A conversation I've heard replayed more times than I can count at youth ministry conferences, blogs, and in my own seminary education is whether we should be more discipleship-focused or evangelism-focused. Here's my one-sentence* take: A youth ministry where students are really being formed as disciples of Jesus will have a huge heart and passion for those who are lost, and a youth ministry that is really focused on seeing people come home to Jesus and know him will be encouraging and equipping students to share their faith, which is one of the best ways to grow in their faith.
Regardless of whether you claim to be discipleship-focused or evangelism-focused, if you're really committed to either of those task, you, your students, and your leaders will likely understand the importance of helping people begin a relationship with Jesus. My gut level feeling is that if we aren't equipping students to be missionaries in their families, schools, and communities, we're simply collecting students. And collecting students is really a weird thing to do as a hobby.
Over the next few days, I'll share some thoughts on what it looks like to be collecting students, and what it looks like to be sending missionaries. I'm learning as I go, but I'm realizing more and more how much in my youth ministry career I've been more focused on collecting students rather than sending missionaries.
Update: Part 2 can be read here and Part 3 can be read here.
*Yes, I know it's a run-on sentence. But it's still one sentence.
