Challenging the Young in Youth Ministries

What might youth ministries look like if we re-invented them to challenge the creativity and initiative of our youth? Well, they might look like Launch, a ministry of YFC Toronto.

People ages 15-25, who have creative ideas for making a kingdom difference in their communities and world, are invited to bring their ideas to Launch. If the group finds the missional ideas have potential, they assign those who suggested each idea a business mentor to help them write a business start-up plan.

Ted was 19 when he approached Launch after returning from a short-term mission trip to Africa. He noticed while he was in Africa that pastors often had to walk more than two hours one way to visit their members. Ted is a bike enthusiast. When he got back to Toronto, he collected 180 beat-up bikes, reconditioned them and sent them to pastors in the African region he visited. In short, Launch helped Ted create a new non-profit organization called Africycle.

Ted's second load included 400 bikes. The cargo container in which they were shipped was designed to be a bike repair shop that would provide an income stream for the community to fund economic development and health care.

Is it possible that we underestimate what young people are capable of doing? What might happen in your youth group if you invited the imagination of teens to create new ways to make a difference in their community by helping families struggling with this devastating recession?

What might happen if you challenged your teens to imagine creating a café church as a place to engage their peers who wouldn't be inclined to come to traditional church gatherings and services?

What might happen if teens were invited to use the Internet to decode the bogus messages about "cool" that are constantly beamed into our lives from the global mall. How might they use arts or advocacy to raise awareness about the growing plight of our poorest neighbors on this planet or global and local sex trafficking? How about daring to invite your youth to re-imagine and re-invent your church?

Unite with the New Conspirators to Re-imagine the Church

One of the major reasons I wrote The New  Conspirators is because the church in North America is graying and declining at a rapid rate, much like the church in most Western countries. We are losing the young at a rate we never have seen before.

Meanwhile, the hunger for spirituality among young people is growing. Fortunately, many young church planters are creating new expressions of church that not only engage their peers but those of all ages who are searching for a fresh approach to faith that is much more outwardly focused on addressing the needs of others.

Young innovators don't always get it right. Sometimes they fall on their face, just like experienced entrepreneurs who launch new businesses. However, their imagination and risk-taking is impacting the lives of people in our communities and our communities of faith. I am convinced we all can learn from them. We all can discover creative ways God can use our mustard seeds more fully to make a difference in turbulent times.

What difference could it make in the lives or our youth if we re-invented youth ministries to invite them to imagine and launch new ways to have a kingdom impact in their communities, congregations and God's troubled world?

I think we would be surprised, just as Ted's friends were when he started Africycle. God might use the mustard seeds of our young people, too, in ways we never imagined possible.