Contextual Youth Ministry

7/08/24

In May-June this year I had the privilege of travelling through Dubai, Cairo, Harare, and the Seychelles delivering training at churches, and teaching at various theological colleges on “Contextual Youth Ministry”. To be honest, this was just as an instructive learning experience for me as it was for those I was teaching. It’s one thing to contemplate the effect of different contexts on the practice of youth ministry in the broad Australian environment, but it’s another thing altogether to do so in 4 separate countries with very diverse histories and circumstances!

Let me give you a quick overview of a method for contextualising ministry that I was teaching overseas, and some of the surprising applications from these various contexts.

More than Models

A method for contextualising children's and youth ministry needs to move beyond the notion of prescriptive ministry models and get back to foundational principles. In line with the Reformers, we are committed to the principle of “…setting forth God's honour and glory, and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly loving without error or superstition” (BCP, 1662), and that means from time to time we will put away certain “rites and ceremonies”, and modes of ministry which are no longer suitable for that purpose. In short, we are committed to the gospel core but not to the cultural wrapping. In Dubai they sell our Australian Bundaberg Ginger Beer, but with a different label, a different wrapping. It’s exactly the same drink, recipe, and taste inside the bottle but the wrapping is changed to say, “Bundaberg Ginger Bev”. Why? Well, because alcohol is taboo for the majority Islamic Arab Emirates, and the term “beer” may indicate to some in the UAE that the drink contains alcohol, when it in fact, doesn’t. So you keep the core but change the wrapping.

So what are your foundational principles for children's and youth ministry? What are the core things that would not change, no matter when or where in the world you would do gospel ministry with children and young people?

Understanding Your Context

Once you have your foundational principles, you need to do some exegesis of your ministry context and your community context. There should be overlap between what your church looks like and your local area, but there will likely be a range of differences that are worth noticing, understanding, and articulating. For example, your church may be full of wealthy middle class people in an area that is dominated by a mix of lower socio-economic people of diverse ethnicities; or your church may be under-resourced with mature Christians but well-endowed with finances and property in an overcrowded land-poor community. Understanding these factors will help you evaluate your vehicles for effective ministry.

Understanding the children and young people in your area and compiling a thick description of who they are, their desires, fears, aspirations, political views, opportunities, constraints, family circumstances, and educations etc. will enable you to notice distinct discipleship goals for your context. Any given gospel-centred children's and youth ministry will share the broad discipleship goals articulated in the Gospels and promoted in the New Testament. However, there are likely to be further discipleship goals for your particular context that are necessary to engage children and young people with the gospel holistically. This is where my trip overseas was particularly instructive and enlightening.

Contextual Application

I was prepared for examples of contextual ministry application, like the need to increase literacy as a specific added discipleship goal for areas with poor access to education. Afterall, one of the great gifts of Christianity to the world is the spread of literacy wherever the word of the Lord has travelled. I was even prepared with contextual ministry examples like teaching people how to cook and eat healthy, manage finances, or safety in relationships. These are all things that gospel ministers consider in discipling the whole person to follow Jesus.

However I was unprepared for contextual ministry applications like teaching children and young people how to plant trees and clean streets as part of their discipleship goals. It seems an odd discipleship goal in an Australian context where we have lots of parks, trees, council cleaning services, and above world standard road maintenance! However, it makes total sense when the context in which you minister has no shade, excessive heat, and poor community hygiene. It startled and humbled me to hear gospel-centred children's and youth ministers speak about this priority as part of their vehicle for gospel ministry because cleaner streets, more trees and shade, promoted more access to hearing the gospel and experiencing fellowship. It may not be one of my goals here in Sydney, but for their context, it is best for “…setting forth God's honour and glory”.

This is a task for each one of us that longs to do faithful and effective children's and youth ministry for whatever context in which we minister.

It’s now time for you to do the hard work of working out a specific shape to children's and youth ministry that is faithful to your principles, appropriate for your context, and advances towards your set goals.