Associate Pastor of Student Ministries, Appleton Community Evangelical Free Church Appleton, WI
Three times during my 20 years in youth ministry, I've reached a point of needing to move to find a better fit. I came to my current church seven years ago. I love it and have found it the best match yet. Two years ago, our church went through a change of senior pastors. I held my breath and dreaded the possibility of having to start over again. What transpired, I consider to be God's gift of mercy.
After a vigorous and prayerful search, the congregation hired our associate pastor to lead us. He has always had a strongly missional heart and style.
Since taking the helm, he has guided us through wonderfully challenging books and thoughts on missional churches and engaging living. Our mission statement now is brief and clear, Following Jesus, Engaging People. My senior pastor changed, our church changed, I changed, and gratefully, I have been able to stay.
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When I was younger and had less experience, I believed that the direction, focus, style, and personality of the church body at large mattered little to my student ministry. I saw youth ministry somehow disconnected from the body at large. I now see that I was profoundly wrong. The adults of the congregation are most often the parents of our students. No youth ministry can outgrow the spiritual of the adult congregation and leadership. No student work can sustain a fundamentally divergent focus from the church direction.
Seeing our ministry and my life through a missional lens has pushed me to re-evaluate our ministry. We have done some nice "no strings attached" outreaches, but over time, I've come see their inadequacy - the students couldn't fully own them and can't sustain them. If we clean windshields, give out smoke detector batteries, serve free hot dogs, most of the time we were engaging adults. These are not our student's peer group.
I now see the need to help students figure out how to carry a personal missional mindset to their peers and let them figure out the unique shape. I don't know what my student ministries will look like in a few years, but at least the spirit and direction of our ministry is aligned with the direction of the church body and leadership.
Here are the books that have helped my missional evolution thus far:
Future Present by Reggie McNeal,
The Externally-Focused Church by Rick Rusaw,
Just Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels, and
Shaped by God's Heart by Milfred Minatrea. These may stir you up and challenge your thinking about what the church should be and do. You might even get your students stirred up, but remember, unless the pastoral leadership is moving in the same direction, you might end up moving.