intersections: theology, technology, politics

I was recently at a youth conference where one of the speakers said that people are just waiting for others to tell them about Jesus, people are just waiting for us to get up the nerve and tell them about Jesus, but we are ashamed or afraid to speak out and so these people and others like them will perish and it will be our fault (they didn’t say that last part, but that’s clearly what is implied). And what does this invoke in our students, guilt. And we have a long history of Jesus using guilt to woo people and invite them into relationship with him.

If all these people are waiting for us to tell them about Jesus, why don’t they wear a sign or a graphic tee that says as much. They don’t wear a sign, because many of them aren’t in fact waiting for us to tell them about Jesus, most are doing just fine without him. But we do have a biblical call to share the good news, that much is clear. But I believe the call to share the good news has to be good news.

For the past 12 years, I’ve served the youth at our church. I’ve learned a lot serving the church and the young people in this community. I’ve learned that most of our students are overprogrammed. Students in our community have too much to do, they are working, playing sports, taking prep classes, and going to school. They carry a huge homework load and they have very little time to meet during the week with me and our trained youth workers.

I’ve decided to make space for those who want it, for others I find other ways to support them either in their local world or through prayer and notes.

Many have rejected the relational youth model, without giving us another model that will work and I’m annoyed. Why criticize without offering a new way forward. I’ve been a fan of relational youth ministry because it focuses my attention on our students where I believe it should be. It’s my mandate to understand their world, and their struggles and offer them solution for creating a spiritual framework.

Lately, I’ve been struck by how few students have people (parents, mentors, siblings) who are teaching them what it means to be a student of Jesus. Many are calling them to repentance, ‘turn from your evil ways,’ but aren’t offering students a way forward. I’ve repented, now what? What’s the next step on this pilgrimage towards becoming more like Jesus. Many offer pat solutions to this problem: read your bible, prayer three times a day, have a quiet time, but to what avail? How does a student who is so overprogrammed learn to take time to reflect and just be? Who is taking time to teach them what this looks like, and what’s the way forward.

Maybe what we need is a better way forward. Maybe we need to take more time and focus on what really matters: sharing our lives with our students and offering the life that we have been able to draw from our relationship with Jesus. Or maybe that’s the problem as youth workers we haven’t figured out how to draw real sustainable life from Jesus so we don’t know what to offer our students as their way forward.