The Ministry Process

Over the past few years, my view of youth ministry has consistently and continually changed. We've made pretty big updates each year that have modified the feel and look of our weekly, Wednesday night programs - from changes to incorporate worship to splitting middle and high school groups, to numerous updates to the small group programoverall, these changes have worked well to move us more fully toward our vision: That students would See, Seek and Serve God. (that has to be a run-on sentence)

This year, we're adding another large tweak, but with one caveot: this change isn't easily seen. Instead of redeveloping programs, switching schedules or adding events, I'm attempting to redirect my ministry focus entirely. And it all comes down to three words: The Ministry Process.

This is something I've blogged about a little over the past few months, but it's still something I want to elaborate on as we move forward. Ministry is a process - a process of introducing broken, sinful humanity  to a glorious, sufficient Savior, and then helping, in community, to guide a transformation by the Spirit of God.

That process needs to be thought through. There's an effective way of doing discipleship, and there are very, very ineffective ways as well. In being entrusted with the spiritual growth and development of hearts, I want to be able to say we're more intentional about discipleship than just merely throwing gospel darts at an ambiguous target.

And so we're implementing an actionable, deliberate ministry process framework for the 2011-2012 school year: Plant, Root, Produce. You'll notice I've dropped those words in different blog posts - and I'll continue to do that. The notion of our process comes directly out of Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower. There is a process in ministry there - the seed is sowed, or planted, to a wide range of hearts. The seeds begin to grow in some hearts, and those are identified by those seeds taking deep root. Finally, true conversion is evidenced by an abundance of produce.

So too is a ministry process for HYPE - there will be events and activities throughout the year with the intent purpose of sowing the gospel to hearts that may or may not be receptive to the gospel. At Plant events, we're not afraid so much of the rejection of the gospel, more so the ignorance to the gospel.

There will also be focused Root events and programs throughout the year. The idea behind these program and events is to provide opportunity for the growing seed of the gospel to deeply root in the hearts of students. Identity is a main component of root level discipleship - identity as a son or daughter of God, and identity within the community of Christ. These events and programs will focus on these things, as well as Scripture and prayer.

And finally, there will be "Produce" level activities - areas of specific challenge to students we feel are evidencing the effects of life-changing grace.

This ministry process is a meta-framework to activities and events in HYPE Youth Ministries. It's a formulative, guiding process for thinking and planning events and the structure of the year. For instance, in thinking through a specific event, I might ask, "Is this Plant, Root or Produce level? Based on the level, who am I targeting? What's the teaching going to look like? The structure of the night? The take-away challenge?" Then, I can evaluate the ministry calendar based on the number of Plant, Root and Produce events and programs, to ensure that the year is effectively challenging different students at different levels.

I really want to stress that this ministry process is nothing more than a framework - it's certainly not a means to conversion or discipleship. That is only accomplished through the movement of the Holy Spirit. A process doesn't reduce my dependence on God's movement! But a process does help me evaluate my faithfulness to organizing and structuring an effective ministry. And only by God's grace...

CrossOver: Defined

Well hey, let's continue walking through the programs that we have at HYPE Youth Ministries; let's take a look at CrossOver.

Now, I've never really decided whether it's CrossOver Youth Group, or CrossOver group... or what. Usually, we just say, "CrossOver." In short, CrossOver is out Middle Group program.

CrossOver was created to fill a gap we had in our ministry process (did you know process is a word I think about a lot in ministry? It's important). Originally, we had just HYPE Youth Group, and our Middle School and High School students just mingled together. But we saw a good group of Middle School students coming out of Merrill Bible Church, and at the time, the majority of our students in HYPE were 16 or 17 year old kids dealing with a slew of rough issues. I wanted to be able to address those issues - real life stuff - in an honest and straightforward way, but I also wanted to be incredibly sensitive to the 6th grade students we would be inheriting over the next few years. So CrossOver was born.

The name is indicative of the program in two senses: Firstly, we desperately desire that the cross of Christ be central to everything we do. But secondly, we also see it as a time of transition - moving from little autonomy to greater autonomy. Middle schools ask a lot of questions, and are learning a ton - this is a place to aid that transition and transformation. It's CrossOver. (Secretly, I also wanted a program name that was not an acronym. I think that's just so over-used and tired!)

CrossOver is finishing up its second year of existence, and is itself going to enter into a period of transition this summer. Our summer programming suspends both HYPE and CrossOver, and we blend groups into a single, low-programed weekly event called DEEP. When CrossOver is re-launched in September, it'll look a little different.

Primarily, I see us focusing on two veins in CrossOver: one is youth-group identity and dependency. If we can build identity into the youth program from the Middle School forward, we aid students greatly as they head into the more "free-spirited" ago of Middle School and High School. As student's grow, and increasingly hear the message, "You are who you are," "Believe in yourself," and "Do what you want to do," (all messages of self-sufficiency and self-defined righteousness), if we can ingrain the contrary attitude, "The church is where I'm provided accountability, unconditional support and love, and encouragement of know God deeper," then we set students up fantastically for success in life.

But secondly, we also want to view CrossOver as an entry-level point for the youth ministry. We have fantastic CrossOver students. We have fantastic CrossOver leaders. And Middle School students are often a little more open to new events, experiences and activities than some of their older, more set-in-their-ways High School brethren. We will definitely be doing High School and Middle School outreach, but CrossOver should have a high outreach factor for us.

In many ways, the goals of HYPE and CrossOver are the same: community, accountability and discipleship. There needs to be a ton of horizontal accountability and learning - CrossOver students teaching CrossOver students. But there also needs to be vertical learning and accountability as well - HYPE students (older and wiser?) teaching and training and encouraging CrossOver students.

And that's where Core comes in. And we'll talk about that next. Stay tuned.

HYPE Youth Group: Defined

Well, let's dig in today to the biggest and most obvious element of HYPE Youth Ministries: HYPE Youth Group.

HYPE stands for Helping Youth Pursue Eternity, and it gets confusing - mostly because I use the term 'HYPE' to refer to two things: first, I call everything I do through Merrill Bible Church, in regards to youth, 'HYPE.' More specifically, I call it 'HYPE Youth Ministries.' BUT, we also refer to our Wednesday night senior high youth group as, 'HYPE,' or 'HYPE Youth Group.' Confusing? Yeah, it is. And really, I just need to man up and come up with a different name for one or the other. But it's pretty ingrained at this point, and so I think we'll all just have to suffer through the confusion and chaos associated with those names.

So here, we're talking about HYPE Youth Group.

HYPE and CrossOver (we'll talk about that later) both have very similar visions and goals: they're places of teaching, worship, and most importantly, community. This last element - community - is probably the easiest for us to gloss over, but it's the most important aspect of Wednesday nights for the senior higher's. Everyone would readily admit that religion that only lasts for two hours isn't life changing at all. Our goal, through HYPE Youth Ministries (see, there I go) isn't a two-hour commitment. It's life transformation. And for life transformation, we need more than teaching, more than music, and more than small groups - we need community.

Since the calling of Abraham, God has worked in and through communities. He's ordained communities to be the movers and the shakers of the world. And he's ordained community, a Christ-centered community, to be his hands and feet here on earth. We experience God through communal service, worship, prayer, Scripture reading - all these things happen together. 


Think of it like this: there are 168 hours in a week. For an average student attending HYPE, we get them for 2  of those hours. That's just under 1.2% of the week. Only one percent! Despite the teaching, the worship, and the wisdom of our leaders - that's not a ton of time. But the community extends beyond this.

If we can create accountability, relationships and true identity as children of God, then suddenly the impact of HYPE extends into the schools, homes, and free time.

In essence - and I was told this when I started and it's stuck with me since - HYPE isn't trying to be a youth group. HYPE is trying to be a new youth culture.

HYPE Youth Group has a lot of elements to it - we essentially try to pack a lot into a little space. There's a game, announcements, worship (musical), a teaching, small groups and fellowship time, all peppered with prayer, and all within about two hours! On first glance, that might bring up a question: "Honestly, Dave, if you only have two hours, why spend a quarter of it on some silly game?" The answer? Community. For adolescent high schoolers, hurling foam balls at one another's head creates community. There's something that stretches beyond Wednesday night when a kid gets his glasses knocked off his nose, only to get picked up and apologized to by another kid. That's youth ministry!

HYPE Youth Group is also the entry level place for our youth ministry. It's structured and set up as a place where new students can feel welcome and involved, while also blasting our regulars with the truth's of Christ. The lessons are going to focus on the life-changing nature of the gospel, and there is usually both a clear gospel presentation and call to follow Jesus. The lessons certainly aren't sugar coated, but they're prepared to be interesting and challenging for a non-Christian. We're not doing apologetics or evangelism training here - there are other ministry areas for that. And, as this blog continues to move, you'll see how those things are tied together.

HYPE Youth Group, as well as CrossOver, operates during the school year - from September through May. We reshuffled and reprogram during the summer (more on that later). We have awesome, committed volunteers who lead small groups and other programs, and there's food and plenty of other activities too.

This blog is a place to explain and introduce elements of HYPE Youth Ministries (still confused about the names?), but it's also a place to highlight changes, upcoming shifts, and new concepts in HYPE YM. And guess what? There are definitely some cool changes cooking up for HYPE Youth Group (yeah, you're getting the hang of it!). So those will be rolled out and explained over the next few months, heading into our 2011-2012 school cycle.

The next post will take a look at CrossOver. Stay tuned!