I’m a new mom. Currently, my 9-month old daughter, Hope, is into everything. She’s a speedy crawler who’s started pulling herself up and cruising along furniture.
As Hope has become more mobile, I’ve become increasingly aware of the dangers lurking in my house. Hope’s doctor once told me that the best way to know what you need to childproof is to get down on your hands and knees and crawl around the floor. She assured me that doing so would enable me to see things from a new perspective and in the process, better protect my daughter.
One day, I heeded the doctor’s advice. I got down on my hands and knees and started crawling. Sure enough, I saw my house from an entirely different perspective. Curtain cords suddenly looked like nooses; paper clips accidentally left on the floor became choking hazards.
As I was crawling around in search of hazards, it occurred to me that parenting isn’t the only area in which I sometimes need a new perspective. So is ministry.
I mean, let’s be honest. Sometimes in youth ministry, we get stuck in a rut. We do things the way we’ve always done them because it’s easiest. We know how to do them that way. We know that by doing them that way, we’ll meet little, if any, resistance. If we continue to do something the same old way, we can coast for a while, almost on autopilot. The problem is that at some point, the old way of doing things stops working. When that happens, we need to find a way to see our ministry with new eyes.
With that in mind, here are four strategies for developing a new ministry perspective:
- Join a local youth worker’s network and listen to how others do ministry. Rather than judge the way others do ministry or disregard their ideas because they’re different, ask yourself, “What’s valuable about this way of doing ministry? What can it teach me about how to better minister to teens?”
- Broaden your horizons. If you’re a conservative, go to a progressive youth ministry conference or follow the blogs of progressive youth workers. If you’re a progressive, go to an evangelical conference or follow evangelical blogs. Doing so will stretch you theologically and help you better understand, appreciate, and learn from different theological viewpoints.
- Talk to those students and families who aren’t active in your ministry. A few years ago, I conducted an assessment of my ministry. As part of this, I met with people who weren’t involved in it and asked, “Why aren’t you involved in our youth ministry?” Because they were “outsiders”, this group of individuals saw my ministry differently than I did. Their responses enabled me to see issues I was previously unaware of.
- Disconnect and take time away. Each year, take at least a week away from your ministry. During this time, completely unplug. Time away will restore your energy and give you new eyes with which to see your ministry.
In parenting, the ability to gain a new perspective can be a matter of life and death, enabling you to see something that might potentially harm your child.
In some ways, the same is also true in ministry. A new perspective can enable you to see what’s harming your ministry and preventing it from growing. A new perspective can also breathe life back into a struggling ministry, rejuvenating you and transforming your ministry. It can help you see and address problems in new ways, restore your creativity, and reignite your passion to minister to youth.
Finally, a different perspective can give you new eyes with which to see your ministry, eyes that will enable you to courageously make changes in order to meet new challenges and more effectively minister to youth.
