Let me start off by sharing that I thought the line up for ICYC this year was great.  I believe Ryan Post is one of the best upcoming worship leaders.  His heart for ministry and the people that he is leading way larger than any other worship guy/girl I have been around in a long time.  Couple that with the experience and expertise of Jayson French bringing God’s word and you don’t miss a beat.  Students were in engaged in worshiping God and studying His word.  Great job planning team!

While I was at ICYC I had the opportunity to engage in a conversation about Discipleship with Student Minister’s and Volunteers thanks to Lincoln Christian University.  It was a lot of fun for me to be back in the Student Ministry saddle sharing and encouraging those leaders that I miss dearly from my previous ministry.  At the end of the session we opened the floor for a time of question and answer.  There were some questions that we got to and others that we did not.  I will be answering those questions here on this blog over the next several weeks.  Just click on the tab Student Ministry and you will be able to follow the conversation.

I am also posting my notes from that session below.

Struggles Student Ministries face in Discipleship

I want to thank each of you for giving of your time and lives in such a way that you lead students to grow closer to God and find Jesus in many ways.  Without you guys Students through out the country would miss the opportunity to grow up learning more about who God is.

What are the things that the average adolescent looks forward too in life?

Ministry Model based on Discipleship – we have made the pendulum swing from churches that are focused on the whole student to Student Ministry models where all we offer are Worship and small groups.  I think that most churches have forgotten how important evangelism is in the lives of students.  We currently seem to expect students to lead other students to Christ fully with no direction from the church.

Over Spiritualizing of your entire ministry – we have taken away the idea that we can have an event just for fun.  One other reason that we have fallen into this is that we have forgotten who we are ministering too and have developed ministry so that we (the leaders) enjoy it.  How many of you hate overnighters?  One of the great curses of ministry in the last several years has been the book Simple Church.  Seth Godin has recently released a new book that is suggesting that organizations find ways to become more things to all people rather than have a single focus.

Expect students to grow spiritually like an adult does – what are the things that students seem to enjoy in life?  What is there focus in life?  Where were you at when 15 years old, spiritually?  Why is it then that we expect our entire groups to fall under the spiritually mature lifestyle.  When they don’t we freak out and feel like we have failed.  If you are wanting to read some very simple aspects of what this looks like then I would encourage you to check out Jim Putnam’s Real Life Discipleship model.  I do not think that there is a closer model to the way Jesus wants us to live and grow.

Develop Yourself spiritually – if you are not growing then you are not going to be able to feed others.  It is important that we find ways to make sure we are personally taking care of ourselves spiritually.  One way that I have done this in the past is to recruit leaders for only one area of student ministry so that they were free during other times to participate in the larger church life.

One of the things that I found in ministry that worked really well for me when it comes to discipleship of students was a concept in Richard Dunn’s book, Shaping the Spiritual Lives of Students, Pacing vs. Telling.  Often in ministry we want students to get it quickly and we decide that telling them is better than walking alongside them largely because it takes less time.

1. Telling enters the relationship with an agenda communicating what an adolescent should be experiencing, thinking or doing.  Pacings agenda is to understand what the adolescent is experiencing, thinking or doing.
2. Telling emphasizes the teaching and advice-giving abilities of the adult.  Pacing emphasizes the listening and care-giving abilities of the adult.
3. Telling emphasizes the adult’s expertise and knowledge about God’s will for adolescent lives.  Pacing emphasizes the adult’s heart for hearing God’s will at work in the life of a particular adolescent.
4. Telling has as its initial goals the student’s assent to and application of godly advice.  Pacing has as its initial goals a student’s authenticity in relationship to God and the adult.
5. The primary delivery system of telling is controlled teaching times, ministry experiences and discussions.  The primary delivery system of pacing is dynamic, intentional yet informal interpersonal relationships.
6. Telling uses small groups to assist in application and accountability.  Pacing uses small groups to build relationships that foster self-disclosure, affirmation, encouragement and challenge.

For adolescents to grow into the fullness of the spiritual lives to which God has called them, a spiritual care-giver (youth leader) in their immediate, daily world has to be willing to pace with them.  Telling them is not going to move them to the next level of spiritual development that we so desire our students to be at.

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