Section 1: Why? And Who? And How? If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a youth worker. Maybe you’re a full-time leader with interns, associates, and a healthy group of volunteers. Or maybe you’re a part-time or volunteer youth worker, holding down a career while simultaneously leading your church’s youth ministry. Whatever it looks like, there’s a good chance you’re someone who invests his or her time and energy in the spiritual growth of teenagers. (As an aside, this makes you really, really cool in our eyes, but we digress . . .) And if this is the case, we’d like to ask a simple question: “Why?” Why do you do what you do? Why do you put up with the oftentimes ridiculous de- mands of youth ministry? Why are you willing to do more work for less pay? Why do you subject yourself to the frustration and stress that is an inevitable part of the job? We think we know the answer to the “why.” And we think it’s two-fold. First, we think you do youth ministry because you know it’s a calling, not a career. We think you do it because you’ve seen glimpses of what it looks like when it works. We think you do it because sometime in the (maybe distant) past someone invested in your life and it made a tremendous difference. And we think you do it because you believe that it works: you know that a vivid faith-life is possible for teenagers, and that this shapes their worlds in powerful ways. But we think the second part of the “why” question can be answered with a similar question: “Who?”
There is always a real person. He has a face. She has a name. They have seemingly unlimited potential. They also have very real weaknesses. And through all of it, you are a youth worker because you believe that 1) knowing Christ more and better can make a tremendous impact on their lives, and 2) that their lives can make a tremendous impact on the world. You believe this. It is the ultimate answer to the “why” question. But there is one more question, and it really is the question many of us find ourselves constantly asking. If you’re an observant reader, the subtitle of this section has already tipped you off . . . “How?” How? How do we do it? How do we go about shaping teenagers’ faith? How do we lead them closer to Christ? What are the methods and philosophies that work? How do we take a discordant group of individuals—individuals with different needs, on different places in their spiritual journeys—and bring them collectively to a deepening relationship with God? It’s a really big question. And one that is admittedly pretty far beyond the scope of a little piece such as this one. However, we think we do have something to say about this. Or more accurately, we think the Bible has something to say about this. And we’d like to share it with you. It starts with a concept you’re no doubt familiar with: discipleship. But the problem with familiarity is that it can sometimes create ambiguity. We can be so familiar with a concept that we make assumptions about its meaning. So, for clarity’s sake, let’s take a stab at clarifying what we mean by “discipleship,” and let’s use this definition to introduce an idea that we think will go a long way in helping you answer the “how” question.