My Idea about Youth Ministry
Tonight, I spent my third week as the "Youth Pastor" at the church I serve. I'm not sure how I avoided the role for the first three years, but I'm that guy now. I don't mind it at all. Except for the fact that Uno is one of the youth, it's not weird. And I really like these kids.
Our youth group is much like the youth group I grew up in: there are cool kids and not cool kids. In my little town where I grew up, I was not really one of the cool kids. Sure, I had friends and I was good in the performing arts and I got a little recognition for my various talents. But "cool"? Not so much.
Except at church. Church seemed to be the one place where my not-coolness didn't matter. I wasn't sure why then, but I think I have an idea now.
It's because we're the Body of Christ, and I think one of the things inherent in the reality that we are the Body of Christ is that, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians, there are no members of the Body that are any more or less necessary than another. No one has more or less value than another. For youth, their value is determined by however much social capital - ie, coolness - they have. Therefore, it should be understood that no youth in any youth group is any more or less cool than another. (h/t Andrew Root)
So, stealing a page from Paul's playbook (1 Corinthians 12:22-24), my youth group goal is a very simple one: Help the uncool kids "feel cool" for 1.5 hours, while (at the same time) relieving the cool kids of the need to be cool.
2 comments
Feb 10, 2010
revdebmatt said...
Love that statement at end - can I borrow?
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