Video Transcript: Youth Engagement

So let's talk a little bit about youth engagement. How do we engage youth and  the question here, are you scratching? Where they are itching? I am I posed the  question to a leader. This question to a youth leader. He had been working with  a group of young people that were he had a really hard time controlling they  were these high schoolers were were sabotaging his meetings week after week.  And after he explained what was going on and the challenges he was having, I  posed this question to him, do you think you're scratching where they are  itching? And he thought for a moment, and he said, No, probably I'm not. I  shared before Jesus, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but for many times, many meetings, many meetings that I've heard where  presentations were made to young people, I did not think they would figure out  that, from what was presented, that Jesus was acquainted with their grief, and  many times it's because The leader is not close enough to understand the  needs of the young people that they seek to serve. We cannot solve problems.  We do not understand. We also cannot understand from a distance. And so one  of the challenges that we face, that most youth leaders face is that of context,  most youth programs are part of something larger. It could be a church or a para church or a particular organization, but you come in as a youth worker as a part  of something bigger, and that something bigger has assumptions and  expectations. If you are hired by a church to be a youth director or youth pastor,  you will walk into a situation where the adults have expectations regarding what  should happen with young people, there may be some of them may be more  detailed than others, but basically, but there are some basic assumptions there  that this is what you're going to do, and This is what we want the results to be  and you as a youth leader, have to adapt to that, that reality. Sometimes that  happens without you even thinking about it. You don't even realize that you're  walking into a context that's going to define what you do and how you do it, but  most youth ministries are in that setting, and so consequently, again, they're  governed by ideas that are not necessarily conducive to youth development,  and a lot of it has to do with assumptions. What are some assumptions? What  are some assumptions that adults might have regarding youth and youth  ministry? Well, one might be give them healthy activities, lots of love in the  Gospel, and then God will take care of the rest, if you just come in there and just show them that you you love them, and God will do everything else. Another  one. This is a good one. The cream will rise to the top. And so when you're  working with kids, if you got a troubled kid, then that kid's just troubled. But it's  those kids that are good kids in your program, and they show some promise.  Those are the ones they are going to rise to the top. And so therefore, focus on  them. Focus on them. They are the ones that are going to succeed. The other  ones. You try your best, but you don't really have great expectations regarding  them. What are some other commonly held assumptions by Christians in  general that impact youth ministry? Well, one of them is this, evangelism is the 

primary task of the church. And so therefore it becomes the primary focus of  youth ministry. Here's another one. Christian maturity is measured by one's  knowledge of Scripture. If you really know your Bible, that is a sign of Christian  maturity. Another one is this, adolescents simply lack the maturity to lead.  They're not really leadership material until they become adults. Until then, they  just don't basically have the maturity you might put them in some positions  where they might have a little bit of responsibility with you guiding them along  the way, as far as them being able to make decisions on their own. No, no, they  lack the maturity for that. And also, if you're going to develop leaders,  developing leadership capacity and youth is a transactional process. They come into your program, you give them responsibilities, you tell them what to do, and  those that do it, and they do it well, without complaint, then they are the ones  that show that they are that they are leaders. These are assumptions. An  assumption is anything you believe to be true without proof, and these are  assumptions that can have a defining effect on your youth ministry. And so what  does transformational engagement look like? Well, one is context. You have to  establish a context that is conducive to ministry, and as the leader, you can  define that. In fact, it's your job to define that, and we'll talk about that, how what it means for the leader, and the first response of the first responsibility of the  leader is to define reality within your scheme, within your realm of youth ministry, you as a leader, define what happens, and so you can create a context that is  conducive to ministry. Secondly, transformational engagement involves putting  assumptions aside. I grew up on Long Island in a hamlet. Our Town was literally  divided by railroad tracks, blacks on one side, poor one side, rich in the other,  blacks on one side, whites on the other and so I grew up in a neighborhood  similar to the five points area that I spent most of my adult life working in. Well,  when I came to Denver, I did not assume that the young people that I worked,  that I grew up with in Long Island were similar to the young people I was about  to engage in in Denver, I needed to set any assumptions aside and deal with  them and focus on them. I also found over the course of time that there are a lot  of assumptions about ministry. There are a lot of discussions going on in the in  the broader Christian world about judgments regarding youth and kids and  politics and all the rest. And I remember having to intentionally not listen to that,  because I found that all of those things, all of those ideas, those judgments,  those opinions, if I allowed those in my head, they would taint my ability to really hear what the young person was saying. And so you have to put assumptions  aside and listen to youth even if you're walking into a youth program and you  know that they have problems, you must let them define the problem, so you  can speak to them in terms that they understand. So you need to put  assumptions aside and to really listen to young people. We need to discover felt  need. This is modeled by Jesus, again, in John 3&4, dealing with the woman at  the well and with with Nicodemus. He dealt with them in division you find in his. 

Engagements with everyone. He knew who he was talking to. He knew what the felt need was at the time, what needed to be said at that time to that person, and that's how he addressed them. It was modeled by Jesus that we need to  discover the felt need and allow youth felt needs to establish the context in  which the gospel is shared. Later on, I'll talk about a very simple step of asking  kids to write down questions they have regarding God, Christian, Christianity  and life, and allowing those questions to shape the context in which  presentations are made. And then we need to bring Jesus to the point of felt  needs. There it is. Write down questions regarding God, Christianity or life. And  then, as you have your discussion groups and your your one on ones, always in  your meetings, is the question, Where is God in all of this? You're talking about,  you're talking about human sexuality, you're talking about parents, you're talking  about school, you're talking about growing up in the neighborhood. In all of this,  where is God in all of this? Does God have a say? Does is God engage? Does  God want to respond to this? The answer is yes. There's nothing going on that  God does not know about he doesn't care about. It's the responsibility of the  leader to be able to share God's perspective in terms that young people  understand. And Jesus modeled this on the Sermon on the Mount in John in  Matthew 5. At one point he says, after he says, Unless your righteousness  surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, in no way will you enter the  kingdom of heaven. And then he goes into a series where he says, You have  heard it said, but now I say to you, what's happening at that time? The you You  have heard it said Is he is addressing. Here is the issue that you have. Here is  your perspective. Here's what you have been taught. Here is what you have  have embraced. This is the idea that is shaped your life. But now I say to you,  and He gives them God's idea. This is what the Scriptures say. This is what God meant. This is this is how they were to be taken and applied, and so you're  bringing Jesus to the point of self need. This, again, has tremendous  implications for youth ministry. And first of all, preaching is not enough.  Preaching, that one way, communication is not enough. And again, I'm not  saying that that preaching is bad. In fact, preaching can be very transformative,  but it triggers transformation when other factors are present, and that is the  engaged mind of the listener and a heart that is open to change. So even in your preaching, if you are not close enough to people to be able to step back and  properly assess and apply God's word to their reality, then you're not going to  communicate with young people who are struggling with discovering their  identity. You need to hear their felt need, and you need to respond to that. That  takes dialog, that takes listening, and then that takes communicating in very  clear terms, God's perspective. So context, expectations, assumptions, they all  impact ministry effectiveness, the task of the youth leader is to bring Jesus to  the point of felt need. And I would encourage you in your reading. John Perkins  has written a number of books, but this at what time, at one time, was the 

handbook for the Christian Community Development Association, restoring at  risk communities, doing it together and doing it right. He actually was the editor  of this book for many wonderful writings that deal with what what that philosophy is, and how it impacts the how we engage with youth today.