Models of Student Ministry.

I continue to read the book, "Starting Right. Thinking Theologically about Youth Ministry." and it continues to challenge me again and again. I am excited to implement some of the philosophy that has been challenging me. Today, I read a section about models of student ministry. Chap Clark writes that the first “model” of ministry that should be taken into consideration is the mission driven model. Basically, whatever your mission statement is should be the lens that everything else is seen through. I tend to agree with this model of ministry.

Our mission statement is “developing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.” And if one of our programs doesn’t do this, let’s cut it. If a program that we are not doing does this in amazing ways, let’s try it! We see all programs through the lens of the mission statement that God has given us as a church. While I agree with the model, the nuances that this should be the only part to the model of ministry are inept to handle the comprehensive model of student ministry today. This is why I will point out the other two models of student ministry that I think we must give validation too the other two models and even recognize that parts of our student ministry are driven by these models.

The “Family based youth ministry” model is not a new concept. Mark Devries has written extensively on this subject and has been very vocal in advocating for the family to really be the “programmers” within student ministry. At the very core of his argument, I tend to agree with him. He begins by pointing out that parents are the primary influencers of their students (whether good or bad) and I believe that to the core. But at the same time, I think there is a danger in swinging completely to this model of ministry because I fear that the local church will become somewhat obsolete. Paul says “do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.” And Paul wasn’t talking just family units. He was talking the larger body of Christ. He was talking the global and local church. While I believe that parents are the primary spiritual influencers of their kids, I don’t think that scrapping student ministry programming provided by the church is the way to go. I’m not sure that this is effective in developing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. I am wholeheartedly supporting the argument that parents must be the influencers, just not the argument that student ministry is SOLELY family based. It is SOLELY family based if we think about family in terms of the family unit AND the family of God.

The “Student leadership” model is troubling to me. This model basically says that student leaders are the drivers within student ministry. If they are allowed to lead, they will own programs and they will get other students to own programs and they will be effective in peer to peer leadership. While I think that all of that is very true, I tend to think that modeling an entire ministry on this concept would leave our students wildly short with no adult leadership and with no adult involvement. If this were to be the “model” that a student ministry would follow, it would have to be in complete partnership with adult leaders that were investing their lives in students. I believe we must develop student leaders because they are the leaders of today and tomorrow, but at the same time, we must be about the business of developing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. From the research I have done, the more adult influencers that are in the students’ life, the greater chance of discipleship there is to take place. On the other hand, peer to peer influence appears to be present but at lesser levels except when there is a negative influence. For some reason, positive influence doesn’t have the high octane influence that negative influence has. Interesting. Peer to peer influence may be overrated in this “student leadership” model. I love what we do at West E. Free with Servant team, but I would never want to make the servant team be the driver of all student ministry that happens. They are certainly a tremendous part of what goes on and they are in partnership with the adult leadership teams, but they cannot be “THE MODEL” of ministry that happens.

As I thought about these models and read through them, I realized that all of them have positive parts to them and parts that I use. There is really NO wholesale model that a ministry can grab. Models must be developed within the contexts that a student ministry person finds themselves in. If they wholesale a model of ministry, there are significant negative consequences that will occur. Contexts are completely different and call for very different responses. What works one place won’t work another place, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less effective in developing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

God, teach me what it means to follow you wholeheartedly in ministry and life. Amen.

If you have any questions, comments, or remarks you can smoke signal me or you can just write them in the comments section. I’ll try to respond (to the comments section, not the smoke signal thing… J )