Youth Ministry Dot Com
greg stier
When the 90’s dot com bubble burst the US economy went into a tailspin. Billions of dollars had been invested and lost. Many dot com millionaires were now flat broke.
It all started with the premise that there was a “new economy.” The old rules of economics didn’t apply on the money making side of the road on the information superhighway. All you needed was a good idea, a quasi-business plan, a slick website and a ton of venture capital money. Your new company didn’t even need to be profitable. It just needed to have stock that was climbing due to PR buzz and the feeding frenzy that was the new economy.
But then the bubble burst.
When the dust of this colossal collapse settled, investors everywhere realized that the ancient, non-glamorous rules of the old economy had never left. Those prophetic geniuses who had forecasted this economic revolution now looked like ivy-league idealists who had no place in the real world of making money.
The bottom line in any economy is true profitability. The company must produce products that are profitable to the company and to the investors…period. Success must be defined. Strategies must be declared. Goals must be reached. Profits must be reaped.
Suddenly the new, hip economy looked like a dumb, old idea. Investors started demanding accountability and results. The companies that survived this long recession had some cutting edge ideas but executed them by using old fashioned elbow grease.
In my opinion much of today’s youth ministry philosophy is like the new economy of the late 90’s. It de-emphasizes goals, strategies and success. Instead it focuses on the latest, greatest ideas that will “revolutionize youth ministry in the 21st Century.” Millions of dollars have been used to launch events, curriculums and websites that claim to hold the keys to transforming this relativistic culture of kids.
Just like in the midst of the dotcom boom there are many truly good ideas swimming around in this ocean of ideas called youth ministry. If a youth leader is discerning enough she can harness some of these powerful principles into programmatic reality in her youth group and affect real change. If not, she could get swept away into the frenzy of fads and trends that has become youth ministry.
Parents and pastors are the investors who will eventually get sick of seeing students leave their churches and homes and getting sucked into the abyss of relativism on the typical college campus. There will be a point where they demand accountability.
At the end of the day the youth ministries and youth leaders left standing will be those who were open to new ideas but worked incessantly to follow the principles of the “old economy” of the New Testament. These youth leaders work in quiet anonymity to get their teens surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. They challenge their teens to be empowered by the Spirit of God in everything, to know and apply God’s Word, to know what they believe and why they believe, to reach their friends for Christ and to make an eternal difference in the lives of others on this planet. These youth leaders define success as changed lives and saved souls…the more the better. Their profits are not realized in financial gains but in maturity gains degree by degree in the souls of their students.
And the investors will be thrilled.
Learn from the great ideas floating out there. Get a cool website. Create community with your tribal, millennial teens. Always push yourself to be culturally relevant, especially in this tricky postmodern culture. But never forget that the ancient rules of what constitutes true spiritual transformation apply in any culture, in every culture. The Bible has stood the test of time. Ministry methodology and fads come and go but the principles of Scripture live on. The God who created our teenagers knows how to re-create them into the image of His dear Son. And these “secrets” are all over the New Testament.
It may not be as cool, hip or cutting edge. But it works.
Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries. For more information about Greg Stier or Dare 2 Share Ministries, please visit www.dare2share.org.
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