Programs, Programs, Get Yer Programs

September 13, 2012 in Paradigm with 6 Comments

People have accused me of not liking programs. I admit that I don’t like the word program and all that it implies. But it’s virtually impossible to have organized meetings without programming. The problem seems to come from focusing on what we do to the exclusion of why we do it.

Programs are just plans, but somehow they have come to mean something more. For many youth ministries, programs are the context that surrounds a plan. So when many youth workers “do” programming, they are really searching for a better chubby bunny.

The problem with this comes from focusing so much on the context, that the content is muted. I have talked to ministers who spend 80% of their time working on games and 20% or less working on teaching or preaching. All of this for the purpose of making meetings more accessible.

You always need to consider entry points for the people in a meeting. They need to be able to join with a minimum of awkwardness. I ask all of us who plan for these encounters:

Can the gospel enough of an entry point without wrapping in a context that undermines it’s message?

I’m not saying that context isn’t important. It’s just that programming for entertainment reduces the importance of what we value in ministry. The hope we find in faith is the most attractive element of our programs.

The picture above is a spoon full of sugar. It’s the song from the classic movie Mary Poppins. The idea is simple. Sugar makes medicine taste better and is therefore easier to swallow. If entertainment is necessary for youth ministry, does that make the good news of Jesus yucky. Maybe it’s hard to swallow at times, but I think the sugar is often the unnecessary focus of ministries.

Related posts:

  1. Practices over Programs
  2. Mandelbrot Youth Ministry
  3. What’s Wrong With Attractional?
  4. Hiring Your Sr. Pastor
  5. The Myth of Adolescence

About Paul Martin: Paul Martin lives in Birmingham, Alabama and serves at St. Peter's Anglican Church. He has been working in youth ministry for two decades, but his real passion is discipleship.

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  • Brian Kirk

    Great analogy with the spoon and great question. If we need to distract teens with “program” in order to “sell” them on faith, what implicit or explicit messages are we sending?

    • http://twitter.com/sleestac Paul Martin

      Brian, thanks for commenting. The explicit message is loud and clear. Youth are consumers and the experience is the product. But church leaders and parents are also the consumers. For leaders, the deliverable is involved (usually tithing) families. Parents want safe activities that keep their children out of trouble. There are other things we sell that they buy, but that’s the most common ones I see. If you have to consider this model as viable, at least consider God the product.

      Implicit messages are a bottomless pit. The most obvious that comes to mind is that we know the products they are buying and count on them being shallow enough to be pacified. It’s a contemptuous perspective that treats parents, leaders and teenagers as slightly below average, easily manipulated groups. It also implies that God doesn’t care enough about the people of the church or that he simply doesn’t have the ability to fulfill them.

  • http://dbartosik.com/ David Bartosik

    ha! I Agree with Brian, but I’m sure after two decades you got the program wired? :) Which would seem to shift that 80% a lot lower and allow for much more of what you enjoy and should be at the heart of what we do? Glad I found your site Paul!

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