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| Credit: comedy_nose (Creative Commons) |
The same is true when it comes to deciding what our youth ministry should focus on. After all, every church and ministry has a finite amount of volunteers, time, and resources. We can't focus on everything, and so we experience a certain amount of tension, knowing that if we give our attention to one thing, it means that something else won't get as much attention. To some extent, this is a very good thing. We can't do everything, and so we need to do what we feel God has led us to do. But it's good to recognize those tensions. I'll share a few that I've noticed in recent months, but I want to make myself clear: in each tension, I'm not suggesting that it has to be one or the other, or even that a 50/50 balance is desirable. I'm just pointing out the fact that there are tensions, because we believe that we have to be great at everything I list below, we'll end up discouraged and burned out. With that in mind, here are a few of the tensions:
Deep discipleship vs. discipling many. I've heard and read this debated in countless seminary classes, books, blogs, and conference workshops: should a church or ministry focus inward on making solid disciples of those already in their church, or should they put all their eggs in evangelism and making new disciples? Of course, the answer isn't either/or, and the ideal answer is "both." But we all have limited time, people, and resources, so this becomes a difficult tension.
Discipling teenagers vs. discipling parents. Again, we all probably have an ideal in mind here. But in reality, we need to choose how much of our effort goes into each. Some will immediately say "parents," but what about students who will never hear about Jesus from their family?
Shepherding leaders vs. shepherding families. No matter how small your church is, you should NOT be going at youth ministry alone without any leaders to serve with you. Whether your leadership team is a handful of parents or 100 volunteers, you need to spend time with your team. And that means less time with teenagers and their families. You only have so many hours in the week, and so there will always be tension in this area.
If I've raised more questions than answers here, it was intentional. There are no "cut and dry" or "one size fits all" answers here. How you approach each tension will depend on how God has gifted you, what he has called you to, and lots of discernment.
What other of these kinds of tensions you feel pulling you in different directions in youth ministry?
