Lockdown Learnings

Lockdown learnings

Lockdown in Sydney is looking like it will go on for longer than we first thought. As I write this, it’s due to last until at least the end of August. How much longer, no one knows for sure.

Now is the time to remember the key things we learnt last lockdown to help us navigate this one – to help us keep discipleship of young people front and centre.

In June 2020, Youthworks surveyed over 250 youth and children’s workers to ask them what ministry was like during the first COVID-19 lockdown. We asked them about things like:

·        Personal and spiritual wellbeing

·        Stresses being faced

·        What was working and what wasn’t

·        How staff teams and leaders were coping

·        How young people in their ministries were growing in Christ.

·        Partnership with parents and families

Most of all we wanted to be able to learn from lockdown:

·        How youth and children’s ministry could press on with effective discipleship, and

·        How we could inform our ministry principles and practices should any other crisis come.

Here are the 3 most important things we learnt:

Spiritual health in leaders was good for ministry

For all sorts of reasons, in lockdown it can be easy to allow our spiritual disciplines to slide. Lack of accountability and disruption to routine can make regular time in God’s word, prayer - and other things beneficial to the spiritual health of ministry workers - difficult to keep doing. Sometimes, even the busyness of discipling others can put pressure on our own faith.

The irony of this is that last lockdown our research showed that when ministry workers indicated strong spiritual health, this was good for ministry. Spiritually healthy Children’s and Youth workers:

·        Saw spiritual growth in young people;

·        saw more people join their group;

·        had adequately equipped leaders; and

·        were able to prioritise family ministry

What steps will you take to look after your own spiritual health? Here are some ideas that will be beneficial in lockdown and beyond.

•    Personal bible reading and prayer

• Times of fellowship, spiritual mentoring, prayer groups

•   Get in touch with your regional advisor to join a network for prayer and encouragement.

Clear principles driving ministry saw better ministry outcomes.

When you’re sailing a boat, there’re a whole lot of tasks you’ve got to do. You’ve got to launch the boat, steer the boat, tack and jibe (aka turn the boat according to the direction of the wind ) and trim the sheets (aka pull on the ropes). You can get better and better at launching, steering, tacking, jibing and trimming – excellent in fact! But unless you’ve got a clear sense of both where you are going as well as how all the tasks help you get there, you’ll just be excellent at sailing in circles.

Our research in June 2020 showed that youth and children’s workers with clear principles - both where you were going and the essentials of how you get there – also saw a great deal of spiritual growth in young people.

But more than that, because they had a clear sense of the goal of their ministry, they were more able to adjust their ministries for the lockdown environment and where much less anxious for whatever the future held.

One great example of this was Grant and Lauren Van der Merwe who were clear on the principles of their ministry. So when everything changed, they were able to still do highly effective ministry with young people. You can listen to their story here.

Why don’t you take time out this term to focus on your theological and ministry principles – both where you are going and the essentials of how to get there.

One way to do this is to complete the Youthworks Effective Ministry Tool – a great way to get your head into principles for effective youth and children’s ministry.

Strong partnership with parents was the best indicator for young people growing in faith during lockdown

But by far and away the most significant finding in the research was this:

When youth and children’s ministries had strong partnerships with parents and families, they were significantly more likely to see spiritual growth in young people.

Parents are the primary disciplers of their children and teenagers, so when we partner with parents in the spiritual growth of young people, we can expect them to fair better spiritually in times of crisis.

What can you do to grow the partnership with families in the ministries you are involved with? Here are a few suggestions.

• Keep families informed about what’s going on in your program

• Call families and ask “is there anything we can pray for you?”

• Ask families for feedback about things like online church and youth and kids ministry

• Send resources home to help parents with discipling the young people in their home

 This lockdown feels different to last year’s. Having already done this once, it’s less of a mountain to climb. But there are enough similarities that we can use what we’ve learnt again.

Which of these can you plan to act on this term?