Category: Next Generation Ministry

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Stick-men Theology

Family Pic

Perhaps you have heard the age-old adage, “a picture says a thousand words.” If you could invert the family in the picture above by placing the individuals in opposite order (shortest to tallest), and then draw a lined arrow which continues through the last family member, you would be looking at a picture of Next Generation Ministry.

We have become all too familiar with this picture of family members in the form of stick figures placed on the back window of vehicles. We like to count the number of figures and then also notice how many pets the family owns. Pets aside, a family is a unit that grows together. Through thick and then, a family hangs tight. I am sure you have heard of the expression, “a family that prays together stays together.” Most have rephrased this phrase today to say, “a family that plays together stays together.” That mantra has some credence but Scripture is clear that godliness holds value for “all things” while physical training is only of “some” value (I Tim 4:8).

A family left to themselves is never enough. The Bible has mandated in the Old Testament and the New Testament that the family partner with the church in the all-important task of raising children up in the way of the Lord. It truly does take a village to raise a child. Though parents will always be the primary disciple-makers of their children, parents should use the assistance of the local church in order to become a Great Commission family.

In NGM, family ministry is important, but there is more to the picture. Families look different today and churches must remember the spiritual orphan while planning. In NGM, church members can become the adopted spiritual parents for the spiritual orphans in the church. Michael and Michelle Anthony note in A Theology for Family Ministry, “what was once simply referred to as a Nuclear Family in North America has morphed into labels such as Non-Traditional Families, Fragmented Families, Single-Parent Families, Gay-Partner Families, Blended Families, and beyond.” Each church must wrestle with how they will minister to the different types of families found in their community.

The arrow that runs through the ages is the biblical strategy that NGM employs across its age-graded ministries (preschool, children, youth, college). In reality, multiple arrows could run through the age-graded ministry stick figures, representing multiple strategies such as the NGM’s mission strategy, education strategy, evangelism strategy, worship strategy, and so on.

The goal is neither Christian education nor spiritual formation in and of itself, but rather Christian formation. Holly Allen and Christine Ross define “Christian formation” as the process of Christians being formed, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Christians are actively involved in this process both personally and communally.[1] Christian formation is the exact point and place where Christian education and spiritual formation meet. Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman state, “It’s in the marriage of information and formation that we have transformation.”[2]

Transforming students (birth-college) into disciples of Christ is the goal and NGM is the discipleship strategy of choice for many churches!

[1] Holly C. Allen and Christine L. Ross, Intergenerational Christian Formation: Bringing the Whole Church Together in Ministry, Community, and Worship (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012), 21.

 

[2] Anthony and Marshman, 7 Family Ministry Essentials, 81.

 

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Post Olympics: The Divine Gospel Relay

OlympicsThe 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics hosted by Brazil finished up ten days ago. Perhaps no other Olympic sport competition captures the essence of Next Generation Ministry (NGM) better than the 4×100-meter relay race.

Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us to run the race of the Christian faith with perseverance and to fix our eyes on Jesus while running. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7 that he finished his race and that he kept the faith. Paul’s goal in running his race was to win the prize and he trained to win (I Cor. 9:24-27; Phil 3:14). Paul was speaking to training for godliness more than he was speaking to physical training (I Tim 4:7). Paul knew the ultimate prize was Jesus, but Paul also knew the good news of the “glorious gospel of the blessed God” (I Tim 1:11) had been entrusted to him to pass down the torch and legacy of his faith to the next generation. How else could the Great Commission (Mat 28:19-20) be fulfilled and how else could Christianity survive?

Paul was to pass down or handoff his faith to “reliable men” who were “qualified” to teach others (2 Tim 2:2). Paul stressed to his protégé Timothy and the church at Ephesus that they were to compete according to the rules (2 Tim 2:5) in order to obtain the crown. Timothy knew that his faith had been passed down to him from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice (2 Tim 1:5) and that he was to set an example to other believers as he ran his own race (I Tim 4:12). Believers are also told to “contend” for the transfer of faith as it occurs across generations (Jude 1:3) and to not allow anyone to “cut in” on the good race they are running (Galatians 5:7).

Do you know the USA’s Women’s 4×100-meter relay race history? In 1996, the summer Olympics were held in my back yard (Atlanta, GA) and the women’s team won gold! After that, however, the team’s luck ran out. In the 2000 Sydney Olympics (Australia), the US team lost by .25 seconds and finished 3rd after one muffed handoff. We must be careful to pass the gospel off safely and securely to the next generation that is to follow in our footsteps.

After every 100 meters exists a 20 meter exchange zone whereby the baton must be passed in. In the 2004 Athens Olympics (Greece), the women’s team was the fastest and the strongest team, but were disqualified after passing the baton out of the exchange zone. Being disqualified has to be the worst feeling in the world, especially after you know you would have won the race. I recently heard a Pastor say he would rather God kill him than be disqualified.

In the 2008 Beijing Games (China), American runner Torri Edwards was handing the baton off to Lauryn Williams in the final exchange when the baton slipped from Lauryn’s hand onto the track. Lauryn had dropped the baton. Team USA was disqualified again after being in the lead and for the first time in forty-eight years, the team was not allowed to run in the final medal race. The incident reminds me of the time a parent of one of the players on Alabama’s 2011 National Championship Football Team dropped the team’s Crystal trophy. In the case of the USA women’s team, the dropped baton cost the team gold. The gospel is too precious to miss, fumble, slip, or drop out of our hands in the handoff between generations.

Like the good news of the gospel that we are transferring from one generation to another, there is also a good news side of this Olympic story I have shared with you. In the 2012 London Games (England), the USA women’s team experienced clean handoffs at each exchange zone and smashed the world record winning in 40.82 seconds.

The individual 400 women’s meter relay record is held by Maria Kotch of East Germany at 47.60 seconds. Christine Caine in her book Unstoppable (where I’m getting most of my information from) says, “four champion runners collaborating in the relay are faster than a lone champion runner” because the “unified team of four completed their 400 meters a full 6.78 seconds faster.” In the same manner, I prefer next generation ministry to traditional silo’d ministry because parents, students, and leaders form a unified team approach who collaborate together to provide for smooth transitions between age graded ministries from birth through college. Just like the 4 x 100 relay race, a handoff is made three times at and from preschool ministry to children’s ministry to youth ministry to collegiate ministry. In this instance, the finish line is represented by disciples who have been made who in turn are now ready to make new disciples.

In case you did not know and were wondering how the USA Women’s 4×100-meter relay team fared at this year’s Olympics in Brazil . . . they won! After a collision between a Brazil and American runner in a qualifying race disqualified the USA team from competition, the USA team filed an appeal and won. The rest is history!

Sometimes life will knock you down; Don’t quit. The example of the USA team to get back up and the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 3:12-14 remind us to forget what is behind and to press on towards the prize for which God has called us heavenward for in Christ Jesus.

The divine gospel relay is the best race anyone could run. Leaders, let’s use the gifts and talents God has given us to serve Him in this generation.

The race goes on! I’ve talked about not letting past failures hinder you from running your best race but you also must not let past successes stop you from being your best in the future. After all, the women’s 4×100-meter relay team must now prepare themselves for a three-peat at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Reaching the Next Generation (Part 3)

Millennial3

This post is a third post in a three part series on identifying who the next generation is and how the church is to reach them.

In order for the church to reconnect to the next generation, Kinnaman says the church will have to rethink relationships, rediscover vocation, and reprioritize wisdom.[1] Kinnaman says that the church must (1) Cast out fear by discerning the times and embracing the risks of cultural engagement (2) Leave shallow faith behind by apprenticing young people in the fine art

of following Christ (3) Respond to today’s scientific culture by stewarding young people’s gifts and intellect (4) Live by a sexual ethic that rejects traditionalist and individualist narratives of sex (5) Demonstrate the exclusive nature of Christ by rekindling empathy for the other (6) Faithfully work through doubts by doing acts of service with and for others.[2]

To change the perception the church currently has from being un-Christian to Christian, Kinnaman and Lyons say the church must (1) Respond with the right perspective (2) Connect with people (3) Be creative (4) Serve people.[3]

The next generation craves community, depth, responsibility, and connection.[4] The churches that are meeting these needs are (1) Creating deeper community (2) Making a difference through service (3) Experiencing worship (4) Conversing the content (5) Leveraging technology (6) Building cross-generational relationships (7) Moving toward authenticity (8) Leading by transparency (9) Leading by team.[5]

To counter the prevailing Moralistic Therapeutic Deism that is running rampant in the church house today, churches must use the tools they have for “cultivating consequential faith.”[6]

Dean identifies these practices as translation, testimony, and detachment.[7] Rainer states that the “typical Millennial” wants a connected family, wants parental involvement, are diverse, believe they can make an impact on the future, are not workaholics, want a mentor, are green but not that green, communicate unlike any other generation, are financially confused, and are not religious.[8]

In order to reach these Millennials and the unchurched today, Schultz says that church practice must return to (1) Radical hospitality (2) Fearless conversation (3) Genuine humility (4) Divine anticipation.[9] To change the outsider’s perception of Jesus and His Church, Christ-followers need to act in grace and speak the truth in love. The church must embody service, compassion, humility, forgiveness, patience, kindness, peace, joy, goodness, and love.

Not all news is gloom and doom for the church’s next generation. “Lots of information abounds on young people leaving the church. But not all leave; many stay, thrive, and are impacting the world for Christ.”[10] Dr. Alvin Reid has identified some ways that the church can reach and keep the next generation (1) Befriend and mentor someone of the next generation (2) Take students out of the Christian subculture to develop skills and knowledge for interacting with the real world (3) Help students to think and live missional lives now (4) Help young people see how the Bible relates to their career (5) Help students own their faith and see faith lived out in the real world so that they can beyond a check-list Christianity to a lifestyle of following Jesus that matters.[11]

Though a new Pew Research survey found that the self-identified Christian share of the population declined almost 8% from 2007-2014, Evangelicals should not be alarmed. In a USA Today news article, Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of LifeWay Research, states that Christianity is not collapsing but is rather being clarified. Stetzer says that the church is not dying but is being more clearly defined and that churches are not emptying because evangelicals are attending church more than ever before. Stetzer asserts his belief because Pew Research does show that evangelicals in America have risen from 59.8 to 62.2 million in population over the past seven years and that those who self-identify as born-again have also risen from 34% to 35%. Stetzer says that “convictional Christianity” will continue.

Simply put, committed Christians who “value their faith enough to wake up on Sunday morning and head to their local church are mostly still going.” It is the nominal Christian­–people whose religious affiliation is in name only-who are becoming “nones” leading to the shrinking of Christianity in America. Though “Nones” have increased from 16%-23% of the total population over the past seven years, this increase is found to have come mostly from Catholics and Mainline Protestants.[12]

[1] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 202-212.

[2] Ibid, 205-206.

[3] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 206-12.

[4] Stetzer, Stanley, and Hayes, Lost and Found, 67-68.

[5] Ibid, 143-44.

[6] Dean, Almost Christian, 106.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Rainer, The Millennials, 30-48.

[9] Schultz, Why Nobody Goes to Church Anymore, 68.

[10] Reid, Blog, “Thursday is for Training: Keeping the Next Gen in Church,” March 12, 2015.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Stetzer, USA Today, “Survey Fail: Christianity isn’t Dying,” May 14, 2015.

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Reaching the Next Generation (Part 2)

Millennial2

This post is the second post in a three part series on identifying who the next generation is and how the church is to reach them.

In describing the religiously unaffiliated, James Emery White prefers to use the term “none.”[1] White claims that a snapshot or portrait of the average none shows that a none is (1)

Male (2) Young (3) White (4) Not necessarily an atheist (5) Not very religious (6) A Democrat (7) In favor of abortion and same-gender marriage being legal (8) Liberal or moderate (9) Not necessarily hostile toward religious institutions (10) Most likely a westerner.[2] According to Pew Research, the percentage of nones rose from 5 to 15% from 1940 to 1990 but exploded from 21 to 34 % between the years of 2008 and 2012.”[3] White believes this marked difference is due to the secularization, privatization, and pluralization of the modern world.[4]

Why is it that the next generation is shying away from church in larger numbers than years past? The unchurched offer many reasons as to why they avoid church. The unchurched claim church is boring (15%), they are not sure why they do not attend (13%), or that they are too busy (11%).[5] The unchurched perceive church people to be anti-homosexual (91%), judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashion (78%), too involved in politics (75%), and out of touch with reality (72%).[6]

In You Lost Me, Kinnman says that the disconnect with the church that the unchurched experiences is due to the fact that the unchurched perceive the church to be overprotective, shallow, anti-science, repressive, exclusive, and doubtless.[7] “The younger unchurched believe the church is too critical about lifestyle issues, full of hypocrites, and not necessary for spiritual development.”[8] Church refugees also claim they dropped out of church because they wanted a break, they moved to college, or they did not feel connected to the people in their church.[9]

Finally, other reasons given for not attending church come from those who say they do not want another lecture or that God is irrelevant in their life.[10] Katie Galli speaks for many younger adults when she says, “We’re especially disillusioned with the church.

Somewhere between the Crusades, the Inquisition, and fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics, we lost our appetite for institutionalized Christianity.”[11]

The first step for any church that is even mildly interested in next generation ministry is to identify who the next generation is. The second step is to seek to understand what appeals or methods are best utilized for successfully reaching the next generation. Gabe Lyons believes that the next Christians will be (1) Provoked, not offended (2) Creators, not critics (3) Called, not employed (4) Grounded, not distracted (5) In community, not alone (6) Civil, not divisive (7) Countercultural, not relevant.[12]

The idea that Lyons presents concerning the next Christians is one of restoring the culture and the cosmos. The idea of creation restoration is appealing to the next generation not only because they are taken up with social issues but because creation restoration explains in a fuller sense the intent and scope of the gospel and the kingdom of God.

But before the next generation can be creation restorers as God originally intended them to be, they must first be Christians. And in order for one to have his or her soul restored, he or she needs a Christ-follower to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with him or her. The church calls this event and process evangelism.

Unfortunately, White says that the church is avoiding these spiritual conversations thus figuratively closing their front door.[13] “Evangelism is fine in theory but not in practice.”[14] This amounts to the church saying we want the unchurched in heaven but we act like they can go to hell.[15] White claims that a church’s evangelism approach to reach the unchurched must be like an incubator: “Every approach, every program, every service furnishes a particular environment that will either serve the evangelistic process or hinder it.”[16] In reaching the next generation, White also believes the church must offer a cause, be full of grace and truth, establish a new apologetic, be unified, invite the unchurched to church, and renew their own commitment to church.[17]

[1] White, The Rise of the Nones, 13.

[2] Ibid, 22-23.

[3] Pew Research, “Nones on the Rise.”

[4] White, The Rise of the Nones, 45-46.

[5] Ibid, 53.

[6] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 34.

[7] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 92-93.

[8] Stetzer, Stanley, and Hayes, Lost and Found, 65.

[9] Rainer, Essential Church, 3.

[10] Schultz, Why Nobody Goes to Church Anymore, 23-27.

[11] Galli, “Dear Disillusioned Generation,” Christianity Today, April 21, 2008.

[12] Lyons, The Next Christians, 67.

[13] White, The Rise of the Nones, 84

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid, 93.

[17] Ibid, 99-165

 

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Reaching the Next Generation (Part 1)

Millennial1

If you hang around long me enough, you will hear me say, “to reach the next generation, you must know who the next generation is.” This task is easier said than done.

The next generation, also known as Generation Z, the iGeneration, or the Centennials is a complex group that can be divided and appropriated into various subheadings. As it pertains to church attendance, the next generation can be classified into the unchurched, de-churched, re-churched, never churched, or found faithful to attend church.

In their book UnChristian, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons claim that unbelievers are a set that “includes atheists, agnostics, those affiliated with a faith other than Christianity (such as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Mormonism, and so on), and other unchurched adults who are not born-again Christians.”[1]

Lifeway’s research concludes that “more than two-thirds of young churchgoing adults in America drop out of church between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two. Thom Rainer in Essential Church says, “the church is losing this generational battle on two fronts: (1) An increasing amount of young people are deciding to live according to a secular mindset, thus dropping out of church and not returning to church as previous generations did (2) An increasing amount of young people are deciding to drop out of church and not claim the Christian faith of their parents or their grandparents.” [2]

Kinnaman categorizes generational dropouts into three groups: (1) Nomads (2) Prodigals (3) Exiles.[3] Kinnaman describes nomads as those who walk away from church engagement but still consider themselves Christian. Prodigals are those who lose their faith, describing themselves as “no longer Christian.” Exiles are still involved in their Christian faith but feel stuck or lost between culture and the church.

What possible explanation exists for why so many young people are leaving the church today? Perhaps it is because the church has presented the next generation a false gospel. In Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling The American Church (written by Kenda Dean), Christian Smith and Melinda Denton are given credit through their National Study of Youth and Religion (NYSR) in stating that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is “colonizing many historical religious traditions and, almost without anyone noticing, converting believers in the old faiths to its alternative religious vision of divinely underwritten personal happiness and interpersonal niceness.”[4]

Smith and Denton conclude that “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is supplanting Christianity as the dominant religion in the United States.”[5] If this takeover is happening, what are the guiding beliefs to this new religion? Dean lists these beliefs in five summary statements: (1) A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life (2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other as taught in the Bible and by most world religions (3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself (4) God is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem (5) Good people go to heaven when they die.[6]

To follow up on groundbreaking research released in SoulSearching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Teenagers, Smith wrote Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults revealing that 18-24 year-olds comprise six religious types; (1) Committed Traditionalists – no more than 15% (2) Selective Adherents – perhaps 30% (3) Spiritually Open – about 15% (4) Religious Indifferent – at least 25% (5) Religiously Disconnected – no more than 5%, and (6) Irreligious – no more than 10%.  These findings show that 40% of all “emerging adults” (meaning prolonged adulthood) are clearly distanced from religion. Practically speaking, adults are not coming back to church once they marry and have kids  like they once did.

Believe it or not, I am only scratching the surface of who the next generation is and how the church can reach them. This is why I am making this post into a three part series.

[1] Kinnaman and Lyons, UnChristian, 17.

[2] Rainer, Essential Church, 8.

[3] Ibid, 25.

[4] Dean, Almost Christian, 14.

[5] Ibid.

 [6] Ibid.

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Down, Set, NGM NGM, Hut

orange football

My favorite time of the season is just around the corner.  I am not talking about the seasons of fall, winter, spring, or summer.  I am talking about football season!  I travel to nearly all home and away local high school football games on Friday nights and love to watch college football games on Saturday.  I am not as big a fan of the NFL as I am the NCAA game, but I do like to watch the NFL come playoff time.

Though I never played a down of organized football, I played in the roughest and toughest league around.  On various weekdays after school and weekends, my neighborhood teenage friends and I would assemble a game of tackle football.  We would play come rain, wind, or snow.  Our playing surface was a back yard with all of the rocks included.  We did not have helmets to put on and we sure did not use pads.  We became familiar with the ground.  Scrapes and scratches were just a normal part of the routine.  When tackling, we would sling each other around, often going in circles, until one or both players fell down.  Age divisions did not exist.  High school students could toss the middle school students around and middle school students could gang up on a high school student in an attempt to bring the big behemoth down.

Having watched hours of football games and having played hours more of real football and football video games, I have become an expert in understanding the inner workings of the game.  Although watching giants knock the breath out of each is other is appeasing to the eye, what I have really to come to enjoy about football is the strategy employed by coaches.  A team with less talent, less strength, less speed can still win football games if they have the right strategy in place and if their coaches teach proper technique.  As unorthodox as it may sound, football is really just a chess match using people in the place of a pawns.

Strategy is important in ministry too.  If you are a ministry leader and you are not obtaining the spiritual results you desire, you may be in need of adopting a new strategy.  Typically, a lack of effort by ministry leaders is not the problem.  A lack of prayer is another matter, but even with substantial prayer, a weak strategy can produce weak results.  Take the veer offense, for example, in football.  You can pray three times a day to score more points on the field on a Friday night, but chances are that once the game is over, the score on the scoreboard is going to look the same.  Why?  Because the veer, used in the 1970s, has a hard time of keeping pace with the high speed, no huddle offenses used today.  There are always exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, your strategy determines your score.  And your score determines your wins and losses.

I would agree with Thom Rainer in Transformational Church that churches often measure success by the wrong scorecard (bodies, budgets, and buildings).  But I would also suggest that churches measuring success with the right scorecard (read Rainer’s book) are often stuck with weak results because they are using the wrong strategy.  To reach the next generation, church leaders must begin to meet together to discuss the best strategy for this all-important task.  Since the next generation is not coming to church, the church must find ways to GO to the next generation (Matt. 28:19-20).  I would advise the evangelistic method or technique (since I am writing about football) called servanthood evangelism embraced and taught by ministry coach Steven Sjoren (he’s really a pastor).

James Emery White chronicles how evangelism is now both a process and an event in his book The Rise of the Nones.  White declares that the typical unchurched person is no longer simply unchurched, but more than likely is a “none”, meaning that person is unaffiliated with any religion.  Churches and church leaders must be innovative in strategy and patient in work as they help a generation who claims to believe in nothing.  It is not that the next generation will not go to church or will not believe in Christ as Savior.  It is just this process of becoming a church member or even considering the claims of Christ often takes longer today.

Let me option back to football for a moment.  National attitudes about youth participation in football are evolving.  A study conducted in July came out of the University of Massachusetts finding that four out of five parents expressed the opinion that children under the age of fourteen should not play tackle football.  Many rule changes have been adopted by football legislative bodies to make the game safer at all levels.

As a football traditionalist, I do not like all of the rule changes and I think that in some ways the legislative bodies have crossed the line and ruined the game in certain aspects.  But I also have to admit that football is a safer sport and that this is good news overall.

Now, I am going to throw it back to NGM.  It pains me to see the changing spiritual landscape of our great nation.  I would desire that the next generation were already familiar with the Bible’s content and the man named Jesus.  However, 42 BLUE, 42 BLUE – if the sport of football can change for the better, I do not see why churches cannot do the same.  We have the best news in the form of the gospel and we have to find the best and safest way to hand the gospel off to the next generation.  My strategy of choice is NGM!  Let’s circle up and call the right play, BREAK!

 

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Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

Scorpions and NGM, oh My!

I live in the country and am surrounded by trees.  I see all kind of critters.  At times, I observe beautiful animals at work in nature that are rarely seen by others such as woodpeckers, finches, red foxes, and chipmunks.  At other times, I encounter hideous animals which I wish had not crossed my path.  For example, a large oak tree stands next to my back porch.  This tree has a dark hole in it whereby I can stand on my back porch and shine a flashlight down into the hole to see what has crawled inside.  Over the past two years, the hole has been occupied by a rat snake, a possum (which jumped out at me), hornets, and creature(s) you will discover below.

Seeing the best and the worst just comes with the territory.  What I am about to tell you next is the worst and reads like a horror story.  A few nights ago, I was walking in my bare feet in my house with the lights off around midnight when I nearly stepped on a scorpion (think tail up and pinchers out).  As you can tell from the above excerpt, this sighting comes as no surprise.  I knew what needed to be done.  I immediately went to access my pocket knife so that I could divide the scorpion into two.  What happened next, however, is something that I would not have predicted.  Think about the movie Alien (or Tremors) with the little mouth (or worms) coming out of the alien’s (or tremor’s) big mouth or what happens to Gremlins once they touch water.

scorpion

Scorpion babies are born alive and not hatched from eggs like insects (sometimes, mother scorpions even eat their babies).  Once I pressed my knife blade on the back of the queen scorpion, seven baby scorpions jumped out and scattered going in all directions. Now, it was incumbent upon me to save my feet and at the same time track down and kill eight scorpions.  The beast had multiplied in front of my eyes.  To make a long story short, my precious feet were not harmed and I won the crusade by massacring the scorpion empire.  But you may be asking yourself at this point, “what does this horror story have to do with next generation ministry (NGM)?”

Before I give you the “what” answer, you need to understand that any ministry or desired ministry outcomes that you have must start with the question, “Why?” I learned this “what’s your why” principle from next generation guru Dr. Jeff Lovingood, author of Make it Last.  Likewise, Simon Sinek, who wrote Start with Why, says “the why” provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired.  “The why” has nothing to do with money or making a profit.

The purpose or “the why” of NGM is to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20).  Dr. Aubrey Malphurs has correctly stated that a Christian is a disciple.  Jesus expects disciples to grow in their faith from the moment they become his follower.  Next generation ministry is a discipleship process whereby students from the cradle through college worship, study, and serve together as they transition from one life stage to the next.

NGM produces a unity and cohesiveness between age-graded groups.  Overlap occurs in and between preschool, children, youth, and collegiate ministries making the discipleship strategy a team approach.  Since no age group or ministry is left out or considered less than another, disciples are made.  NGM is about multiplying disciples, not dividing ministries.  Students who have been discipled then develop into adults who marry and multiply in the form of Christian families, beginning the discipleship process all over again in next generation ministry, this time with their babies.

Unlike the horror story I shared, the gospel represents a beautiful awe-inspiring redemptive story.  Multiplication is a theme in both stories, but multiplying disciples, not scorpions, is what Jesus has commanded his followers to do.  NGM is a strategy used to accomplish the end-goal of making disciples.

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Leadership Next Generation Ministry

Possible Pitfalls in NGM

pitfalls

The strengths of the next generation ministry (NGM) model are many. I do not just promote NGM because I have studied it.  I promote NGM because I do it and because I believe in it!

There are other ministry models that are worthwhile.  I have much respect for various family ministry models, particularly Timothy Paul Jones “family-equipping” ministry model.  I have dabbled some in the “intergenerational ministry” model espoused by Holly Allen and Christine Ross and Genonministries.org.   I would prefer any of the above mentioned ministry models over traditional children and youth ministry models.

But to be an honest salesman, I need to warn you that NGM is not all peaches and cream.  I need to help you take off any glasses with rose-colored lenses you may be eying NGM through in order to warn you of possible pitfalls.

If left unguarded, NGM can divide a church.  Constant care, attention, and supervision of NGM must be supplied by Next generation leaders.  Words matter.  NGM must always be viewed in the context of the whole church.  The vision of NGM begins and end with a church’s pastor. Though he is not the Next Generation Pastor, he must fully back NGM and promote its value to the congregation.

Next Generation leaders must then be careful not to ostracize any church members from other generations.  Generations nor generational ministries are to be compared to as better or worse than each other.  A senior adult ministry is just as valuable to the church as next generation ministry is.

As a next generation ministry practitioner and pastor in a small rural church context, I email my next generation parents and leaders every week, but my email goes to the entire church.  When next generation events are held, I make sure that everyone in the church knows they are invited and encouraged to attend.

The church is a community.  In the past, various age-graded ministries within what I now call NGM acted as silos and operated unto themselves.  NGM must be just as careful not to isolate itself (though more unified than traditional ministry models) of making the same mistake by separating or distancing itself (birth through young adult) from or against the rest of the church (middle-aged adult and up).  If this happens, a church will still be divided, though the fractions be less (1/2 as compared to 1/4 or 1/5).

In large churches or megachurches, next generation ministry can pose problems if the Next Generation Pastor is not able to work hip to hip with the church’s Discipleship or Adult Education Pastor.  The relationship between these staff members must be a marriage of cooperation and service.

No matter the size of the church, NGM, like any ministry model, will suffer if leaders are not held accountable.  Next generation leaders must be faithful to lead their age-graded ministries and or small groups (life groups, transformation groups, mission groups, etc.).  Next generation leaders who do not show up can stifle the ministry and make life hard on the Next Generation Pastor.

In my small church context, I “float” in between next generation student groups to check up on next generation leaders and or to help when needed.  If one of my leaders do not show up, I can no longer float because I am then required to teach.  In a small church, a Next Generation Pastor is a floater who oversees volunteer preschool, children, and student leaders.

 

 

Categories
Great Commission Next Generation Ministry

What color is NGM?

 

orange

Reggie Joiner, founder of the reThink group and Co-author of Playing for Keeps/Losing your Marbles, has noted how church, represented by the color yellow and family, represented by the color red combine their influences to make the color orange.  The light of the Lord (yellow) and the love of the home (red) “collide” to make an influence that is greater (orange) than either unit operating in and of itself.

Some studies suggest that anywhere from 70-80% of students raised in church drop out of church after high school graduation, with many to walk away from their faith altogether, never to return.  Joiner calls for new strategies to be developed within this church/family partnership paradigm so that young people continue to attend church as they enter college and adulthood.

I believe the comprehensive strategy that Joiner is calling for is Next Generation Ministry (NGM).  NGM encourages the next generation to worship, study, and serve together as they transition from one life group to another.  Joiner emphasizes that once a child is born, a parent has 936 weeks with his or her child until he or she graduates from high school and moves onto college or young adulthood.  In contrast, next generation ministry leaders (pre-school, children, youth) only get 52 weeks (36-40 weeks if you take out holidays, sick days, vacation days, sports, etc.) to influence a toddler, a child, or a teenager for Christ.

In any given year, a parent or guardian has 3000 hours to teach their child the ways of the Lord whereas next generation leaders are given an average of 40 hours at church.  Well-documented research by social scientists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton have taught ministry leaders that parents are the primary disciplemakers of their children.  Long before this groundbreaking research was completed, however, God gave families this time-tested directive in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  Parents were to have faith talks with their children when the child awoke, at their house (breakfast/dinner table, etc.), on the way (to and from school, etc.), and when the child went to sleep.

Psalm 78:1-8 adds that parents were to tell the next generation of God’s commandments and glorious deeds.  There is a faith legacy or torch that needs to be passed down to the next generation and grandparents are often involved in this faith process (2 Tim 1:3-7).

Often included within next generation ministry are milestones, phases, or rite of passage ceremonies.  Milestones can play out differently depending on church context and philosophy. Rather than give you a full myriad of options, I have chosen to list just one faith journey that churches and families can walk together on.  Brian Haynes in his book Shift details seven rite of passage events that the church should partner with the family to celebrate as a student develops through his or her life stages;  (1) The Birth of a Baby (2) Faith Commitment (3) Preparing for Adolescence (4) Commitment to Purity (5) Passage to Adulthood (6) High School Graduation, and (7) Life in Christ.

Next generation ministry encompasses smooth transitions as handoffs are made when a preschooler moves into children’s ministry, a child moves into student ministry, or a teenager moves into a church’s collegiate/young adult ministry.  Rite of passage ceremonies come naturally and assist the discipleship process.  In next generation ministry, a “student” is a baby, child, or a teen.  Next generation leaders work hand in hand with parents and guardians to make disciples of students (Matt. 28:19-20).

 

Categories
Next Generation Ministry

What Is Next Generation Ministry?

World Children…that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, Psalms 78:6 (ESV)

Buzzwords come and go but they can and often do impact the life of a local church.  The words “emerging” and “missional” are just two examples of trendy words that have become commonplace verbiage in many churches.  For example, is there a new buzzword emerging in the church that is also missional in nature?  I think so!

In the secular world, the phrase, “the next generation” is not only catching on but seems to be gaining steam.  Just click on your television and watch the most recent commercials advertising for you to buy a new car or a new phone.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) in Wake Forest, NC has approved a new doctoral degree program which specializes in next generation ministry.  I just happen to be a part of this initial cohort whom is studying and doing research on the next generation.

My research focuses on next generation topics such as millennials, the unchurched, and ways to do next generation ministry.  So what exactly is next generation ministry and how could it impact life at the local church level?

Next generation ministry advances the Gospel through a biblical strategy, collaborating through the local church with parents, leaders, and students for the spiritual formation of those from birth through college.

Businesses are learning in today’s economic climate that they often must do with more with less.  This often surfaces in the form of corporations downsizing or restructuring their organizational structures so that certain positions are eliminated in favor of the creation of new positions which require people to complete more tasks yet often with less resources.

Although a church is not per se “a business,” a church must often learn how to operate like a business while an economy like ours still behaves like it is in a recession.  In other words, many churches today are being forced to look at how they can do more ministry with less resources.

Next generation ministry helps to solve this dilemma as well as the disciple-making dilemma found in many churches today.  Next generation ministry could possibly replace, alter, or tweak many existing models of children and youth ministry.

Next generation ministry says let us take a look at the discipleship process as a continuum that begins at birth and ends at college rather than creating age-graded silos that compete against each other for money, time, and resources.  In other words, let us unify ministry efforts so that we can do more with less.

The way next generation ministry is administered will differ according to the size of the church but the idea remains the same.  Rather than hiring a traditional children and youth pastor, a small or mid-size church can hire a next generation pastor that will place equal value on discipling all age-graded areas from birth through college by working with and training volunteer or paid next generation leaders within all age-graded groups.  A large church or megachurch would have the luxury of hiring a next generation pastor which would then oversee various age-graded pastors on staff (pre-school, children, youth, college) to make sure the adopted “biblical strategy” is kept intact.