God is the Ultimate Worker — but if we human workers sense our youth ministry is shallow, we need to admit that and make some changes.

Was our teaching helping kids see the relevance of Scripture, or were we getting lost in the details of finding the right video clips and telling the right funny stories? Were our worship times enveloping kids in God’s love and power, or had they become performances by our most talented musicians? Were our small groups encouraging life transformation, or had they degenerated into weekly times for sharing about science projects and sick pets?

More conversations followed with young people; and as we talked further, we started to question the depth of more than just our evangelism strategy.

There are several reasons we can’t just keep mindlessly repeating more of the same year after year and expect our ministries to grow deeper:
• Our culture changes.
• Our theology (our thinking about God) changes.
• Our churches change (admittedly, some change way more slowly than others).
• You change.
We want to help youth workers come up with a deeper design for ministry. And one important facet of deep ministry is deep communication.

Teaching to Change Kids’ Lives
We know that teaching matters. Jesus Himself said so (“…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” — Matthew 28:20, TNIV). But often when we spend our precious few minutes of teaching trying to be relevant and funny, showing cool movie clips, we end up with so little time to delve into the Bible with any depth that we, at some level, fail our students.

Some youth workers have addressed this by relegating Bible study to small groups. But in many of those situations, the environment seems to encourage “sharing” around the Word rather than seriously diving into the Scriptures.

Somehow we need to recapture a deep approach to speaking and teaching that involves a thorough study of the text as well as a hunger for the things of God as revealed in his Word.

Many researchers (including Jeffrey J. Arnett, Lene A. Jensen, and Christian Smith) have described the strong spiritual individualism of today’s adolescents. But many youth ministry leaders believe and have hope — and lots of it. That’s because today’s kids are eager to learn and be stretched in their understanding of God.

Our problem is figuring out the best way to turn that key and get them motivated to go deeper in their faith. The following three vital principles can help you become more effective as you seek to engage the minds of students.

Principle 1: Recognize that communication is the art of being understood.
 
Most of us have grown up believing communication is only about delivery. As long as I’ve said or taught or written something, I have communicated. But scholars recognized long ago that communication is not complete until someone has received the message being sent.

If we keep the following three facts about adolescents in mind when we teach, we will communicate and connect with them more clearly.

Fact 1: We need to remember that as their identities are being formed during adolescence, most young people live out of “multiple selves.” Kids will have one or more “selves” they live out of at school, other “selves” at home, and still other “selves” at your ministry. Knowing that all students are obsessed with their social environments and the roles they play within them can help us realize that much of what we receive in feedback (or lack of feedback) may not be about our message (or us) at all.

Fact 2: Adolescents are intensely aware of the possibility of having their feelings hurt and guard against this constantly. A stray word, a sideways glance, or an inappropriate illustration or phrase can send one or more youth group members over the emotional edge. Whenever we take the floor to deliver a message — and it can be anything from an announcement to a prayer — we hold great power. To connect with them in meaningful ways, we have to overcome their
instinctual fear of potential harm (and be really, really careful).

Fact 3: Any time adolescents believe they are in a potentially hostile environment (which is almost everywhere they go, including youth ministry settings), they are expecting at some level to be evaluated and criticized. If we start with them thinking we are out to get them, or that the message we offer will give them no sense of hope, they’ll do all they can to avoid listening to us. When we offer words of encouragement and hope, our message has a better chance of taking root.

There’s no doubt that adolescents are desperate for safe environments. They want places where they can let down their guards. They want to be able to trust that those in charge are going to make sure that the church (or any Christian setting) is one place where they don’t have to work so hard at the role(s) they play. They also need to know that the message we offer them is the most encouraging, hopefilled, and refreshingly uplifting message they could ever hope to receive.

This is the beginning of communication — making sure our students expect and look forward to the beauty and healing majesty of the gospel message.

Principle 2: Persuasion is more complicated than it seems.

The apostle Paul said, “We try to persuade people” (2 Corinthians 5:11, TNIV); and so do we in youth ministry. We partner with the Holy Spirit’s work in kids’ lives by loving them as God loves them. We seek to persuade students, without an agenda demanding a response, to consider who God is and what His call is for their lives.

Every time we are confronted with messages seeking to persuade us, we have to make a series of choices. Will we allow this person or message to get through to us? How much will we let our own opinions and feelings influence what’s being asked of us? And to what degree will we allow the message to confront our carefully crafted perspectives and whether we’re willing to change our minds about whatever the message is saying?

Our task is to help our students say, “Yes,” at all three points in this decision process. To do this, we must work to get beyond the walls and defense mechanisms teenagers are so good at using.

It’s much harder to “win the right to be heard” with kids today than it was in the 1970s. But at the same time, once youth do show interest, they’re often far more engaged than students 30 years ago. So grabbing their attention may be a bit tougher now; but once they are there, great things can happen.

Add to this the nature of the gospel’s call — to share “with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15, TNIV), as opposed to trying to manipulate or coerce students into the Kingdom of God. This is the main difference between self-centered manipulation and loving persuasion. We share the story that has changed us, what we’ve seen and heard. We are not out to trick anybody into faith; we are fellow travelers with an incredible adventure to hand off.

The majority of adolescents who’ve been forced to listen to adults “communicate”  with them throughout their lives will come into a meeting or program already convinced that the adult who holds the power is not all that concerned about who they are, what they think, or what matters to them. For that reason, many kids turn our messages off before we even begin. Sure, they’ll listen to our stories — but if we’re not careful to connect with who they are and what they care about, then when we get to our appeal, they’ll shut us out without giving us much of a chance.

Principle 3: God is the One who transforms; our job is to help Him plow the field.

In communicating the message of Christ, our efforts to persuade may stir others’ souls and even contribute to changing their minds about something. But don’t forget: We never actually change anyone. Any lasting transformation happens because God has done a work in the life of a believer who trusts Him. As the apostle Paul writes, “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope” (Galatians 5:5, TNIV, emphasis added).

Ultimately, the Holy Spirit is the One who creates lasting change in the direction of holiness within the believer. Our role is to work with the Spirit’s movement in someone’s soul in order to create a willingness to respond. With this in mind, there are three things we can do in our ministries to foster a willingness and openness to hear God’s voice.

1. We must get kids into the Bible themselves instead of spoon-feeding them or trying to “wow” them with clever delivery systems.

2. We must prepare well so we have something solid and compelling to bring to the table. Last-minute or shoddy preparation leading to pooled ignorance will kill any Bible study.

3. As valuable and useful as they are, alternative and “creative” teaching methods can distract youth from focusing on the issues at hand. It’s important to make
sure that anything we use — object lessons, role plays, video clips, even cool illustrations from when we were in high school — are supplementary to the content of the message. Our job is to create an atmosphere of dialogue and inquiry. Let ideas and truth provide the struggle and energy in our communication, whether it’s speaking or teaching or facilitating a group.

Remember that the most crucial element in communicating effectively with youth is believing so deeply in what you have to say and why it matters that it pours out of you naturally. You may never be a great speaker or have the funniest stories or hippest video presentations; but if you care — really care — about Jesus Christ and what He has to say to students, you will be a powerful communicator.

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This article was excerpted from Deep Ministry in a Shallow World (YS/Zondervan), which releases August 2006.

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Chap Clark is the senior editor of YouthWorker Journal; an associate professor in youth, family, and culture; and the director of Fuller Seminary’s doctorate of ministry program in youth and family ministry. Kara Powell is also on the faculty at Fuller, where she is the executive director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry.