There’s something about cramming a bunch of young, animated guys into a church van and heading off somewhere in search of some fun and spiritual impact that excites a few people and terrifies the sane ones. For those of us in youth ministry, the art of the road trip is an essential one to master. For everyone else, it’s like looking at an unfinished Jackson Pollock painting through a screen door: It doesn’t make any sense, might not have an easily identified point, and it looks like there’s a couple flies stuck in there somewhere.
Like any art form, the road trip is a subjective beast, able to evoke a vast range of emotion from one observer to the next. It’s also not meant to be merely observed, but entered into; the experience is a part of the art itself. Those who don’t go just won’t get it completely. In preparing to head about 500 miles east in a couple days with a handful of my high school students, I’ve noticed a few details that are important to any road trip.
The Gallery: No trip stands alone. What’s the point? How does it fit into the scope of your ministry? How can you make the trip serve to connect the dots you’ve been drawing regularly with your students? One of the toughest choices in my ministry was to skip a summer camp that our students go to every year in order to attend a different conference that fit better with what I’d been teaching that year and where our students were spiritually. At first it wasn’t a popular decision, but our student ministry is still benefiting. Consider how your upcoming road trip fits into your bigger picture.
The Canvas: What are you painting on? What kind of expectations are you setting for the trip? Make sure your guys (and their parents) know what’s going to be happening, and understand that not every student needs to go on every trip. If your eighth grade day trip to Six Flags group is the same as your two-week mission trip to Siberia group, you may not be communicating what you really expect.
The Soundtrack: Every road trip needs some road music right? Be aware of the tone you’ll set with the music you travel to. If you’re driving through a rural neighborhood, asking your guys to pray for God to show you some way to serve that community, thumping Lecrae through the Econoline’s factory two-ways may not be conducive to your objectives! (It might upset the ladies’ traveling tea club, too, when their Avalon’s all garbled because you blew the speakers.) I once drove four hours without a sound from the van full of kids (who were fully awake) while playing a Frank Peretti audio book one of them was listening to. They even asked to stay in the van and finish the last chapter while I got us checked in!
The Signature: No piece of art is complete without this identifier. Find something you can do that will serve as your stamp on each trip. For us, it’s a nice meal that my students don’t have to pay for near the end of the trip. It’s a great time to recap the trip and talk about specific points of action that should follow our return.
Mike Andrews is a youth pastor in western Nebraska with several student road trips each year. One of his favorites, though, was an adult small group trip to L.A. a couple years ago. You can get in touch with Mike on Twitter (@6drews) or at TheoQuest.Blogspot.com.
