I’ve been doing a lot of thinking (and writing, and a bit of speaking) in the last few years about needed change in youth ministry. For the first two of those years, I felt I was able to articulate the need much more than what our response should be. Only in the last nine months have I started to identify—rightly or wrongly—what some of these changes should look like.

In a manuscript I worked on during the last month, I wrote a bit about how messy and intrusive substantive change usually is. This really hit home with me a couple weeks ago when the new middle school pastor at my church and I had lunch. She’s an amazingly gifted youth leader, and I’m extremely pumped about the kind of ministry she will bring to our church. When she graciously and openly asked for input about any blind spots she might have and what our ministry might be lacking, I found words coming out of my mouth that completely betrayed everything I’ve been writing and ranting about for the past year.

I suggested she add more programs.

Even as my words were being uttered, I wondered what in the world I was doing! I saw the inconsistency between what I was coming to believe about youth ministry and the practical advice I was giving. I was reminded, again, how different talking about change is from actually bringing change into real-life middle school ministry. I tried to back peddle a bit, but think I only sounded like an idiot who had old-school opinions from a by-gone era.

More Programs Are Not the Answer
I find myself, as might the majority of those reading this, completely steeped in a “programs are the answer” mindset. Sure, we can talk at length about the value of relational ministry, about the importance of adult-student mentoring, and the priority of a ministry not obsessed with numbers and programs. However, when the rubber hits the road, what are we actually willing to change, and how do we go about doing this?

Bottom line: I can hardly think of a situation where adding more programs is the path toward more effective ministry to today’s middle school students. They don’t need more activity, busyness, and entertainment. The problem is, that’s what most of us are programmed (pun intended) to provide.

I wish my response to our new middle school pastor had been: “We need to do less. Or, maybe more accurately, we need to think less about programs and more about how the spiritual formation of young teens actually occurs, then courageously overhaul our assumptions, structures, scaffolding, and resources (time and money) to those ends. We need to be more proactive about training and tool-provision for volunteers. We need to be more proactive about connecting with students through their own social networks (in the spaces where those social networks and connections already are taking place, which is not normally in the youth group room). We need to be more proactive about providing opportunities for disequilibration and joining with the active work of God in the world. We need to be more proactive about whole-life worship, justice, sustainable formation, communion (real community with Christ in the mix), organic mentoring, and surrounding middle school students with a multitude of caring adults who are connecting with them and praying for them.”

That’s what I wish I had said. I think I’ll e-mail her this column right now.