you have a ‘successful’ youth program, it’s because of you.
In fact, all of ministry is relationship building. But it always starts and ends with our relationship with God; our growth into becoming more and more like Christ; our development of the working of the Spirit in our daily lives. When our relationship with God is strong, our speech and actions will flow out of that relationship. When we walk alongside our children and youth, we are the models of what the God/Human relationship can look like. We place Christ in front of our youth and challenge them to accept the call to follow Him. That’s what relational youth ministry – or any ministry for that matter – is all about. And it doesn’t mean just the youth pastor or youth leaders are responsible for this. It takes the whole church – every member must be committed to the spiritual development of each other. We are a BODY! One part cannot say to another – I don’t need you! It just doesn’t work that way. God has designed the church to work as an inter-relationship group.
Our youth are looking to their church to share the stories of their lives, to be real with them and to offer hope when things look grim. Church is one of the few places in the world where this can happen. But back to youth ministry...
“Our first task as youth ministers is to be with young people just as Jesus was with people. Our second task is to help youth develop the eyes, ears, and heart of Jesus for themselves. We’re not only called to be witnesses among young people, we are also called, like Jesus, to be teachers. We’re called to awaken youth to the presence of God in the world.” (Mark Yaconelli, 2006).
We can’t do this alone - Fleetwood CRC - you are are our partners in Christ and in ministry. We need you! We need your support but most of all, we encourage you to continuing growing and being like Jesus...in that way, our teens will see your example and grow into the young men and women who will go out into the world and glorify God with their lives.