Trying to be a brick-making youth worker!

I’ve seen Bake Off and I know how tricky it is when they are asked to bake a vegan creation! All the essential baking ingredients like eggs, butter, milk and cream are all unavailable. I know there are other ways but baking without dairy just doesn’t seem right and is actually pretty tricky indeed. Asking someone to bake but not giving them the necessary ingredients would seem to be a little unfair, it makes the task considerably harder and the outcome less successful (in my non-baker, non-vegan opinion!).

So my question is this; why would you passionately speak about the importance of youthwork and then not provide the ‘essential ingredients’ to make it happen?

To help me explain myself in this blog I would like you to imagine that youthworkers are the Israelites and that ‘the church’ are the Egyptians! Now I know what you are thinking; I’m about to have a bit of a rant about ‘the church’! Well you are half right, what I would love to do is actually highlight the need to create better environments for youth leaders to be able to serve faithfully and fruitfully in the way they are called and gifted.

If I can be brutally honest for a moment; ‘the church’ has absolutely always longed for youthwork to be done in their spaces but what hasn’t happened are the necessary resources, the appropriate support and the genuine love. Without these being consistently and generously given ministry simply cannot exist, let alone grow and thrive. Youthwork seems to be a priority in the rehearsed speeches and parish profiles but not in actions and ministry decisions.

In Exodus 5 Pharaoh is punishing the Israelites for Moses and Aaron continuing to ask for their freedom. The punishment, if life wasn’t hard enough anyway, was to continue making bricks as slaves but now without the raw materials to even make the bricks. Pharaoh accuses the Israelites of being lazy, of being liars and even has many of the Israelites beaten and killed. Of course the church isn’t Egypt or Pharaoh, but I do believe that we (youth leaders) are being asked to do a task under such difficult conditions we simply cannot thrive, and actually some of us are even struggling to survive!

God replies to Moses with a plan of beautiful intervention and promise; God says “I will redeem you, I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians!” Now not for one moment do I want the same fate to fall on the church that fell on the Egyptians, but I would like the church to not have their hearts hardened like Pharaoh. I would like the church to see the power of freeing a people to be who God called them to be, free to serve, to change lives, to enable God to be taken to the far and dark corners of every community.

I want the church to hear the pleading of Moses and Aaron but hear the voices of youth leaders across the country. Moses is effectively saying “see my people, release my people, give my people what they long for.” In my ministry I meet youth leaders who are oozing with passion and love for youthwork and young people, but in recent years a weariness has set in. This weariness hasn’t been caused by the passion and love subsiding but by being continually asked to ‘make bricks without straw’! Youthwork is hard enough and it saddens me that the church continues to shout about the ‘need’ for youthwork but without providing resources for it to happen.

I want to turn my rant into action. At 267 we are beginning to build a vision for the next season that has been gently rumbling under the surface for a few years now. Our vision is to not only give youthworkers the resources they need but we also want to grow, train and enthuse new youthworkers. Imagine a ‘Youthwork Academy’ where students (or apprentices) spend more time doing youthwork and sitting under those who have been doing ministry for years in a whole range of environments. Imagine taking two years to study youthwork but every month you get to see how youthwork is done by others. Imagine a space where volunteers could come and discover resources, build relationships with employed youth leaders and receive encouragement for their own phenomenal ministry to young people.

What if the priority wasn’t academic qualification but experience and a growing passion for a long term commitment to youth ministry. What if we create a space where we learn from one another so that our ministry is less about us and our success and more about Jesus. I want 267 to use its voice and influence to help decision makers and church leaders prioritise youthwork in actions and not just in words.

Exodus speaks about Gods ‘mighty hand’ and his ‘outstretched arm’, my hope and prayer is that God will reach out to all of us so that we may see His will and be humble and obedient enough to follow it. Youthwork isn’t an ‘added extra’ to church, more than ever it is something of a priority. There are youth leaders out there waiting to be sent, waiting to receive encouragement and resource, waiting for a church to say “I am for you” and will do everything I can so that you may succeed.