Once upon a time a group of Greek philosophers on a quest for answers stared into the deep of space and pondered the stars. One, they decided, was Castor, a mere mortal. The other, his twin brother Polux, was an immortal who was so grieved at the death of his brother he courageously asked Zeus to offer Castor immortality. The desire was granted, and together with their corresponding bodies, they make up the constellation Gemini. This fantastic explanation was placed alongside many other constellation theories and become for centuries the socially accepted version of the way things were. After all, these philosophers were experts, they had been given a platform, and they had really cool hair. However, as it turned out, Gemini was not the result of two brothers’ journey to immortality; and the theory is now considered as gaseous as the planets that made up the constellation.

In modern youth ministry, we often pressure ourselves to do something spectacular; but each successful year becomes its own curse and carries a new burden to multiply results. Running low on usable ideas, we begin an anxious quest for something, anything that works, works well and hopefully works before the next church board meeting. Speaking into this dark void of pragmatic solutions is an immense barrage of concepts, some offered by veteran youth ministers, and others by folks with less time serving students than an African elephant gestation period (which is, by the way remarkably long, but you get the point).

Theories of ministry bombard us: blogs, books, seminars, schools, insightful ideas, courageous ideas, push-the-envelope ideas, all competing for our attention. Some of it is solid, helpful information; some is as gaseous as old constellation theories. It seems that every night experts stare into the abyss and develop a fantastic array of over-promising, mind-numbing constellation theology such as “7 Hidden Keys to Life-Changing Fund Raising.” Amplified by modern communication technology, this mental laziness is posted, reposted and mindlessly implemented at the dizzying pace of the latest ministry trend. Equating spectacle with effectiveness, these de-contextualized solutions avoid the hard and often messy work of actually figuring out what is happening in the lives of our youth. If we stop long enough actually to look around, we discover a remnant of teens watching videos of dancing kittens on their smart phones. We need a better solution.

Effective youth ministry in context is the demanding vocation of living among and learning about students and families, and few are willing to do it. After describing the abundant harvest work, Jesus sent out pairs of followers to live and work among people, in their homes, in their villages (Luke 10). These disciples did not start with mission; they were transformed by an encounter with Christ, were prepared by living and learning with Jesus in community, and were sent in community (pairs) to submit themselves in mission to communities, and so likewise for us. It incorporates living in relation to God through an encounter with His Word, understanding His activity through history, and participating in the ongoing practices of His church.

Consequently, instead of requiring young people to enter our orbit, it requires us to move into theirs. It means, among many things, learning adolescent development to understand the unique mental needs of a 13-year-old boy. It demands dropping our spectacular agendas to give youth space to talk, from discovering best solutions of attracting kids to discovering what it means to be sent by God. Model for students a new way of life, not blown from one constellation theology to another, but transformed in community by an authentic encounter of the living Christ.