Five Truths of Youth Ministry | #4: Youth Leaders Should Be Missionaries

I believe that one issue that is currently facing the Church in America today is that we as Christians are too interested in maintaining the status quo. We get to a certain place where we like how things are in our church or ministry, and we really don't want things to change. The problem with this is that we get into a mode where the primary objective is maintenance. We seek to maintain our worship services because we like them and people are coming. We seek to maintain our youth ministries, because students are coming and we like how things are going. The problem with this is that the Church does not exist to maintain the status quo; the Church exists to help more and more people know the saving, sacrificial love of our savior, Jesus. "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20a). To put it another way, the Church is supposed to be playing offense, not defense.

Have you ever watched an athletic competition where one team takes a lead and does everything to protect it? For instance, a soccer team with a 1-0 lead might start pulling back on defense a bit more later in the game. On the surface, this seems like a good strategy, but here's the catch: the team that was doing really well and got into the lead stops doing the very things it was good at that got it into the lead in the first place and gives in to a fortress mentality to protect the lead at all costs. And when a team stops playing to its strengths, it becomes weaker and might eventually give up the lead.

By the way, have you noticed that the Church in our culture is not good at playing defense? Somewhere along the way, we've begun to make maintaining the status quo our top priority. And as comfortable as we are in some of our churches, we haven't even succeeded at maintaining the status quo.

So what does this mean for youth ministry? For starters, we need to develop a missionary mentality. Our job is to share Jesus with a culture that largely does not know much at all about who Jesus is. The heart of God is that as many people as possible would know his Son and trust in him for the salvation that he bought by his blood. Too many times this view is objected by pointing out that we need to also care for those within our flock. Yes, this is true. However, if we are really caring for those within our flock, then we are teaching them about the generous heart of God and his purpose for the Church, and eventually, they'll catch that vision, too!

This is certainly not a comfortable venture. Roy, our lead pastor, often reminds us that when we make decisions about what we do as a church--what happens in our worship services, what events we plan--we should always seek to be uncomfortable for the sake of helping those who don't know Jesus come to a saving relationship with him.

This past summer, some good friends of ours Jim and Heather and their kids Joel and Faith headed off to Kenya where they are serving as missionaries. I've enjoyed keeping up with their stories about the transition (you can read their blog here). They are settling in nicely, but they have certainly experienced a bit of discomfort to follow God where he has led! However, as long as I have known these amazing friends, they have always put following God above their own comfort. This should be the spirit of us as youth leaders. We should expect it of our volunteers, and we should expect it of our students who follow Jesus.

If we're really focused on what Jesus wants us to be focused on (in case we forget, we can always check out Matthew 28:16-20), then we'll truly have a heart for those who don't know Jesus. It may not always be comfortable, but what's kingdom-centered often isn't comfortable.

For a few more thoughts on approaching youth ministry as a mission field, check out a four-part series on the topic here.

Other posts in this series:
Five Truths of Youth Ministry (an Introduction)
Five Truths of Youth Ministry | #1: Jesus Saves, Not Me
Five Truths of Youth Ministry | #2: In America, Fewer Youth Are Attending Church
Five Truths of Youth Ministry | #3: I'm a Sinner
Five Truths of Youth Ministry | #5: God Desires Faithfulness, Not Numbers

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