It Begins!

So … as good a place to start as anywhere is probably answering the question “why more-than-pizza?”  The somewhat flippant response I would use - if I could - would be that “more-than-butts” would probably have people questioning what kind of content I was posting online.  Realizing that an answer like that really doesn’t explain a whole lot, I’ll attempt to delve a little deeper into the reason this blog has come into existence, at this time, with this name.  Here goes …

I have been in active youth ministry for fourteen years here in Calgary.  Statistically, I am a rare breed in a ministry field that averages a life-span of three years.  I’m not going to waste blog space answering the more important question of how long I’ve been ministering well – especially knowing that my expectations are excruciatingly high, and that I have a well-honed skill for self-deprecation.  Instead, we will leave it in the realm of what can be said as fact: for fourteen years I have actively ministered to youth between grades seven and twelve, and that this is nearly five times the average duration for which youth ministers will serve before they transition out of their ministry.

In my time in ministry, I have been blessed with the gift of being invited into the lives of so many young people.  These young people have taught me so much more about the grace and love of God than any Sunday sermon could ever hope to (and no, this is not intended as a slight to the ministers I have had the privilege of working with in my time.)  I have also had the opportunity to work with an insane number of youth ministry folks in an even insane-er number of contexts.  Conversations ensue … and doing this as long as I have, you start to notice the recurring themes that come out of coffee discussions, shared event planning, and social media.

For a year or better, I have been sitting in the stands of cyberspace, hmm’ing and haa’ing about possibly weighing in with my own thoughts and experience on many of the issues and learnings that seem to be swirling around the topic of youth ministry.  Heck, there are lists on the internet of youth ministry topics that people should post about.  Thus today, I get out of the bleachers, and hit the field – knowing absolutely nothing about what this experience will become.  Maybe it’s because I can see the end of my time in front-line youth ministry, and I don’t want to go quietly into the night.  Maybe it’s because I just now am reconnecting with that younger, wave-making, fight-the-good-fight Bill is used to be, but have also grown up enough to know that me pitching a public spaz doesn’t really help people understand where I’m coming from.  Or maybe this is simply a way for me to start a conversation that has some meaning for the youth ministers who will come after me; a way to start influencing change in how we view youth ministry in the church.

So, I should probably do what I set out to do … explain the domain name.  There are a number of forces moving around the discursive field of youth ministry.  A big force, probably the strongest one I have encountered to date, is the observation that young people seem to be in the middle of a mass-exodus from the church.  This observation, while not inaccurate, has inspired some of the greatest work and discernment from some, and the shoddiest and most ridiculous responses from others.  I’m not prepared to doomsday prophesy about this fact, since I am not convinced this is a completely bad thing.  One thing I continue to hear a lot of in conversation, however, is that there is a greater sense of isolation in youth ministry; that people simply don’t understand what it is that their youth minister does in their church.  More-than-pizza actually comes from this train of thought.  While I love a good pizza party, this is not the be all and end all of a youth ministry done well.  I’ll expand on this later …

More-than-butts … I at least want to touch on this briefly.  There is a much smaller force that surfaces every once in a while in the discourse that uses phrases like “the youth are the future of the church,” or “we need to get young butts in the pews.”  This I will address very soon in greater detail, but for now, suffice it to say that this overall thought process is problematic, even though I understand the greater spirit in which it is said and know it is not done with anything other than the best of intentions.  I’ll need to make this its own topic in order to do it justice, so anticipate a post on this soon!

I am aware that there is the slightest possibility that some of the youth I currently serve may be reading this blog.  Thanks!  I need to stress here that when I talk about patterns and themes that are emerging in youth ministry discussions and collegial conversations, it isn’t because of some sinister plot to drive young people out of the church, or brainwash them, or to increase the money in the offering plate on Sunday morning, or reduce money spent on youth in the church.  Your church loves you more than you may even realize.  They certainly bend over backwards in an attempt to make sure you know this.  If your perception is anything other than “my church genuinely loves me,” then continue to check back as I expand and explain in the days and weeks to come.  (Or in some cases, maybe consider showing up on a Sunday morning … just saying …)

As this blog will no doubt demonstrate as time goes on, I am not the only one seeing patterns and themes in youth ministry.  In fact, the nudge that finally got me to start this blog came from the opportunity to finally attend the Princeton Forums on Youth Ministry in Santa Barbara, California this coming week.  It seems as good a place as any to start, since this past week I have become aware that my preparations for going have been much closer to preparations for a pilgrimage than they have been to preparations for a vacation, or a day at school.  I know I’m flying south looking for more than the next big fad in youth ministry.  I’m certainly not looking to pad my facebook friends list.  I think at least a part of me is seeking hope … but I’ll have to explain that later … ‘cuz right now I have a plane to catch!