story telling and music - no we're not talking children's chapel

 As an angsty young teenager I would lock myself in my room and listen to hours of bright eyes, dashboard confessional, something corporate, brand new, jimmy eat world, and every other emo band of the day. I would memorize the lyrics and recite them to myself. It would take me an hour to figure out what my AIM away message would be- usually a perfectly chosen set of song lyrics that would be just vague enough to explain away but would in fact be eerily accurate of my current feelings. It was incredibly important to me to articulate in the most poetic way my place in the world and how I felt about it.
I'm not unique though. Lots of people my age were doing the same thing and even more do it today in some form or another. In growing up I've come to terms with the fact that I am not unique. But don't worry! I'm not panicked. It actually makes me calmer to know that we're in this together. It's best articulated, I think, by Better than Ezra:

Cause when I'm in over my head
I hear the words you said
That someone out there's
Listening to the same song
Feeling the same way that I do
Make me a believer pick up the receiver
And tell me you feel just like I do, I do

I think that just dated me, but oh well!

When I was a teen going through these feelings I thought for sure that I would stop feeling this way at some point. Like, when I finally got a college degree and a real job and a boyfriend and a car and....... that somehow I'd stop having emotions and would just be good all the time.

I'm here to tell you this never goes away. At least, it hasn't for me yet. But you know what? Music still helps. I usually pair my angsty-music-listening moods with running these days because it's a tad bit more productive and the endorphins help too, but it's basically the same.

Now, how will the youth minister in me try to reconcile this with God and the Bible (since this is a ministry blog, afterall)?

I don't think I have to try very hard. Music rings true in our hearts in the same way the stories in the Bible do. The Bible is a rich and deep record of people's stories. Stories about their struggles and pains, joys and praise, and most importantly about their relationships. Relationships with each other and with God. Music is a story, too, I think. No doubt the writer of the song has a story to tell, but so do we, in our individual experience of it.

How many songs can you name that when you listen to them, no matter where you are or what you're doing, you are immediately taken back to that warm summer night in the car with your best friend, or to that chilly winter retreat with your youth group? Our hippocampus (it's a part of the brain, look it up!) stores these memories and these are strengthened when paired with a scent or a sound.

How many stories of your life do you have to share? I bet there's hundreds. It's my favorite thing to do, and with good reason! And this is what the heart of our youth ministry is. One the most important things we do as Christians- heck, as humans!- is to share our stories. It makes life more rich, deeper and wider, and infinitely better.

I think Jesus would agree with me, too, but you'd have to ask him. ;-)

Blessings to you, this day. May you share your stories and be blessed by someone else's.

xoxo
Tara

What's the purpose for doing youth ministry?

I had a head cold the last few days of my vacation which forced me to finally relax on my vacation -- novel concept, I know! But as I was looking through some of my old youth ministry textbooks and I started to contemplate the purpose of youth ministry all together. So, I'll ask -- what's the purpose for doing youth ministry?

Your answer will no doubt be a little different from mine. But my response can be summed up in one sentence: The purpose of youth ministry is to lead students to become disciples, or followers, of Christ.

Now, how this gets done looks a million different ways. And, we must acknowledge that we play different roles with different students, depending on the level of parental engagement in a student’s spiritual development.

But if you ask me, our call -- our task -- is to play our part in helping God to develop disciples of Christ.

I think about discipleship a lot. I think a great deal about how we as youth ministers and youth workers lead students to be followers of Christ and not merely nominal Christians. So, I began to ask myself this: if we aren't leading teens to become disciples, what are we leading them to become?

Are we leading teens to be legalists? Do our teens see their relationship with Christ as little more than a list of “do’s and don’ts” to check off? Is our ministry full of teenagers who aren’t motivated by imitating Christ’s holiness, but are instead driven by a Pharisaical sense of rule keeping?

Are we leading our teens to be lukewarm religionists? Do our teens go through the motions at Church, but lead unremarkable lives at school, barely discernable from those who don’t know Christ?

Are we creating spiritual consumers? Are we more concerned about the level of our teens’ entertainment than the depth of their devotion? Do we put more time, thought, and energy into our presentation than we do our content?

Or are we leading teens away from Christ? Do the things we say and do demonstrate to teens that following Christ is optional, a hard task reserved for the super-spiritual? Or does the content of our programs show them that Christ is containable, and predictable, and not very life-changing or transformative?

I know I certainly don't do any of these things knowingly or willingly. And I'm confident you don't, either.

But I think it's so important for us to continually come to this question and to evaluate our efforts. Over at youthministry360, they have offered this list I think might be a good starting point:

You are shaping students faith. What are you shaping it to be?
How can we know if we are helping students grow into disciples? In other words, what is the fruit of our ministry in the lives of our students? What does it look like when it works?

• If you see students who are growing in their knowledge and understanding of Scripture, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If you see visible fruit of spiritual growth in their lives (in other words, if you see them applying their growing knowledge of Scripture), you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If you are actively working alongside students’ parents as co-laborers in shaping their faith-lives, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If your students are engaging in your church outside of “youth specific” activities, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If your students are developing a heart for the poor, the sick, and the outcast, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If you see students willingly embrace leadership responsibilities, you are helping them grow into disciples.

What do you think? Do we measure up? How can we be better?