The Church Must Provide Teenagers Significant Tasks
Youth ministry has an interesting history. From the organized young people’s organizations of the early nineteenth century to the post-WW2 growth (Baby Boom) that expanded the church’s reach, a desire for programming designed for teenagers grew. There have been numerous books and articles chronicling the birth and growth of what we now call youth (or student) ministry in the local church.
When I surrendered to full-time gospel ministry, I stepped into the lane of youth ministry. It was a fruitful era in the early 1990s. Seminaries offered programs and classes for youth ministry. Camps, evangelism conferences, mission trips, and more were available for the local church and youth pastor to tap into for their groups.
Youth leaders, writers, pastors, and speakers like Josh McDowell, Richard Ross, Walker Moore, Roger Glidewell, Barry St. Clair, Allen Weed, Dave Busby, Keith Yarborough, Dave Paxton, Johnny Derouen, Phil Briggs, Wes Black, Allen Jackson, and more were greatly influential to me. Many of these men are still faithfully serving. Others are now in heaven, certainly welcomed with “Well done”.
As many know, I served as the student pastor at my church (First Baptist Church of Orange Park) for over a decade, beginning in 1994. These were wonderful days. While I am certain not every teenager looks back fondly to those days, I am thankful for the time to serve with them. Many of these former teenagers are now adults serving the Lord in their respective churches. Some are serving in full-time ministry. Others are faithfully serving in other areas. Some are now parents, raising their own teenagers to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ.
Though I have been and continue to serve as the senior pastor here at our church (since 2005), out of necessity I am now serving as the pastor for our students. It has been rejuvenating for me, but I know that I am not that young student pastor any longer and when God provides the resources and the right, called person, we will be blessed to have another serve as the minister to our teenagers. Yet, even when that occurs, as long as I am the lead pastor at the church, I am responsible to shepherd all in our church…even the teenagers.
I have asked God for wisdom in leading this next generation of teenagers. While there are certain things true for all teenagers, throughout history, the fact is in this current era there are new challenges. The gospel of Jesus Christ is unchanging and remains the answer. Yet, as we maneuver through this interconnected, digital era, certain questions and circumstances arise requiring great wisdom. The students in our ministry today are presented challenges such as gender identity, sexual confusion, Christian deconstruction, 24-hour access to pornography, artificial intelligence, doom-scrolling, and more. Their parents and grandparents had their challenges, but not these.
As we provide a student ministry that is more than adult ministry for students (that’s when all the leaders in the student ministry are adults and the teenagers simply sign up, show up, pay up, and attend) but truly a student ministry that is not a “one-eared Mickey Mouse” church within a church, but a training and equipping ground for students, there are many things those who inspired me in the past that keep coming to mind.
Wisdom from the Ages
Walker Moore (1951-2023), founder of Awe Star Ministries, spoke at our church years ago. He was truly a pioneer in student-led ministry. While serving as youth pastor in his Oklahoma church, he developed a disciple-making ministry that essentially had students running all aspects of weekly gatherings, D-Now Weekends, youth camps, registrations, payments, etc.
Walker built his ministry around four essential experiences:
Rite of Passage
Significant Tasks
Logical Consequences
Grace Deposits
That is also the framework for his book Rite of Passage Parenting[1]. This is a recommended read for parents.
Significant Tasks
Moore’s teaching on significant tasks has resonated with me for years. Moore said, “Unlike past generations, where kids performed real work that mattered, today’s kids have no true significant tasks—special assignments that demonstrate their worth to the people who are important to them.”
There is much anecdotal evidence this is true, but there are places in our culture where teenagers have been given significant tasks and excel. The teenager who has been made shift leader at the local fast-food restaurant may be locking up the building at night, putting the money from the cash drawers in the safe, and ensuring the restaurant is ready for the morning crew when they arrive (I did this at 16). The teenager who stands atop the pedestal directing the high school band at halftime of the football game is leading and fulfilling a significant task (while the band director watches from the sideline). The student who is CPR certified and working as a lifeguard while little children swim at the community pool is certainly doing something significant. There are numerous other examples.
These tasks are important and young people are qualified, when trained, to do well. Sadly, within the local church there are few significant tasks provided to teenagers. I am not saying just give everything over to the youth group, but I am saying that if all the church offers are pseudo-significant tasks (activities that outwardly appear to be meaningful but have no intrinsic value) then we should not be surprised when young people graduate from church as well as high school when the tassel is moved.
Team Leaders
Years ago we developed teams in student ministry that were responsible for such significant tasks. Yesterday, we gathered our teenagers together and began developing the framework for reinstituting such. With a student ministry without a designated student pastor/minister on staff, it seems the Lord is leading these teenagers to step up, under my guidance, to take on the tasks of weekly ministry.
Following our brainstorming session, it was evident that some of these students have never been brought into such a discussion regarding leadership, discipleship, and ministry. There was certainly a desire to get to work. But…we will begin slowly, intentionally, and stragecally.
Focusing first on our Wednesday gatherings, the students developed a list of lead teams that are needed. These included:
A/V Tech Team – responsible for running sound, connecting instruments and microphones, testing to ensure they work, running the computer, videos, lighting, etc.
Welcome/Greeters Team – responsible for greeting all attendees weekly, signing them in, introducing guests to regular attenders, seeking to ensure all feel welcome, provide a gift for first time guests, etc.
Stage Team – responsible for opening our weekly gathering with a welcome, event announcements, group game, order of service, music, etc.
Mission Team – responsible for developing videos or interviews with church planters and missionaries we support, mapping their respective locations on the maps on display in our room, promoting mission trips, global mission opportunities, local mission projects, collecting offerings for missions, etc.
Outreach Team – that will include all students, but led by a team focused on helping invite others to church, train members in having gospel conversations, evangelistic opportunities, etc.
Small Group/Teaching Team – While I will most likely be teaching the large group, there will be times we host guest teachers. There will also be opportunities for some students to teach the group (with guidance from the pastors). Each week once the large group session ends, students will be guided through a short discussion with open-ended questions led by other students.
More teams will develop over time focused on the Sunday morning Bible study time, events, game nights, DisciipleNow Weekends, camps, and more.
This is an exciting shift for our student ministry. We have done much of this in the past, but for the students who now attend, this is new. They’re ready and they are not the “church of tomorrow” but the church of today. And they are significant young men and women doing significant tasks.
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[1] Moore, Walker. Rite of Passage Parenting: Four Essential Experiences to Equip Your Kids for Life. Thomas Nelson, 2007.
