Youth Ministry Bi-Vocational Survival Guide

Section Two: Three Principles to Remember The Audience of One Principle (Rick Flann) Leading youth ministry is much like being a swim instructer in a pool with a bunch of crazy kids. Scary, huh? You’re the pro, and it’s your job to save a bunch of crazies from drowning or killing one another with foam noodles and blow-up Shamu’s. Your call is to teach them to swim and recruit other good swimmers to help make the pool a better place. No one wants kids to drown (except for maybe that one kid, because we all know that one kid), no one wants kids to wear smiley-face floaties on their arms for more than a year or two, and of course, no one wants to be the only swim instructer in the pool! Your goal must be to disciple students in a way that will enable them to swim through this life without drowning in the deep end of this world. You are responsible to help youth move beyond their floaties of baby faith to a rich and powerful zeal for Christ. Your students should be able to not only survive in the water of this world, but they should also know God’s Word and follow it with such humble competence that others are inspired to swim as you do. These students should be able to swim in the direction of truth and tread water in the locations where that truth is taught and lived out. They shouldn’t have to rely on you to tell them what is okay and what isn’t for very long. You can always be a resource, but God’s Word must be their foundation. It will free up your time and grow your ministry. God’s Word will never go away, even though you eventually will. A moment of encouragement. What I said about you being the swim instructor responsible for those kids is only somewhat true. First, remember it’s only an analogy. You don’t actually have to swim with them unless you’re at an event or something. Swim for a few minutes, throw some of the tough guys around to establish your dominance, and then get out of the pool. Psychological victory will be yours. Second, while it’s true that God is going to hold you and I accountable for how we lead His children in the pool of this world, never forget that only God changes hearts and minds. He is the one who saves. He is the one who transforms. He is the one who brings spiritually dead people to life and grows them in the faith. Praise God that you and I don’t have the power to do that because we would screw it up. We are simply called to be faithful with the things He has called us to do. We are to go and make disciples. Problems begin when we start to place the emphasis on our own abilities, or lack thereof, as opposed to God and His abilities. We look at other successful ministries and often compare ourselves to them. We compare salaries, budgets, attendance, programs, and our time, forgetting that God has given us what He has desired to give us for this particular season of life. Our pool of students are the exact ones He has called us to serve and love. Be confident that even though God has given you other responsibilities outside of youth ministry, He has equipped you to faithfully train your students in the ways of Christ because He is the one who has called you to it, and He is the one who will make it happen. When you have a wife, children, school, extracurricular activities, another job (or two or three), on top of what you are responsible for at the church, you have to be comfortable that you can only do so much with the twenty-four hours that God gives you each day. Don’t look at your bank account, your ministry budget, the number of kids who go to your youth group, or the limited time you have to devote to that particular ministry. Look instead at the heart of God, and remember that He doesn’t judge us by numbers or pizzazz. He judges by faithfulness. In Matthew 25:14–30, Jesus gives us a wonderful picture of the type of ministry God expects from His followers. The story begins with Jesus speaking of a master who gives three of his servants different sums of money before he goes away for a long time. One of the servants receives five talents, the other receives two talents, and the third servant receives one talent. To be clear, these were not actual talents such as receiving the talent to making middle schoolers instantly quiet at the snap of your fingers. (That would be a miracle!) Talents were values of money, large values of money. In fact, each talent was valued at $600,000! So before you become sad for the one-talent guy, realize they were all given a huge responsibility and a huge blessing of trust. Right away, this should show you that God has blessed all of us with an extreme amount of God-given and God-dependent ability. They are from Him and for Him. But back to the story. Their master had asked each servant to invest his wealth in a way that would expand his kingdom. The two who received the five and two talents each, invested the money that doubled their profits. The third buried his talent in the dirt, which as you know was a bad idea. Fortunately for you, the simple fact you are reading this book shows you’re not one of those bury-your-talents-in-the-backyard kind of servant. By reading through these pages, you are better equipping yourself to expand God’s most precious commodity—His kingdom. When the master returned and asked his servants what they had done with the money entrusted to them, he only used one rubric to grade by—the measurement of obedience. Each of these servants had different amounts to invest, and the two individuals with five and two talents doubled their master’s investment. The reward these men received was phenomenal. They received what each of us long to receive from our heavenly master one day, a “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.”