1. ESTABLISHING DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIES
It is assumed that by this stage the youth group has adopted the commitment level model of youth ministry and have implemented ministries at each level of commitment.
A. Identify Youth Commitment Levels
This step is the starting point for implementing the commitment level model of youth ministry within a youth group context. As the focus here is on discipleship and not ministry in general, it would be helpful to list just the Christian youth who attend the group, and attempt to identify their commitment levels. An earlier chapter referred to some of the difficulties in completing this task, but this should not be taken as an excuse to avoid this exercise.
B. Set Grows Goals for Individuals
Once the commitment level of Christian youth are identified, the next step is to set growth goals for each individual. Leaders could either work with individuals or categories of youth. While setting growth goals for individuals could be difficult for large groups the value of this option must be stressed as spiritual growth is closely related to the individual. Also, this option will lead to more specific and focussed ministry aimed at individuals within the youth group.
C. Determine Goals for Each Level
Setting growth goals for individuals should cause leaders to consider the various steps that need to be taken to help youth grow in their faith. It would be helpful for leaders to list the various steps that youth should pass through as they grow spiritually and identify goals that should be reached for each level. This will help leaders to clearly understand what is involved at each level and to know when youth have arrived at each level.
D. Develop Ministries for Each Level
The final stage is to develop discipleship ministry aimed at each of the levels. Leaders need to realise that one event will not effectively handle discipleship within a youth group. There are a number of different stages that should be focussed on, and again, in terms of commitment level programming, the best approach to follow is to develop separate events aimed at each level. A one-event-covers-all-levels approach is as ineffective here as it is with programming to lead youth to Christ.
The following examples of this approach are presented for consideration:
(1) Saddleback Community Church
Saddleback use what they call The Life Development Process to disciple people. It is an educational process that encourages people to act on what they learn and which rewards them when they do so. A baseball diamond is used to visually explain the education and assimilation process to their members. Each base represents a completed class and a deeper level of commitment. Each level has a clearly defined goal: (a) to lead people to Christ and church membership; (b) to grow people to spiritual maturity; (c) to equip people with the skills they need for ministry; and (d) to enlist people in the worldwide mission of sharing Christ.
Rick Warren explains: "You get to first base by completing Class 101 and committing to Saddleback's membership covenant. You arrive at second base after completing Class 201 and committing to a spiritual growth covenant. You make it to third base by completing Class 301 and committing to serve in a ministry of the church. And you finally get back to home by completing Class 401 and committing to sharing your faith both at home and on mission trips...There is a written covenant at each base that we expect people to sign and commit to before moving ahead. No member may proceed to the next base until he has committed to the requirements of each covenant. Most churches do a fairly good job of getting people to first base or even second base. People will receive Christ, be baptised, and join the church (that's getting to first base). Some churches also do an excellent job of helping believers develop the habits that lead to spiritual maturity (that's getting to second base). But few churches have a plan to ensure that every believer finds an appropriate ministry (third base), and even fewer equip members to win others to Christ and fulfil their life mission (home plate)" (The Purpose Driven Church, Page 145).
(2) Willow Creek Community Church
The discipleship strategy of Willow Creek involves the following steps: attend a believer-orientated service; join a small group; discover and use spiritual gifts; and steward resources in a God-glorifying way. The youth ministry at Willow Creek has a seven-step process that moves a young person from being a casual seeker to an established believer. For discipleship, steps 5 to 7 are of particular interest. The steps are: (a) Integrity Friendship - believing students are challenged to build relational bridges with their seeking friends. (b) Verbal Witness - core students are taught to look for opportunities to share and discuss their relationship with Christ. (c) Student Impact - a weekly seeker-sensitive program used as a tool by the core students in reaching their seeking friends. It includes team time for building relationships; team competition time and the impact program of music, media, drama, and a message. (d) Spiritual Challenge - core students are taught to ask pointed questions that intentionally challenge their seeking friends to consider the claims of Jesus Christ. (e) Student Insight - a Sunday night student worship and teaching service designed to integrate the believer into the body of Christ, and to assist the believer in the process towards full devotion to Christ. (f) D-Teams - small discussion groups for students interested in furthering their relationship with Christ D-Team. (g) Ownership - here students take an active role of service within the church, through tithing, using their spiritual gifts, and through missions opportunities. Students who accept Christ and begin growing in Him through this seven-step strategy now step forward and begin guiding their seeking friends through the seven-step strategy.
(3) Windsor Fellowship
The discipling ministry at Windsor includes the following events or ministries: (a) Follow-up - this is designed to ground new converts in their faith. A curriculum-based approach is followed with a leader guiding a young person, or a small group of youth, through a ten-week programme based on the Moving Towards Maturity series by Barry St. Clair. The Following Jesus unit in the series is being used at present. It covers the following aspects: assurance of salvation; God's purpose for life; God's love; loving self and others; Christ's indwelling; God's Word; prayer; the meaning of discipleship; knowing God's will; and setting priorities. (b) Growth - this is a weekly event that is designed to grow youth in their faith. A large group approach has been used in the past where the group explored how to study the Bible and how to prayer over a number of weeks. At present cell groups are being run to teach youth the basic doctrines using a Group curriculum: Get Real: Making Core Christian Beliefs Relevant to Teenagers by Mike and Amy Nappa and Michael Warden. (c) Impact - this is a service-orientated level of ministry where Christian youth are encouraged to reach out and minister to others. The youth group has a regular involvement in a Children's home where group members build relationships with children from the home in the context of an event consisting of sport and a message. (d) Leader - this ministry involved developing leadership skills in youth and using them in various leadership positions within the youth group. Curriculum-based input, such at the Jim Burn's YouthBuilders, The Word on Being a Leader, and specialised training, designed to equip leaders for their role within the group, are used.
2. TRAINING LEADERS FOR MINISTRY
In order for discipleship within the commitment level model of ministry to be effective, leaders need to be trained. This serves a dual function: leadership development is a part of discipleship, and training leaders will help to ensure ministry is shared within the leadership team.
Read about General and Specific Leadership Roles.
3. DEVELOPING YOUTH FOR LEADERSHIP
Youth groups that are implementing a commitment level model of youth ministry will find that they are inevitably moving youth towards greater involvement in the youth group and into leadership positions. Often leaders are reluctant to give young people leadership responsibilities because they fear their work won't meet their standards. But youth group members will not learn and grow unless leaders allow them to learn by experience. The more chances youth have to lead, the more they will develop the skills needed to become effective leaders.
The following emphases on training youth to take responsibility were suggested by Darlene Hall in the January 1993 issue of Group Magazine: (1) Look for Commitment - youth must show some degree of commitment before they are given ministry responsibility. (2) Don't Accept Excuses - youth need to learn that they must take responsibility for their own lives and cannot blame other, like parents, for their behaviour. Youth who do show responsibility must be encouraged. (3) Set an Example - the best training is rooted in example. If leaders are organized, punctual, and show compassion when working with youth, then young leaders will show the same qualities. (4) Ask for Volunteers - youth who offer to work will often do a better job. (5) Communicate Expectations - let young people know ahead of time what the task will involve and what is expected of them. (6) Check in Periodically - since young leaders may not know what questions to ask, it is up to the leader to volunteer information and review their progress during the planning stages. (7) Allow Failures - treat each experience as a chance to learn how the next project can be better. Let youth know that you expect their best, not perfection.
Young people must be developed for leadership both within the youth group and in the community.
A. Youth Leadership in the Community
Pete Ward has criticised youth groups for their exclusive emphasis on leadership within the youth group. He says that most youth groups are about safety and security for young people. He bases this conclusion on the following: (1) The Goals of Youth Work - groups have mission statements such as: to provide a safe environment in which youth can grow in Christ. (2) The Concerns of Parents - where parents are concerned about the dangers of youth culture, the evils and influences in the media, they encourage and sponsor youth workers to run ministries that protect their children. (3) The Strategy of Leaders - youth workers tend to involve youth exclusively in Christian activities: they keep them in groups, they involve them in leadership within these groups, they encourage youth to avoid non-Christian friendships and they seek to integrate them into the church where further protection can be offered. (4) The Content of Books - many books reveal the emphasis on protecting youth, ie. Winkey Pratney's Devil Take the Youngest; James Dobson's Preparing for Adolescence; Pete Gilbert's Teenage Survival Kit. (5) The Emphasis of Teaching - leaders spend a lot of time focussing on teaching youth about clothes they should or should not wear; about music they should or should not listen to; about behaviours they should or should not engage in; about media they should or should not consume; and about technology they should or should not use.
He says that while these things may be noble pursuits for youth leaders, there are problems with safe youth ministry: (1) The Impact on Youth Development - while leaders desire to see youth grow in faith and maturity, their youth ministry tends to be a series of groups that are designed to keep people to the end of their days. Much of the safety and protection works against youth's need to develop and grow. Safe youth ministry fosters dependency which militates against growth towards maturity. (2) Impact on Evangelism - often the world is viewed as the enemy and youth are encouraged to find safety and security in the youth group, which becomes a place of refuge. Youth become distanced from their peers as they enter into a Christian subculture with its own music, magazines, television, heroes, etc. They stop engaging with the 'real world'. Evangelism becomes limited to brief forays into the outside world to encourage non-Christians to join the youth group. Christian youth remain safe in their world, from where they invite non-Christians 'in' to appreciate their Christian subculture. Friendship evangelism, where youth are encouraged to reach out to non-Christian friends, becomes virtually impossible as friendships grow out of shared activity and intimacy. (3) Integration of Unchurched Youth - new converts do not change overnight, so unchurched youth may bring behaviours into the group such as swearing, drugs, crime, sex, etc. These youth are seen as a threat to the Christian group, and often fall away because they cannot buy into the rules of the new subculture. (4) Youth Workers as Provider and Youth as Client - in safe youth ministry, the youth leader or the group is provider of events and activities that youth consume as clients. A passive ministry approach is unhelpful in developing youth to independence. (5) Church-Based Leadership - the safe youth group seeks to involve youth in various forms of leadership, but only within the youth group and the church. Activities outside the group are seen as less important or unimportant.
These comments by Pete Ward, from Growing Up Evangelical: Youthwork and the Making of a Subculture, Chapter 7, SPCK, 1996, stress the need for leaders to avoid the temptation to limit ministry to the youth group context. Leadership development of young people should prepare them for leadership roles within the community as well as in the church. This will require the development and implementation of a leadership development programme within the youth group (probably not just aimed at the leadership level of the model - which primarily concerns leadership within the youth group). Leaders should publically recognise and promote youth who have leadership roles in the community as well as in the church.
In order to equip youth for ministry in their community, youth workers could consider the development and implementation of a Life Skills programme within the youth ministry structure. Such a programme would focus on teaching youth about accountability, commitment, responsibility and discipline. It would include training in practical skills such as time management, vision and communication. They should help youth to identify their spiritual gifts and natural abilities and help them understand that the distinction between these two does not have to be absolute: ie. that they can only use their spiritual gifts in the church and natural abilities in the community, or vice-versa. They should also teach youth about ethics. The purpose of the programme should be to help young people to integrate the whole of their lives - to avoid the compartmentalisation that so often is seen. They should help youth to understand that their involvement and training in leadership for ministry within the church is equipping them for ministry within the community as well. The Life Skills programme should be Bible-based to ensure a good foundation is at the heart of the teaching and training. Leaders could also consider running the programme within the local school or in a community center - to widen the base of young people who will benefit from the programme.
B. Youth Leadership in the Group
While ministry at the leadership level in the commitment level model of youth ministry has been touched on already, this section will focus on training programmes at this level.
(1) Leadership Training Retreat
In order for commitment level youth ministry to run effectively in the life of the local church, the youth group's leaders must be trained. The material is presented in the format of a weekend leadership training retreat. The material should be adapted to suit your context. This leadership retreat should take place after the group has decided to adopt a commitment level model of youth ministry, have met for a strategical planning exercise, and have implemented the model. A programme is suggested for the weekend that includes general leadership training, team building exercises, spiritual input, and specific training in running a commitment level model of youth ministry.
Read the example weekend Leadership Retreat.
(2) Leadership Training Curriculum
The youth leader should develop a basic curriculum for training leaders that includes various categories of skills for ministry among youth. The Youth 2 course curriculum could form the foundation of the training curriculum. It includes personal skills (vision, excellence, time and stress management); management skills (planning, organising, directing and supervising); relational skills (change, conflict and marketing management). To this basic framework other personal, interpersonal, and devotional skills could be added. The YouthBuilder series by Jim Burns has a number of units that are helpful for training: The Word on Being a Leader; The Word on Helping Friends in Crisis; The Word on Finding and Using Your Spiritual Gifts; The Word on Prayer and the Devotional Life; The Word on the Life of Jesus; and The Word on The Sermon on the Mount. This series is published by Gospel Light.
(3) Leadership Training Programme
Graeme Codrington has developed the following discipleship training programme:
Committee Members
(a) Commitment (minimum): six months (January to June, or July to December), preferably a full calendar year at a time. The maximum continuous period of involvement is two and a half years, then the person is required to take a six month break. (b) Involvement: (i) every Friday night during school terms, including a half hour before and after the meeting - on rare occasions more time may be required before a programme; (ii) every second Sunday night after evening service - a one hour leadership discipleship time; (iii) one hour per week - a meeting with a student from the group to go through a discipleship course (three courses must be completed with three different students each year); (iv) half an hour per week - fifteen minutes to write three short notes to different students and fifteen minutes to phone three different students and chat; (v) four Saturdays per year - two days of training, one day of advance planning for the whole of the next year's themes and one day social (water skiing, picnic, mountain climbing, hike, etc); (vi) work towards a daily quiet time, (vii) list prayer requests for the rest of the committee; and (viii) it is highly recommended that each leader attends a weekly Bible Study and/or prayer meeting and/or teaches Sunday School.
Student Leaders
(a) Commitment: six months only (January to June or July to September). (b) Application: they must read and understand the involvement required below and apply in writing to the leader of the group and include the following: personal details (e.g. name, address, telephone, school, age, etc); reasons why they wish to join the leadership team; current involvement in church and other Christian organisations; current involvement in school or club activities; and a letter from their parent, teacher or other adult, recommending them. The successful applicants will join the leadership team for six months. They may reapply at the end of the time for a further six months. During the six months, an adult supervisor will work with the student leader. (c) Involvement: (i) every Friday night during school terms, including a half hour before and after the meeting - on rare occasions more time may be required before a programme; (ii) every second Sunday night after evening service, one hour to help plan, lead and evaluate youth programmes during the six months; (iii) once every second week they must meet with their supervisor for thirty to sixty minutes and go through the discipleship book; (iv) during the second three month period, they spend time going through the discipleship book with another person in the youth group; (v) during each two week period, they make five phone calls to other people in the youth group, especially to new people at the youth group; (vi) attend church and Sunday School, (vii) work towards a daily quiet time and (viii) list prayer requests for the rest of the committee.
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