It’s OK—you can admit it. We’ve all done it. You’ve used a popular reality TV show as an inspiration for an event, camp or talk. How many of America’s youth have been subjected to a “Fear Factor” Night, stumbled through “American Ninja Warrior”-like challenges, or outlasted the energy of their leaders on a “Survivor”-themed retreat? Countless numbers, I’m sure. Inspiration for youth leaders is everywhere. It’s just really easy to find on reality TV.
I found the inspiration for reimagining our youth mission trips on a morning news show, in a segment that was the ultimate in real-life television. In the mid-1990s, CBS’s “The Early Show” had a recurring segment known as Everybody Has a Story. Each installment began with a correspondent tossing a dart at a map of the United States. “I believe everybody has a compelling story…I can go anywhere in the United States, randomly pick a person from the phone book and share his or her story.” Surprisingly, he was right. As Steve Hartman traveled literally anywhere and visited with families, in workplaces, and at various stomping grounds with random strangers, viewers were mesmerized. It was true: Everyone had a story. Regardless of age, gender, profession or interests of the person being interviewed, there was a compelling story to tell.
I was inspired. I thought, “I can do this with teens. We can go anywhere, meet interesting people, and find out what story God is writing there!” It was the beginning of a new way of doing mission trips with our youth. On the surface, it looked as if we were launching an approach to discover the stories and strengths of the people we met in each mission location. What soon became clear was that we were unearthing the stories and strengths of our own kids and leaders, thereby creating a culture of collaboration that paid huge dividends.
The End-Product of the Collaborative Mission Trip
“Haines was awesome; Skagway sucked!”
It was the end of a 10-day mission trip. Our group of 65 teens and adults from Seattle had split up to minister in five rural communities in southeast Alaska. I was the youth pastor and leader of the team that went to Skagway. Erin was an enthusiastic teen who had been to Haines. When our teams reunited, her greeting (though a bit brash) actually warmed my heart; she had become a proud owner of her part in the body of Christ.
Conventional wisdom calls for a group to “come together to collaborate,” but my premise was that greater collaboration, greater unity and ultimately greater growth (spiritual and numerical) would be accomplished by separation.
The Origins of the Collaborative Mission
Six months prior to the mission trip, I pitched a wild idea to our church’s governing board. Though young in ministry, I already was weary of the youth mission landscape. I wanted to stay away from the buy-a-spiritual-high mentality. I wanted to do something that actually would produce sustainable spiritual growth and could be transferrable to real life at home.
I went to our board with a proposal to change the way we did mission trips. “I want to do something that I believe will be 100 percent transferrable to our lives at home.” I continued, “I want our mission trip to help our students develop the ability to reproduce themselves at their campuses, at their clubs, in their communities and at our own church.”
My proposal: Go to rural communities in Alaska, set up shop for a little more than a week, and see what sort of impact we could make in a small town (through VBS, service projects and outreach to teens). Figuring we’d have at least 25 or 30 who would want to go, I knew we’d need to split our group into at least two teams because a small church in a small town simply would not be able to accommodate a larger group.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body” (1 Cor. 12:12, 19-20).
I wanted to create an atmosphere where everyone on the team was needed. I wanted a setting where no team member could hide and where if one part suffered, all would be affected. Smaller teams meant bigger opportunities in this respect.
The appeal was enormous. Fifty students and 15 adults signed up (with an additional 13 from a Juneau church joining us and mixing in with our group). Collaboration started in January before the June mission trip. As students worked through their preparation manuals, adult leaders met with members in their small groups in order to help them fulfill the requirements in order to go on the trip.
The Realities of the Collaborative Mission
As I divided our teens and leaders into teams, I limited the numbers to 15 total for each team. In a smaller group, every person was needed to meet the life and ministry demands for the week. Strengths were maximized.
At the same time, weaknesses were obvious and burdens could be shared. While one person loved being around little kids, another was terrified at the prospect. One was empowered by the thought of sharing her testimony in public; another was frozen in fear at the mere thought of public speaking. Either way, each person was needed for a successful trip.
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone” (1 Cor. 12:4-6).
Vacation Bible School: With 15 people on a team and an average of 60 to 80 children coming to VBS, each person played a vital role in the VBS. From the upfront welcome and skit, to teaching the Bible study, a craft or a new song, everyone had a role to play.
Service Projects: Afternoons typically were spent serving the community and making our presence known. This is truly where the worker bees among us shined! Painting, yard work and demolition excited those who were gifted with acts of service.
My Skagway team was tasked to paint the home of Myrtle Edwards. Because of the never-ending days (the sun doesn’t really set in Alaska during the early summer), our team, working together, was able to use our afternoon and late-late nights to complete the task. The task would not have been completed had the entire team not participated!
Youth Outreach: The ministry aspect that equally excited and terrified teams the most was the evening outreach. Our plan was to set up a youth group-type event at a local park each evening. Our strategy to get people there was simple: Anywhere and everywhere we saw a teen during the week, we would stop to invite him or her to the park.
“Come to the park tonight at 6,” a teen team member would say to any teen we saw in town.
“Why?” was the inevitable question.
“Because we’ll be there!”
Nine times out of 10, that teen would show up at the park.
Our teens had collaborated, and through their conversations they knew that authenticity is what it would take to reach another teen. We would gather at the park and divide and conquer. Some would go to the swings; others would continue their pursuit of teens by canvassing the community; some would get a large group game started. After some friendly competition, we’d take a break and one or two of our teens would share their stories while the rest of our team silently prayed for the teammate speaking.
The success of our youth outreach was based on a simple and obvious premise: Youth ministry simply would not exist without youth. The only draw to the park at night for youth outreach was our youth. An adult mission team would have a very difficult time gathering a group of (typically) 30 to 60 teenagers in a rural community by simply showing up themselves.
Beyond the Collaborative Mission
“Haines was awesome…”
Erin had it right. Haines was awesome—because God had a story to tell her there. He had a story to create through her and her teammates in Haines. That collaborative story became part of a larger collaborative story when this group returned home.
The end result of a 10-day mission trip to five communities in southeast Alaska was far-reaching. The impact extended well beyond the communities we served.
• My youth leadership became owner/operators of the ministry in a way I never had seen before. (Having been empowered and entrusted to lead their teams, they translated that to their leadership of their own small groups back home.)
• Our students realized what they did in Alaska could be done at home. Though it may not have been “Come to the park at 6,” the invitations they extended to others for our activities became emboldened.
• Our youth group grew from approximately 50 to more than 200 in six years, primarily through student-invitation (not pizazz programming).
• I began collaborating with local youth pastor networks to lead similar trips for multiple churches from the same area (network-wide missions).
Erin also was wrong. Though Haines was awesome, Skagway certainly didn’t suck. It simply wasn’t her experience or her story to tell. Later, she was embarrassed by her words. However, a truth exists here. Too often we forget the greater collaborative story God is telling.
“For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body” (1 Cor. 12:14-15).
As you go about your ministry, what part does collaboration play? What ways can you tap into the rest of the body and allow each person to play his or her part? Should you re-examine the way you include teens in the collaboration of the youth ministry moving forward? How are you empowering teenagers to play their parts in the collaborative story of God?
