Subscribe to the NetworkMega Ministry Made Small (well, kind of…)
This past weekend while in Chicago, Rachel and I took the opportunity to visit Willow Creek’s junior high program. Elevate (that’s the name of the ministry) ministers to students in 6-8 grade, meets three times during the weekend and truly is a sight to see. It’s a massive, massive ministry that, IMHO blows away just about every pre-concived notion one might have about ministry in an extremely large setting. I have never seen a large youth ministry do such a good job of feeling small and personable. A few things that jumped out that helped the cause:
- Lots of leaders. Because they have their small group ministry attached to the weekend program, all of their small group leaders attend the junior high service.
- Lots and lots of interactive stuff for students to do before church starts. I’m not talking high budget, high tech stuff, either. Ping pong tables, floor hockey, shooting hoops etc.
- Racks full of bibles. So that nobody feels left out AND so that everybody reads from the same translation, they provide racks full of Bibles for students to “borrow”.
- Student interaction in the service/lesson. During his lesson, Scott did something that you would expect to see in a much smaller, more intimate setting: He asked for a volunteer to come up and read the lengthy passage of scripture in front of the group. He would pause her now and then to expound on a point, clarify a tough word etc.
- Scott teaches…he doesn’t “communicate”. I think this is what stuck out to me the most. I’ve heard Scott teach in a lot of settings and every time I am more and more impressed. Instead of focusing on being a great communicator of his message, he seems to be much more about being a great teacher to young teens. It’s hard to put into writing how different it felt, but it was an obvious difference….and a really, really good one!
Don’t get me wrong; thumb print computer kiosks for check-in, a student band so good they should cut an album, professional grade graphics etc. were reminders that Elevate ain’t your ordinary middle school ministry down the street. But something tells me that to the kids who go there each week, that’s exactly what it is. And that’s exactly what it should be.
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scott & jason & the whole team up there do a fantastic job. i’m wondering if you could fill out a few more details from your post, because i think it has some really good points. first, can you list more of the “lots of interactive stuff”? and secondly, can you expound more on the difference between teaching & communicating? i know you said it’s hard to express, but i’m intrigued to hear more.
jdh,
Let me put some more thought into the “Teaching Vs. Communicating” comment. I will write a post about that in the near future. As for the interactive stuff, it was really pretty basic, but very traditional youth groupy stuff. They had the ping pong tables, a big area reserved for “pick-up” floor hockey and another hoop for “pick-up” basket ball, they had a little crafts table, they had a few little sections of couches with some reading material laid out etc. They meet in a large gymnasium and set their room up every weekend with dividers etc. to create the various spaces.
Thanks for the post Kurt.
My pastor says we need to visit other ministries in order learn and define how do we want our youth service look like… I’m from Costa Rica Central America, and sometimes the only way to visit those places is through internet and descriptions like yours.