Great youth workers

I recently spoke about The Jesus Gap. Afterward, a youth worker approached me and said, “If you're as into discipleship as you think we ought to be, you're probably not a very good youth worker.”

“Why?” I asked him.

In response, he said, “Because you're probably not very fun. And if you're not very fun, your kids probably don't like you very much.”

According to this youth worker, fun attracts teenagers. So if you're not fun, they won't come.

Here's the problem, though, or perhaps more accurately, the first of many problems: This mindset assumes the attractional model for youth ministry still works. If you build it, they will come.

The problem is, attractional ministry no longer works.

There are plenty of places – schools, clubs, extracurriculars, the park district, the YMCA – that do “fun” and entertainment far better than churches do. If those places build it, people might still come.

Not so with the church, which is no longer the center of most people's social lives or the most important thing on their calendar.

In today's world, the church has exactly one thing that makes it distinct from every other community organization out there: Jesus. If Jesus isn't our focal point and reason for being, we're missing the boat.

The second problem with this mindset is that it creates a false dichotomy. In this false dichotomy, discipling teens, having serious conversations, or talking about Jesus cannot possibly be fun.

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