Below is a letter I once wrote to share my vision for youth ministry. This letter really reflects my heart and how I perceive youth ministry. I have made once specific locations and names generic for the purpose of this post.
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Dear Church,
I have heard from your Senior Pastor of the great faith and
hope that you have in Jesus. I am
greatly encouraged to also hear of the investment you have made and the desire
you have for a strong youth ministry.
The developing Young Adult ministry is also a great encouragement. Your desire to impact younger
generations are one that I hope to be a part of. Through this letter it is my hope that you see what my heart
longs for in ministry and the vision I hold for these ministries.
Today I watched a student play the greatest game of baseball
in his life. In fact he may
receive a scholarship after a game like today. You should have seen the excitement on his face and the
proud look his parents had.
Last week, sitting in Wendy’s across the table from a
student who was struggling with the separation of her parents, I was at a loss
for words. If only you could have
seen the tears, and all I wanted to do was tell her that everything was going
to be ok and that her parents were going to be together again but I couldn’t.
Not knowing if her family would ever be the same again all I could do was be
there for her and pray with her.
The above stories, while mostly fiction, are examples of the
powerful impact living life together can have. Being there has an amazing way of showing the incredible
love that we have for students and subsequently shows the great love God has
for them. A willingness to be
involved in a student’s life is, I believe, essential to the development of a
growing relationship with God.
Everyone wants to feel like they belong, like people want them to be
around and everyone wants to feel like someone cares about them. These types of relationships are what I
see this ministry revolving around.
Developing strong relationships with the volunteers, parents
and students would be my first priority in my vision. I would hope to get together, away from distractions, with
the volunteer team to create a vision for the next three years with checkpoints
at every year. Moving beyond the
vision are the events and methods of creating this ministry with these types of
relationships. Some of our
possible events to be attractive are those of paintball, camps, retreats, house
parties, mission trips, girl’s night out, guy’s night out, around town
scavenger hunts, lock-ins and concerts.
For relationship development and discipleship we may have: small groups,
worship experiences, breakfast or lunch with students, occasionally attending
student’s activities, one on one mentoring, service projects, mission trips,
camps and retreats. The previous
lists are not all the activities but are a small sampling of some of the
possibilities.
My hopes are that this group would become a group that when
students walk in they walk in as friends, but when they leave they leave as
part of the family. I envision a
group that has a great time together while creating strong disciples of
Jesus. I also see a group that
grows not only by attractive events, but more importantly, by the love that
they see our students having for each other and Jesus.
As I begin to close this small abstract of what I hope to
see in the youth ministry at your Church, I would like to say a few more
specific words to a few people:
First to the parent, in a world of constantly changing
culture, technology and media it can be a challenge just to keep up. I hope through time you will allow me
to be on your side, partnering with you to keep you up to date on the latest
trends and hopefully answer the all important question of ‘what is a tweet?’.
To the volunteer, I am anxiously awaiting the day that we
can join together as a team and dream where God would have the youth ministry
go. May your love for students shine through the bonds and friendships you
create with them. My hope and
prayer is that you would find five students who you can deeply connect with and
pour your life into, that you can bring the best out of them. I pray that by your life, they would
come to know and grow in faith through Jesus.
Last and most definitely not least, to the students, I am
extremely excited about the fun times we are going to have together from
shooting paintball at one another to praying with each other, from screaming
together on the newest rollercoaster or yelling and raising our hands at a
concert, from running around town for clues to standing in anticipation as you
prepare to throw a pie at me. In
all of this I am most excited about getting to know you where you are and exactly
for who you are, the way God has designed you to be. My hope is that you would see the greatness of God and His
strong desire to be a part of your life.
I close with this; Jesus had twelve disciples, whom he spent
at least three years of his life with.
Jesus ate with them, taught them, slept in a boat beside them, fed them
and was even betrayed by one of them.
Yet in all of this, He still loved them and us. I only hope that we can in a small way
show the students in your area this kind of love, a love that Jesus was willing
to die for.
My wife, Ashley, and I are greatly looking forward to
getting the opportunity to meet everyone!
May the grace and peace of Jesus be upon you,
Brian Lawson
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