In light of a botched lesson plan from last week's youth group, I've been drawn back to a re-think of the resources we seem to ask for, and consequently get, with regards to youth ministry.
My experience of most youth ministry resources is that they seem to be written for dummies to teach to dummies. And, depending on the resource, I question whether or not the author himself/herself is a dummy. Here's my latest example: In a curriculum lesson on having accountable friendships, the author's Bible passage was a part of Exodus 17 where Moses needs help from his friends to hold up a staff so that their battle against the Amalekites would end in victory.
So yes. I get it. Moses' arms would naturally get tired. He needed some help. No one could be expected to hold a wooden staff over their head for hours and hours. But… do you suppose my kids are really so dumb that they wouldn't get distracted by the rest of the story? I mean, doesn't it seem rather arbitrary that God would let the course of a battle, people's lives, be determined by whether or not a dude could hold a stick in the air? Doesn't that make God's view of human life seem unimportant? And why did God give that authority to Moses? It wasn't a command to hold the stick in the air -so is God championing superstition here? And what about the end of the story when God swears that he will be at war with the Amalekites from 'generation to generation'? That seems contradictory to a God that is 'for us and not against us' right?
Time after time again I see youth ministry lessons using the Bible in the most unhelpful, misleading, and dishonest ways imaginable so that the authors can cross "Biblically grounded/rooted/ centered/whatever" off their curriculum's criterion. I think it's an easy way out. And I suspect it sacrifices spiritual transformation for sales, approval, and/or familiarity…
Anyways, I couldn't unpack all of that in our lesson. I'm not even confident how to unpack that! I skipped it. We had a generic conversation about friendship and it wasn't a great lesson. I'd barely call it good. But it had to be better than the alternative.
When I think about Blue Ocean Youth Ministries and how they might be different, one of the hopes I have is that it would be a more honest starting point for biblical education. And, perhaps education is the wrong word? I hope that a BOYM might be a more honest starting point for transformation. One of my favorite quotes from our pastor is that, "The Bible doesn't merely tell; rather it provokes." That's how I know if my kids are reading the Bible - they have questions about it. They have real honest and sometimes difficult questions about it. I'm finding that today's kids are much more critical than me and my peers were as teenagers and I don't mean that in a bad way. I think they're tired of spoon-fed spirituality. I think that they want something that can simultaneously ensnare their imaginations while freeing their souls.
In the midst of my venting, I believe firmly that God invites us to wrestle with things together. I'm also see that many of our current resources only serve to widen the gap of maturation within the Church. I think this will eventually lead into a fun conversation about how Stage Theory plays out among teenagers (Who are stage 3) and what the process of discipleship looks like! I know it can't be sloppy or lazy anymore, and we (youth workers), seem to have escaped accountability from the Church. We have a lot of work to do yet and I'm excited to bring something better to my students.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
The Blue Ocean YM Concept
"This is embarrassing! It doesn't represent our church in a positive way to the community. So first you need to write an apology to the elder board and then you need to talk to Adam and set clear boundaries about what's acceptable."
I was turning red with anger. My fists were clenched and shaking. I knew that if I were to open my mouth, any number of angry retorts and profanities may spew forth and bury my supervisor in an avalanche of rage. So I stomped my passions down to a defeated ash pile, mumbled a weak, "Fine.", and quickly left the senior pastor's office.
"Really?!", I asked myself. "An apology AND a lecture?! Don't they know?! Why aren't they praising this?! Gahhh!!!!!" I slammed my body into my chair and stared at the newspaper on my desk. On page three was a picture of me and my youth group, wearing our halloween costumes and standing triumphantly over the 300+ canned food items that we had trick-or-treated for a few nights prior on Halloween. By every means it was a great event. 'Mission accomplished!' as some might say. I even had record youth group participation this year including Adam, one of my fringe students.
Adam was the only kid in our youth group who was being raised by a single parent. He was an outsider by almost every account. He was shorter, heavier, and had more rural interests than most of my kids. He was also new to church. He had been coming with his younger brother whenever possible because he felt marginally accepted by the youth group. I could't say that the other kids really embraced him but, more that they passively tolerated him. I assumed that within Adam's social circles, passive toleration was a huge step up. It was good for him, and stretching for my kids.
The controversy began when Adam's photo appeared in the newspaper alongside us. He had dressed up as a 'pot head' for Halloween that year, wearing a white t-shirt with 'pot head' written in Sharpie on the front and donning a silver pot on his head. The other leaders and I found it to be immensely clever! Now, perhaps it was because he forgot to wear the pot in the picture or maybe it was that the idea that we were a church of stoners would be assumed, but the photo did not sit well with the board. They were embarrassed and it was my responsibility to fix it. I realized then that my church didn't get it. The kids on the margins weren't the kids that they wanted. They didn't want kids who had glaring 'weaknesses' to represent the church. And soon after, they didn't want me either. I was fired several weeks later for this and a slew of other controversies.
I was turning red with anger. My fists were clenched and shaking. I knew that if I were to open my mouth, any number of angry retorts and profanities may spew forth and bury my supervisor in an avalanche of rage. So I stomped my passions down to a defeated ash pile, mumbled a weak, "Fine.", and quickly left the senior pastor's office.
"Really?!", I asked myself. "An apology AND a lecture?! Don't they know?! Why aren't they praising this?! Gahhh!!!!!" I slammed my body into my chair and stared at the newspaper on my desk. On page three was a picture of me and my youth group, wearing our halloween costumes and standing triumphantly over the 300+ canned food items that we had trick-or-treated for a few nights prior on Halloween. By every means it was a great event. 'Mission accomplished!' as some might say. I even had record youth group participation this year including Adam, one of my fringe students.
Adam was the only kid in our youth group who was being raised by a single parent. He was an outsider by almost every account. He was shorter, heavier, and had more rural interests than most of my kids. He was also new to church. He had been coming with his younger brother whenever possible because he felt marginally accepted by the youth group. I could't say that the other kids really embraced him but, more that they passively tolerated him. I assumed that within Adam's social circles, passive toleration was a huge step up. It was good for him, and stretching for my kids.
The controversy began when Adam's photo appeared in the newspaper alongside us. He had dressed up as a 'pot head' for Halloween that year, wearing a white t-shirt with 'pot head' written in Sharpie on the front and donning a silver pot on his head. The other leaders and I found it to be immensely clever! Now, perhaps it was because he forgot to wear the pot in the picture or maybe it was that the idea that we were a church of stoners would be assumed, but the photo did not sit well with the board. They were embarrassed and it was my responsibility to fix it. I realized then that my church didn't get it. The kids on the margins weren't the kids that they wanted. They didn't want kids who had glaring 'weaknesses' to represent the church. And soon after, they didn't want me either. I was fired several weeks later for this and a slew of other controversies.
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