What is the Single Objective of Youth Ministry? Pt. 4
Next to weigh in on this difficult question is Mark Oestreicher. Marko is one of most evenly insightful people I know in any field. He’s also one of the most generous guys alive. After meeting with him for over a year in his YMCP, I can definitely say he is the real deal. The only fault I can openly find with him is his complete disdain for the caps key. Enjoy.
“yikes. this is a scary question. i like complexity, and abhor easy-answer-theology. so, while i know you, paul, well enough to know you’re not looking for an easy answer or a 3-step process, identifying a “single objective” of anything is tough, because, we always have multiple objectives — always, whether we want to or not. i’d be so much more comfortable with a list of objectives than singling one out.
but…
i’ll play along. and i’m gonna use one word: christlikeness. that’s our singular objective, i suppose. if i were to put it into a sentence, it would be something like, “the single objective of youth ministry is to walk with teenagers on their journey toward christlikeness.”
of course, there’s a ton of secondary objectives implied in my sentence (as is — did i already say this? — always the case). as joel mayward wrote on your first day of this series, one can’t merely say “the objective is discipleship” without addressing what we mean by discipleship. of course, i know that you — paul — have a very different working definition and practice of discipleship than many youth workers. same is true here (and, really, i suppose my “christlikeness” and joel’s “discipleship” are two ways of saying the same thing).
my role as a youth worker is to live, honestly, my own journey toward christlikeness with and in front of the teenagers in my midst. i can’t change teenagers — that’s the holy spirit’s job. i’m not directly in the transformation business; i’m in the transformation hosting business. hosting is a metaphor that brings up sub-metaphors like stewarding (“how do i steward the time i have with teenagers in a way that best exposes them to the transforming work of the holy spirit?”), curator (“how can i highlight and bring attention to the good stuff god is already doing in the world, and in the lives of teenagers?”), and evangelist. wait — did i just say evangelist?!?! yup — but i don’t mean it in the way you might think. i mean it in the same way that apple might have an evangelist on staff. my role as a youth worker (connecting with what adam mclane wrote for you) is to be the evangelist for teenagers in my church. i am the lead banner waver for teenagers in my congregation, reminding them of their responsibility to collectively engage with the teenagers in their midst.”
I love that Marko goes straight toward the cross on this. And, yes, while he uses a comprehensive thought to claim his objective, he also qualifies it as a complex, difficult process. Better than his objective for teenagers is Marko’s commitment to them. So while this objective is holistic, it’s also personal.
Finally, Marko arrives where I thought he was starting. His objective is to be Christlike so that he can lead others into that same place. You can’t lead people where you haven’t been yourself. I can’t say anymore than that. Thanks Marko!
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