3: a plan or system under which action may be taken toward a goal
(From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Every church has programs.
I'm not pointing this out to be ornery. Well, maybe a little. Really, my hope is to change the direction of the discussions that occur regarding the programatic aspects of ministry. If you listen to some, you'd think that you have to choose between running a program and really focusing on Jesus. And for those that are wary of a style of ministry that believes that if we could just find the right combination of methods and events, I'm with you. But don't look at that kind of ministry and believe that all kinds of programming are bad. I understand, the word can turn us off, because it seems unspiritual.
But even Jesus had a plan. In fact, if we go by the above definition of "program," we can't do ministry without programs.
Programs--as they relate to youth ministry--are simply the way we choose to minister to students and their families. Lock-in? Program. Small groups? Program. Service project on the third Sunday of the month? Program. Taking pizza to a local school every Thursday? Program. Asking a team of adults to pray specifically for our students by name at least once a week? Program. So, if that's true, then, what do we need to know about programs? Here are a few thoughts:
Every church has programs. Yeah, we've covered this already, but it's worth repeating. A good illustration is church marketing. the very word marketing turns a lot of people off. It sounds so stale and manipulative. But marketing really just means "How we tell people about ourselves when we're not face to face." Have a church sign? Marketing. Silly phrase spelled out every week on that sign? Marketing. All churches give a first impression, so why not give a good one? It doesn't have to be flashy, just authentic. The same is true with programs. Every church has an approach to ministering to teenagers, even if that approach is zilch. The question is, does our approach effectively minister to teenagers and is it rooted in biblical thought?
Programs have a goal. What's the point of your youth ministry? I know, that question sounds harsh, but it's a question I've been honestly asking myself lately. And to be honest, I haven't really liked the answer, because I'm not sure what we do really reflects what we say we're about. What goes on in our youth ministry may not actually reflect what we say our goal, mission, or vision is. I won't go into this a whole lot here, having just done a series on this blog on how the methods of youth ministry relate to the Message. Make sure you check that series out if you're interested in that part of this discussion. But here's the bottom line: our goal is to proclaim a Message: do our methods really reflect that Message?
Programs are a tool. Repeat after me: Programs are a tool. I remember in the first church I was on staff at, a committed volunteer always wanted us to replicate a particular program that the church used to be a part of. He had grown up in that church, and he had been profoundly impacted by that program. Now as a young adult, he wanted the students we served to have a similar experience. His heart was in the right place, but that program required a lot of resources and didn't really fit in to the larger picture of the direction of our youth ministry. It's tempting when we find a program that's effective (or we see one work in another church or ministry setting) to assume that it will be effective in all circumstances. Programs are a tool, and different situations require different tools. One great illustration of this is Paul in the New Testament. In Acts 17, Paul first visits two cities and goes into the synagogue. Then in Athens, he not only visits the synagogue, he heads to the Agora (the marketplace), and engages the Gentile philosophers and thinkers of the city. His approach there is very different than when he was in the synagogue, but his goal was the same: to proclaim Jesus and see people come to know Him.
By the way, you don't have to call them programs. You can pick a much more spiritually-sounding word if you like. But to intentionally try to minister to teenagers without a vision and a plan that you discern through much Bible study, prayer, and thought? That's unspiritual.
