Fostering a Love of God in Youth Ministry
I was walking past a church on a day off not long ago. There was a jumping castle, a BBQ, smiling people – a genuine open stance towards the community. And as I told my daughter we might be able to go in on our way back, I saw the senior pastor running. I don’t know what for. An extension cord would be in the realm of possibility. It reminded me of the effort that goes into ministry. Joyful effort? Yes. But strenuous and sometimes even physical effort!
And in the midst of all this effort, it’s easy to focus on the program. Did it run? Was it fun? Did people come? How was the vibe? But the ultimate goal is this:
Young people with a genuine love for God.
That must be one of the markers of an effective youth ministry. That's what we want. Genuine, lasting, real relationships with the God of the universe, through the life-giving message of the gospel of Jesus. Ultimately, the work of fostering that love for God is his work in the hearts of the young people we’re discipling.
But because in youth ministry we're called to disciple young people into that love, we do want to be thoughtful about the ministry we engage in to help foster that genuine love for God.
And that love can be a slippery thing to define! I once asked a group of youth ministers to describe it without using the word “love”. Needless to say, like me, they didn’t find it easy. The answers we gave were vague and imprecise. None of them, when taken on their own, would equate strongly to what we really mean by “Loving God”.
But we do get the vibe. We do know what we mean, even if it’s hard to articulate. So, in this article, I want to parse out what I think are 2 (perhaps self-evident) essential aspects to loving God, and their implications for the kind of youth ministry we’ll do.
1) Loving God is Expressive
30 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:30, NIV)
This may be obvious, but loving God cannot be done to a young person. Nor can it be done by God. It is only something that can be done by a young person. And it can only be done towards God. You can’t make a young person love God. They can’t love God with their youth leader’s heart, soul, mind and strength.
Loving God is by nature expressive. It is expressed only by the young person, and if it is not expressed in some way (whether by thought, word or deed) then it does not exist. A son can’t say that he loves his parents if he never in any way expresses that love through outward action or internal thought. Likewise, love for God is by its very nature expressive by the way that a young person thinks or desires, by what they say or the way they act.
If loving God is by nature expressive, then our youth ministry should involve active participation, not just passive consumption.
Chap Clark talks about the importance of what he calls contributing purpose[1], where a young person can make genuine and meaningful contributions to the life and faith of others within the body of Christ. When young people are able to express their love for Christ by making these contributions of service, they are significantly more likely to buy into the body of Christ long term.
Interestingly, James KA Smith leans on the power of habit in the cultivation of our loves, including our love for God. He says, “Our hearts are calibrated through imitating exemplars and being immersed in the practices that, over time, index our hearts to a certain end.”[2] That is, what we do regularly can actually shape what we love, just as what we love can shape our actions.
If love for God is expressive, we help our young people by giving them opportunities to actively participate in the life of the body of Christ and to contribute to the life and faith of others.
Here are two ways to get moving on this:
1) Audit your program for active participation opportunities
There are so many opportunities for young people to express love for God within youth ministry programs. They’re around, they’re lurking, they’re even being taken up by a few stand-out young people.
Why not try thinking through your program and look for opportunities for youth to express their love for God in action in:
· Programmed and formal ways like asking them to share a testimony or interview a peer or
· Programmed but informal ways like open prayer or sharing to the group ways God has encouraged them, contributing to discussion groups or welcoming a new person or younger person.
You can also think about opportunities outside of the program, whether formal or informal, such as kids church, inviting a friend to youth group, or running a school lunchtime group.
How experienced or gifted they are will determine the kind of help they’ll need to make that contribution. They may need specific training, or simply some scaffolding (like creating a space in your run sheet or a roster) or perhaps modelling it or doing it alongside someone else.
All of this is undergirded by substantial teaching about who God is and what he’s done, because we’re not just an activity club, but we love God in response to him – more on that later.
2) Give opportunity in your program for love for God to be on the lips of young people
Some of these ways to participate will specifically give opportunities for young people to express love for God in their words. Why not program them intentionally, perhaps through:
· Singing
· Testimony
· Discussion groups
· Question time
· Prayer groups
· Open prayer – but don’t let the leaders pray – make space for young people. They might surprise you with how willing they are to step up when given the opportunity.
Words of adoration on the lips of young people are a powerful way to develop a culture of loving God in youth ministry.
2) Loving God is Responsive
1 ’I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.’ (Psalm 116:1-2, NIV)
But to only have a view of young people loving God as expressive would be to miss another crucial aspect to loving God. We must also see loving God as fundamentally responsive. To love God rightly is to love him as he is and in response to who he is. If we express love to a God who only wants us to follow our dreams, who is the source of our entertainment on a Friday night or who is concerned for our mental health at the cost of our spiritual health, this is not to love the eternal God but some other version of God.
We love God because:
· He is creator (John 1:3)
· He is powerful (Jeremiah 32:17)
· He is holy (1 Peter 1:16)
· He is good (Psalm 118:1)
· He is kind and loving and He saved us (Titus 3:4-5)
· He has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. (Psalm 126)
· He first loved us (1 John 4:19)
· Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)
· He heard my cry for mercy (Psalm 116:1)
We love that God in response to who he is and what he has done. To love him and to express love for him is the only right response.
If loving God is responsive to him, then our ministries must palpably show him for who he is and what he’s done.
In fact, research has shown that youth ministry that is shallow and not substantial leads to youth that disconnect from church and faith. David Kinnaman writes:
“…the next generation’s disconnection stems ultimately from the failure of the church to impart Christianity as a comprehensive way of understanding reality and living fully in todays’ culture... the Christianity [young people] believe in is an inch deep…”[3]
We want our young people to love God because they deeply understand who he is, what he’s done and we want them to love God because they deeply connect to the coherent, wholistic and impactful faith that he calls us into.
Here are some things or leaders and ministries to consider to ensure our youth ministries palpably show God for who he is and what he’s done:
1) Teach Unashamedly from Scripture
Make sure that you teach from the Bible. Don’t be ashamed to teach all of what it says. Work hard to show its connection and relevance to the life your young people are living.
2) Highlight Connections Between God’s Character and Expressions of Love
When young people serve, or reflect Godly character, or praise God in song, or praise God in speech, highlight the connection between these expressions of love for God with who God is. They serve because God served them, God is just and so we pursue fairness.
3) Celebrate Responses to God
Celebrate the behaviour you want to see. Get young people up the front to tell their story or have open sharing from the floor about how someone has represented Christ in their life.
4) Model Responding to God’s Character
Leaders should not let God be far from conversation. Speak about him a lot. They should make clear their own love for God in the interactions they have with young people. This can only happen if leaders’ love for God is authentic, so,
5) Love God
Leaders should, themselves, have a genuine love for God that is both responsive and expressive. Leaders should be paying attention to the health of their own relationship with God, their own godliness, their own devotional life and their own Christian life.
Do you ’run’ in youth ministry? Oh, that God would use our running to build disciples who genuinely love him –expressing it in their lives in response to who he is! Let’s pray for that!
[1] Clark, C 2018, Adoptive Church, Baker Academic, p 66
[2] Smith, J.K.A. 2016, You Are What You Love, Brazos Press, p 21
[3] Kinnaman, D 2016, You Lost Me, Baker Book House, p 114
