One of the arguments involved in the Creation-Evolution debate is the ‘irreducible complexity’ of biological systems: systems that rely on the interaction of a number of parts and will cease functioning if any one of those parts is missing.
Using this analogy, an effective youth ministry in a local church is an irreducibly complex system.
On the opening night of Synod Youthworks College shared the story of the youth ministry at All Saints Petersham. By God’s kindness this is a ministry that has grown significantly over the years. There is much in the story that is unique to the individuals involved that God has been pleased to use for his purposes. But moving from the specific to a more general observation, there seem to me to be three factors that contribute to a story like the one from Petersham. Three factors that are essential for an effective youth ministry.
The first is the will to pursue an intentional investment in children’s and youth ministry. This at least requires the commitment of the senior minister. But it will also require the commitment from the members of the church to make the changes to church life necessary to accommodate a ministry to children and young people. There are costs associated with change, with redirecting limited resources, and with setting priorities of strategic vision.
There are costs also for the time and effort of the senior minister. I’ve often heard it said that employing a children’s or youth minister will double a senior minister’s workload, while employing another adult (assistant) minister will halve it. I don’t know where people come up with these measures but I can understand the principle: an assistant minister who can do the same sort of ministry work as the senior minister is able to take a number of tasks off the senior minister’s desk – halve the preaching load, halve the number of small groups to lead, halve the number of weddings, funerals and hospital visits. But put on a children’s or youth minister, particularly one who is at the beginning of their ministry training pathway, and there will be time needed for supervision, support, advice as well as probably needing to help put out fires that have been inadvertently lit by someone with less experience.
Without a vision for the value of a ministry to children and young people churches are unlikely to push through the challenges to establish and sustain a new ministry for the medium to long-term. The first necessary element for an effective children’s and youth ministry in a local church is the will to see it through
The second essential factor is the money to sustain a new ministry. Another commonly held assumption is that a children’s or youth ministry costs money, whereas a ministry to adults will make money. I.e. adults have incomes out of which they can give money; children have pocket money which gives them considerably less ability to help meet the budget deficit. In general I agree, but I do think that this is an exaggeration. I suspect many of our churches could be teaching more clearly about money with young people. This is particularly the case for young adults who are embarking into the workforce for the first time—not so much as a strategy to meet the church budget but in order to teach clearly against the very real trap of greed. There is also increasing evidence that a functioning children’s and youth ministry will attract new families to our churches; not just through transferring from other congregations but through drawing new family units into the life of the church.
Children’s and youth ministry can contribute to the budget bottom line. All that said though, it is true that starting a new work among children or young people will cost money. Money and vision do tend to go together: people will give money to a compelling shared vision; but money and vision are not the same. Without the dollars the best laid plans will struggle to get off the ground.
The third essential factor is the personnel to head up the ministry. Jesus directed his disciples to pray for workers to be sent into his harvest field. Children’s and youth ministry continues to present a plentiful harvest. The 2011 NCLS has once again confirmed the effectiveness of sharing the gospel during the teenage years to bring people to Christ and establish them in the faith. Yet the workers continue to be few.
There are many opportunities in Sydney and beyond for people to take on specialised roles as evangelists, pastors and teachers among children, youth and young adults. People are also related to vision: often a vision coalesces around a specific person or team of people who are gifted and commissioned for a work. But without the people to offer for this ministry, all the vision and money in the world will be impotent.
Will. Finance. Personnel. Three requirements of the irreducibly complex system of a local church children’s or youth ministry. These elements don’t guarantee an outcome, and God may be pleased to do a miraculous work without any of them being present. But ordinarily our experience has been that with these three elements in the same place at the same time provide the sort of environment that makes the preaching of the gospel among children and young people grow into an effective and sustainable ministry.
The trouble is, the system is irreducibly complex: with only two of the three elements plans are less likely to succeed. There’s no use having the money available in a wealthy parish, personnel aplenty in a growing parish and sustained prayerful will in a struggling parish without the three coming together in common cause. There’s little value in having a vision this year, finding personnel next year but no money for another two years after that. By that stage either the will has evaporated or the personnel are no longer available. We need all three in the same place at the same time.
Establishing a growing a children’s and youth ministry strikes me as being irreducibly complex. But not impossibly so. Which of those three parts are you able to play so that we would see children and young people established as missional disciples of Jesus to the glory of God throughout Sydney, across Australia and throughout the world? We need people of vision to lead; people of means to give, and gifted people to be available. Which part will you play?
