YMJen

We’re living in the era of the black box church. These churches are typically found in vacant storefronts or empty warehouses. The idea behind them is that it’s wiser for today’s churches to invest money into a versatile space than it is for them to build traditional church sanctuaries. To attract non-Christians, “black boxes” typically remain free of traditional church symbols and artwork like crosses and stain glass windows. Instead, money is spent on screens, projectors, and sound equipment that can be used for worship, youth group, children’s carnivals, meetings, and any other activity that might utilize that space.

While my church is much more traditional and therefore includes a sanctuary, the era of the black box church has still influenced my thinking regarding the youth room in which my ministry meets. Because of this influence, throughout my career, I’ve paid little attention to my youth room and have put very little money into altering it, believing that a simple, versatile space will best resonate with my students and meet the needs of our ministry.

Yet, what’s happened instead is that my youth room has become the dumping ground for old couches, chairs, bookshelves, pictures, cleaning supplies, paint, Foosball tables, and the like, resulting in an inhospitable and unwelcoming environment for my students.

Because of this, it’s been my goal for the last year to begin making over the Youth Room, something that we actually began doing last week. I held two “Youth Room Makeover” days for my students – work days when my students could stop by anytime during an 8 hour window and stay for as long as they were able. Much to my surprise – my students came!

We began our makeover simply by cleaning. We sorted, sifted, and unearthed things that I swear had not seen the light of day for at least twenty years. We filled our church’s large dumpster and straightened the room, making it feel less cluttered and much more welcoming. We then rearranged the room to create four distinct areas that we can now utilize in a variety of ways.

Given that it was 90 plus degrees on the days we were working, the result was a lot of sweat but, more importantly, a lot of excitement and energy over our space. Surprisingly, those two minor things – Cleaning and rearranging the furniture – also resulted in a heightened sense of ownership from my students, who have already begun dreaming ways we can utilize the various areas of our room. Such excitement and ownership has really convinced me something that organizations like Habitat for Humanity have known for years: Sweat equity works.

Aside from cleaning and rearranging our youth room, we were limited by our budget in terms of what else we could do to transform our space. For this reason, at the end of our two work days, we were left with the hodgepodge of mismatched couches that I’m convinced are the cornerstone of most youth rooms around the country. But we had made three easy, low-cost, yet significant changes to the room:

1. We repainted one small wall using black chalkboard paint to give students a place to doodle and share prayer requests and me a tool to use while teaching.

2. We took our oldest, dumpiest table and transformed it into a photo table. This utilized some of the hundreds of old pictures that were strewn about the room. Moreover, it was such fun to watch our students work together on this project. As they cut and mod-podged the photos to the table, they shared memories and stories from the events at which they were taken. This table has now become the centerpiece of our new “discussion area” because students are convinced that it will be a great way to spark conversations with new people.

3. Lastly, contrary to everything I thought I knew from the era of the black box church, I chose to embrace art in my youth room. I went to Michael’s and bought an assortment of stretched canvases and acryllic paints and then invited youth to express themselves. I watched, slightly bewildered, as student after student picked up a canvas and painted. Some painted abstracts. Some painted quotes that were particularly meaningful to them. Others just painted random objects (For example: The centerpiece of one canvas is a carrot.) But all painted. Through this process, my students taught me that even though we live in a digital world, art does not have to be digital to attract students or to be meaningful to them. In fact, for them, it just may be that more traditional forms of art – like painting a stretched canvas – are even more meaningful precisely because they’re becoming something of a lost art.

By the time our two work days were complete, we had 8 completed canvases to decorate our youth room with an added bonus being that because they’re canvases, they can be taken down and replaced with a minimal expenditure as students graduate or as the needs of our room change.

Because of our experiment with these canvases, I’m pretty sure that this year, in response to student’s requests, we’ll also be incorporating art nights into our youth ministry’s schedule, something that reflects what both I and my students learned by doing this youth room makeover: Art has the potential to express ourselves and our faith in a way that few other things can. It can be used to transform any space – even a black box – into a worshipful area that points to a Creator God who called us to follow suit and create.

My husband, Doug, and I took advantage of the long Memorial Day Weekend to go hiking in Yosemite National Park in California. Of the four trails we hiked, our favorite was Sentinel Dome.

To get to Sentinel Dome, you have to travel along Glacier Point Road, a road which opened for the first time of the season the Saturday we were there. As soon as we turned onto Glacier Point Road, we saw why the road had been so slow in opening: Snow that even at the end of May could still be measured in feet.

Our guidebook described Sentinel Dome as “your chance to climb one of Yosemite’s famous domes with minimal expenditure of time and effort” to see a view that is’ “everything you’d expect, a 360 degree sweep of the entire park.” After two longer, steep hikes the previous days, this sounded appealing to us.

Unfortunately, as we drove out to Glacier Point, we noticed that like the rest of the surrounding area, the trailhead to Sentinel Dome was covered in snow, leaving us unsure whether or not to pursue the hike.

At Glacier Point, we approached a Park Ranger who told us not to attempt the hike due to the deep, unstable snow. He stood there with his radio, ready to rescue the “first fool” who injured themselves on the hike to Sentinel Dome.

Hearing that was enough to convince me not to do the hike.

Hearing that only made Doug want to do it more.

So we went to the Sentinel Dome trailhead and scoped it out, observing a steady stream of “fools” returning from the hike. After talking to a few such fools who assured us the trail was in good condition, we grabbed our boots, hats, jackets, gloves, trekking poles and, at the last minute, rain gear and set out on the 1.1 mile, 650 foot gain hike to Sentinel Dome.

Normally, such a hike would take about a half hour. But on this day, the hike was a bit more grueling.

Because the trail was completely snow-covered, we were dependent on those who had gone before us, hoping their tracks would lead us the right direction. Deep, but melting snow, resulted in slippery conditions and slow, cautious travel.

On this day, the hike that required “minimal expenditure of time and effort” actually required a great deal of both, taking us nearly two hours to reach the base of the dome, where even our guidebook warned “The only way to go is up the steep, open slope,” which was supposedly slippery even when dry.

Knowing what the guidebook said about the final ascent on a good day, I was concerned about what climbing this steep, open slope would be like if it was snow-covered. Shortly after beginning the climb, I found out. Immediately, I wanted to stop and return to the safety of the base. But we continued along, slowly picking our way to the top. Doug went first, using his toes to “carve” steps into the snow, with me following in his footsteps, unable to look anywhere but straight ahead for fear of falling off the side of the dome to no where. As we continued our ascent, I kept thinking, “How on earth am I going to get down?”

But oh my word. Once at the top, the view was every bit as good as we had anticipated. Looking one direction, we saw the iconic Half Dome next to Vernal and Nevada Falls. In another direction was the legendary climber’s peak, El Capitain. And in another direction was beautiful Yosemite Falls.

The view was breathtaking – in every direction.

We stood there for what felt like hours but was really only about 45 minutes, savoring the beauty.

All too quickly, we realized that we’d better begin making our descent which, given my natural klutziness, I wanted NO part of.

So instead, we got creative and donned our rain gear, carefully inching our way down the steepest part of the dome before sitting down in the snow, backpacks and all, and giving ourselves a push, sledding down the remainder of the dome to its base.

It was an exhilarating 15 seconds; A moment of pure fun and bliss filled with laughter, squeals, and joy.

It was a moment that gave us enough energy, excitement, and adrenaline to carefully plod back to our car. It was the moment that made the rest of the hike worthwhile.

Unquestionably, it was the highlight of the day and perhaps even the highlight of our trip.

And in the week and a half since the trip, it’s also the moment that I most think about.

Strangely, the more I’ve thought about this hike, the more parallels I’ve seen between it and youth ministry.

Too often, people go into youth ministry because of the experiences they had in their own youth ministry. While it’s encouraging that people are so moved by their youth ministries that they desire to give others a similar experience, this can sometimes be misguiding. Those who enter youth ministry for this reason often do so thinking it’s a career that will constantly be “everything they’d expect, with minimal expenditure of time and effort.” For these individuals, the time spent traversing the snow to get to the base of the summit is grueling, disheartening, and overwhelming, resulting in frequent falls and in some cases, the desire to give up the journey all together.

Others of us spend our time chasing moments. While short, these are the moments that are fun and exhilarating; The ones that form lasting memories for us and our students. These moments give us the energy and endurance to continue plodding along in a sometimes thankless profession. In many ways, they make the youth ministry hike worthwhile.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with these moments, there is something dangerous about constantly chasing them. When we, as youth workers, chase moments, we teach our students to do the same, creating a faith that’s dependent on “moments” but void of any connection to real life. While that faith may be strong for a season, for most, it will be difficult to maintain; Making it difficult to discover and pursue God in the ordinary, which is, in reality, the place where we most often dwell.

That’s why I’d argue that we, as youth workers, actually need to spend more time gazing from the summit.

Make no mistake, the summit is NOT just another mountaintop experience.

Instead, the summit is the place we go for clarity. Like Sentinel Dome, it’s the place that offers the 360 degree view that enables us to see all else. It’s the place where vision comes into focus; Where we can see where we’ve been and where we’re going. It’s the place where we gain perspective – about our lives, our ministries, and our students. It’s the place where we reconnect with ourselves, our calling, and God. Once we’ve done that, it’s also the place from which we can see God moving – not just in the “moments” but also in the ordinary.

To get to the summit we need:

Patience: The journey will be long and sometimes hard. Companionship: Reaching the summit alone can be costly and dangerous. It’s much easier to reach the summit when you can follow in someone else’s footsteps, or at least alongside them. Courage: People will ALWAYS expect you to do “more” ministry – more programming, more time training leaders, more time meeting with parents, more time hanging with students. Seldom with they tell you to just spend time gazing from the summit. Courageous youth workers are not necessarily the ones doing more; They’re the ones traveling over the snow, slowly but surely making their way to the summit so that they can dream. Time: Copying other’s youth ministries philosophies and strategies is quick and easy. Daring to dream about your own is slow and hard. It takes time to get somewhere worth going and it takes time to dream about a path worth traveling in the future.

But oh my word.

When you reach the summit, it’s so worthwhile. It’s there that the view will be “everything you’d expect” and more!