You're all individuals - just like everyone else

One of the big mistakes people make is to assume the youth sector is homogenous - that is that they are all the same. So many try to find one solution that fits all young people. From one perspective, TV, advertising, popular music and other forms of media gives the impression that this goal is achievable. And so much of work in youth tries to find that magic sweet spot - the thing that attracts and captures the majority mainstream - and assumes that if you do it really really well, everyone else will fall in line.

Traditional schooling tries to find this magic formula. And I definitely do this much more than I'd like to think about in how I run classes. It's not where I want my classes to be... because my students are not all sponges sucking up the same stuff. They don't all have the same goals for the learning they are after (and I don't mean just attaining symbolic stuff like the VCE etc). But it also requires a paradigm shift that is hard for them to make - especially when it is the dominant paradigm in every other aspects of their lives.

Maybe I'm too sucked into Western individualism... not to the extent of perpetuating the thought "that God has a perfect unique plan for your life that taps into all your individual gifts and abilities and personality and dreams"... but I do think we are individuals and therefore should be grown and supported as individuals as followers of Christ (just as we as learners should be greater recognised for that at schools also).

But like schools, churches (or should I just say adult youth workers in general) seem to forget how the medium is the message.

Did Jesus just teach his disciples as a homogenous group? I think we catch glimpses that he didn't - considering we don't actually get much direct records of his teaching them anyway - most of the stories of the Gospels of Jesus is focussed on what he did while they just happened to be around (like my initial post - I think them learning from his example was a big part of his teaching them).

Why are the people of God today so obsessed with mass delivery of learning? Where is it emphasised that we should learn and grow in God from that? Is it purely motivated by economics? I think we should be more like leaven - infiltrating all sectors of society - not just a small group of elite leaders responsible for most of the vigilante super-hero action - but the focus is on the masses (every minister of Christ - that is every person who claims to have a relationship with Jesus) being the leaven.

I'm not talking about just making contact for God, of course, but in terms of making disciples...

A video idea I had from 2003 but never filmed

Black screen. (1 second)
Audio of cough synchronised with a close-up shot of face listening intently. (1 second)
Camera draws back to reveal person sitting in the middle of a lecture hall surrounded by other university students. (3 seconds)
The camera pans around to the right slowly, rotating around the hall interior to reveal the side of the hall, continuing rotation to the front of the hall to show the lecturer speaking to the audience, continuing rotation to the other side of the hall, before resting back in the middle focussed on the initial character. (11 seconds)
Camera moves forward to a close-up shot of the initial person. (3 seconds)
Camera pauses on the close-up (2 seconds - subtle fade transition)
Camera draws back to reveal person sitting in the middle of a modern church auditorium surrounded by other church attenders. (3 seconds)
The camera pans around to the right slowly, rotating around the hall interior to reveal the side of the hall, continuing rotation to the front of the hall to show the preacher speaking to the audience, continuing rotation to the other side of the hall, before resting back in the middle focussed on the initial character. (11 seconds)
Camera moves forward to a close-up shot of the initial person. (3 seconds)
Camera pauses on the close-up (2 seconds - subtle fade transition)
Camera draws back to reveal person sitting in a much smaller room - an university tutorial. (3 seconds)
The camera pans around to the right slowly, rotating around revealing the faces of the fellow university tutorial attenders, the tutor explaining, continuing rotation before resting back in the middle focussed on the initial character. (11 seconds)
Camera moves forward to a close-up shot of the initial person. (3 seconds)
Camera pauses on the close-up (2 seconds - subtle fade transition)
Camera draws back to reveal person sitting in a living room. (3 seconds)
The camera pans around to the right slowly, rotating around revealing the faces of people in a church small group, the small group leader explaining, continuing rotation before resting back in the middle focussed on the initial character. (11 seconds)
Camera moves forward to a close-up shot of the initial person. (3 seconds)
Camera pauses on the close-up (2 seconds - fade to black)
White text title "How did you learn best from uni?"
Flashes of people saying "From the pracs." "Practical experiences" "Supervised placements"
Fade out.

Follow me... and we'll catch up weekly & do coffee

Summary: Emulating Jesus' discipleship methods these days with youth is practically unrealistic. One way of approximating it is ministry in their second space, that is being at school with them...
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There's nothing like a shower to feel refreshed... renewed... reborn... especially after spending four days in the bush without a shower and limited change of clothes (don't worry, I changed my underwear each day). As I wasn't known to most people at the Robinvale Easter Camp, I was called many things. Being the most noticed person in the outdoor marquee kitchen, I was called 'Cook' - after all, I was the only Asian among the Indigenous camp attendees, and the only male helping out in the kitchen. The younger people called me "Uncle" in line with tradition. But some found out my first name was Andrew. Many of the young people there were surprised when they discovered I was a secondary teacher - that is, working for a system they feel offers them little... a sentiment I share.

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I've only recently become a secondary teacher. Prior to that I was involved with Christian youth ministry at various levels, across denominations and in paid and unpaid capacities. Many years back, 'discipleship' became a trend word that everyone in youth ministry liked. Suddenly practically every church claimed to have a youth 'discipleship' program - which either was their old youth ministry programs re-branded, or ideas inspired by Tim Hawkins or the hills of music place in Sydney)... but none of them seemed to come close to what Jesus actually did with his disciples. For other dissatisfactions and views on contemporary youth ministry, see this link and this link.

So I toyed with the idea of a three-year road trip with 12 young people, where I would give most of them new names... but then thought I might run into some legal issues if I did.

After all, according to David Watson (from his book 'Discipleship') discipleship involved the disciple living with his master so closely that it was the disciple that handed the towel to his rabbi after his rabbi finished bathing - he saw practically (literally) every aspect of his master's life. It wasn't about just seeing him when he was teaching the disciple - but the disciple for years also eavesdropped and spied on practically every one of the rabbi's interactions and probably even on his private moments.

Now when I was in full-time professional ministry, I spent the majority of my week doing 'work-for or related-to-God', as opposed to 'normal' folk who had to spend the majority of their week on 'stuff related to the world'. Who comes across 'on the surface' as more of a 'hero for God'? And then it is also easy to appear 'full-on' for God, when you've psyched yourself up to be a 'great Christian example' for about the 2 hours a week contact time you have with young people. Naturally the young people assume you're like that for the rest of your week and life. They get inspired by your great example, and then get discouraged about their own lack of intensity, commitment, endurance and consistency in comparison to your seemingly hyper-normal life.

The Sony Playstation launched itself as the 'third space' - the most frequented recreational space, after home and work/study spaces. Practically all ministries are held in the 'third space' or later sequential numbered spaces.

Jesus did discipleship in the 'first space'. Camps, beach and other short-term missions is also discipleship in the 'first space'... but they are always short-lived affairs... with the outcomes of 'mountain-top' or 'drug-induced highs' that don't always translate well back to the mundanity of their 'normal' first and second spaces.

Most modern youth ministries aim to give youth an experience of how 'full-on', extreme, cool, and emotionally good or high it feels to be for Jesus. But the reality for young people is that most of their lives will be lived in times where they are just 'normal' - not high but the mundane. Sure, they can be cheery, and upbeat with a positive outlook, and a constant assurance 'that God has purpose-filled plans for their lives' - but their lives are largely filled with un-intense un-extreme aspects. Again we give them 'highs' that don't translate well to their normal first and second spaces... so many get conditioned to only be full-on for Jesus in Jesus-spaces.

So how can I do discipleship (or to use a more modern term - apprenticeship) well with young people?

I decided I needed to be part of their lives where they can observe, eavesdrop or spy on me for the long-term (and hopefully avoid legal issues related to adults hanging around young people a lot) and in a variety of situations. So although I have a lot of reservations related to the effectiveness of schools and education systems (as well as the perceptions young people have towards teachers) to empower youth, I chose intentionally to enter their 'second space.'

So I retrained to be a teacher (only 1 year), and when most people ask me what I do these days, I usually reply "I pretend." Because my main aim is not to help young people be the best academically they can be (at parent teacher interviews - I usually answer questions of how can my child do better in this subject with "get a better teacher"), but to help them experience more the Kingdom of God - through empowering them and broadening them with Kingdom views and values.

Of course to be effective in incarnational ministry, I needed to incarnate the message. So I left the urban upper middle class largely-White life of most Christians, and moved to a rural regional centre (I was too chicken to go remote rural) where I work in a state secondary school, and am primarily involved with an Indigenous Christian community.

I was very impressed with a young person who explained the difference between the his involvement with the large Hawkins-styled youth ministry and a smaller alternative youth ministry at his same church. With the former, he said "for any situation, I know what my youth group would tell me what I should do", with the latter, "for any situation, I know what my leader would have done and know how he would have done it". The latter was more effective discipleship... but even then, there are still short-comings to any church models...

I am sometimes tempted to go back to traditional church models for youth ministry (it's easier to get pats on the back from fellow Christians and feel effective)... and I occasionally dabble in there... but my primary focus is still youth ministry in the 'second space'. I'm still fairly fresh with this... so I welcome fellow companions...