A Response to 'The End of Paid Youth Ministry?'

You had me at 'The End'

I had a chance last week to look at Group Magazine's headliner for the May/June issue and it generated a lot of thoughts and questions for me as I'm sure it may for many professional and aspiring youth workers.  Could the end of youth ministry as we know be at our door?  What will survive in the microcosm of youth ministry?  What will go?  How will this impact kid's relationships and connection points with Jesus? 

For those who haven't had the opportunity to read the article, the submission came through Mark DeVries, the founder of www.ymarchitects.com, a website resource that provides consulting services into the life, health, and opportunity for both potential and existing youth ministries.  The summary of the front page's question *spoilers!* is both 'Yes and No'.   Pairing together cumulative research regarding the Millenials generation and their experience of the church as well as the slow decline of wages, hours, and benefits for youth workers, the evidence seems to suggest that the youth ministry of the past is changing directions.  The 'No' aspect is simply that professional/full time youth ministry isn't likely to stop as if it hit a wall.  It will more than likely 'wind down' over time.  

Now What?

It seems at this point we have a few options as to what we might do with this.  Just spitballing here, those options may include:

• Shrug it off.  Chock it up to poor statistics, paranoia, painful personal experiences, or something else; this isn't likely and I'll be concerned with other things until there is more evidence.
• Accept it.  Throw up the white flag!  We're done!  The ship is sinking!  I'll put in my two-weeks notice and sell shoes at the mall!
• Prevent it.  We might say, "These outcomes can be prevented with a little bit of elbow grease -  let's get to work!".  We'll work harder, sell ourselves and our ministries better, pray more specifically, justify our existence, earn that raise!
• Re-Imagine it.  Take this as an opportunity to do the things that youth ministry has left behind!  Perhaps there is more good in this story than bad and that our decisions in the next 20 years will shape the face of youth ministry for the next 100?

What Wasn't Said

Here's where I'll that there's a lot behind was wasn't said in the article that should make us scratch our heads because, actually, it seemed to be the loudest part of the article.  What wasn't addressed, whether intentional or not, is the 'why' question.  Some people may blame it on the recession.  Tithing goes down when income decreases.  Decreased tithing = lower net income for local churches.  Lower income = sacrifices.  

I'm a self-professed Millenial.  I was born in 1983 and I see the Church differently than most.  I'm also highly sympathetic with my generational peers who did not grow up in a church.  We're cumulatively tired of churches that are obsessed with sex/sexuality, money, fixing people, power holds, and an unapologetic lack of courage.  If data presented by groups such as Barna and the Pew Research Center among others is to be trusted, my generation isn't rushing to get back into church just because we've had babies.  We're cautious to raise our kids in an environment that perpetuates our concerns and experiences their applause and ovations in an echo chamber.  [Please don't assume I'm speaking for every Millenial.  Many of my friends have continued in their faith alongside communities and churches that reflect their needs and values!]

However for those who grew up outside of the church, autonomy is the law of the landscape.  The ruling narrative is that we all find our own ways towards discovering the things that matter in this life and one of the greatest ways to wrong our neighbor is to assert that we know what is best for their life, even if we believe it sincerely.  Consequently, that may be the challenge with parenting and working with parents in the coming decades: How do we make a case for bringing your kid to church when faith and life has become so individualistic?

So here we go: the possible 'why' as I see it in my context and through my lens is this - evangelical Millenials aren't being represented by their values in most of our churches.  Non-churched millenials, while they have a draw towards personal spiritual experiences and the person of Jesus, the church seems too toxic to wade through.  They suspect there is a pearl buried in that field but sifting through the dirt alone is discouraging.  They'll settle for lesser treasure.  

The Cost of Re-Imagining

Re-Imagining is costly because re-imagination is threatening.  It threaten's stability.  It threatens our self-erected monuments.  Re-imagination questions our foundations and leaves us feeling uncentered.  This is where we experience the tension and I suspect, in the end, it may come down to compromise.  

Compromise.

The dirtiest word in our religious culture wars.  

I don't know how this became such a loaded word.  Rather than being revered as a synonym for success it has been wed to the ideas of loss, failure, caving in, and even unfaithfulness.  To re-imagine youth ministry will necessitate compromise.  It will require difficult, brutally honest conversations and examinations of where we're standing and what we're standing on.  In one of Jesus most profound statements, he declared himself to be 'the way, the truth, and the life' and this is bad news for people who don't care for compromise.   Because when the 'way' is a person, we can no longer say "my way or the highway!".  Because when 'truth' is a person, to claim exclusive truth is the equivalent of slavery.  And if we let 'life' be incarnate in Jesus, life ceases to merely be about our individualistic selves.  My individualistic self…  

The good news, I think, is that work has begun on this front.  There are many gifted minds in and across the Church that are asking good questions and getting us moved along, including but not limited to Mark DeVries.  However if we hesitate to risk, should we falter in our imagining, or might we allow our shortcomings to dictate the measures of our love for teenagers, then youth ministry should end.  Period.  

I'd like to think that youth workers aren't the roll-over-and-die types.  I think we're scrappier than that.  I also like to think that those who risk so much to put teenagers ahead of the pack would respond to this challenge.  In fact, I can't think of a better huddle of people within the Church that will play such a crucial role in redeeming the Church by allowing our younger generations to claim it.  What a ride this will be!