Tag Archives: steve argue

church, youth ministry, youth work

FRIDAY NUGGET: Stop Wrecking It for the Rest of Us!

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a few years ago now, i lead a discussion at a convention about ‘the future of youth ministry.’ in prep for that, i’d asked for quotes from a variety of youth ministry thinkers. steve argue, the brilliant pot-stirrer who was just hired as a youth min prof at fuller, sent me the following e-grenade (put your kevlar vest on before reading!):

Hey church, adolescents are NOT leaving you. You are perpetually leaving them. Stop using statistical bullsh*t to project blame. Repent.

Unless you’re willing to let adolescents mess with your own life, you have no business messing with their lives.

Most churches are not worthy of youth pastors. Youth pastors, stop giving yourself to organizations that use you to better “market” their church to families; that expect you to “produce” programs; and that exploit you because they know it’s hard to leave the kids you love. Walk away. Don’t take the job, because if you do, you’re wrecking it for all of us. Raise the bar. Boycott churches unworthy of youth pastors. Amen.

the youth cartel, youth ministry, youth work

middle school ministry campference, day 2

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ok, i know this event is my baby, and that i’m biased. but i really don’t think i expected the middle school ministry campference to go this well. it’s not that i thought it was going to go poorly; i just don’t know that i expected this.

jason hoffer, our wonderful host from springhill camp, was standing with me in the “game room” tonight, a large room full of booths, tables, ping pong and pool tables. and we were seeing dozens of clusters of middle school youth workers, just hanging out together and having fun. some were playing games. others were debriefing the day or getting to know each other better. and jason said, “this is what i always hoped this event would be.”

after breakfast this morning, we had morning breakout sessions, including dialogues on a cool variety of themes. people were totally ‘in’. my morning session was on the implications of recent adolescent brain research; and we had a lively discussion that felt like a group of friends brainstorming together.

we went straight to our morning tribal gathering. scott rubin and brooklyn lindsey led a hilarious game that only partially worked, which was part of the hilarity. we’d found these stuffed angry birds at walmart, and staged a large scale “angry birds live”, with youth workers launching angry birds using a slingshot aimed at a pile of boxes with stuffed angry bird pigs here and there. the ‘camp mail’ letters from senior pastors blessed everyone again, as did johnny scott’s worship leading. then steve argue gave an amazing talk about how we move (and how we help middle schoolers move) through fear and doubt to faith. he talked about faith as a verb, and walked us through peter’s steps on the water as an example of moving from one place of faith, through fear and doubt, to a new place of faith.

after lunch, we had another series of breakouts, and were then on to free time. now, since this is a campference and not a conference, free time included:

  • ziplines
  • horseback trail rides
  • paintball
  • climbing wall
  • high ropes course
  • a texas hold-em tournament
  • a dodgeball tournament
  • and lots of hanging out and talking

after dinner, we had another tribal gathering. kurt johnston and brooklyn led pingpongpalooza, we gave out a bunch of funny prizes, johnny led worship, i read camp mail, and we had a wonderful talk from michael flaherty. mike is the founder and CEO of walden media, the producers of all the narnia movies, as well as dozens of other films, including holes, bridge to terabithia, and charlotte’s web. mike told stories, which was awesome. he included much of his own story, and riffed a bit on the power of stories to shape us (and middle schoolers). he included lots of cool insider stuff, and responded to lots of questions. mike is the real deal, coming to the MSMC at his own expense, and staying with us for the entire weekend. his presence and engagement with people was a great gift.

then, free time again this evening, which included the game room i mentioned at the beginning of this post, as well as indoor high ropes and climbing wall, and a euro-bungie. we ended the night with a campfire, complete with campfire songs.

yup, another amazing day. oh, and the sun broke through the clouds today (which wasn’t forecast), which was a huge answer to prayer.

i came into this event wondering if we should repeat it. but i’m starting to think we simply have to find a way to do it again next year.

the youth cartel, youth ministry, youth work

last chance on MSMC, a new main session speaker, and two free tix

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the middle school ministry campference is just a little over a week away, staring next friday (october 14 – 16). as i work on final details, my excitement and anticipation continues to grow. i just know we’re going to have great conversations and a tub o’ fun.

three things i wanted to mention here today:

FIRST: it’s not too late to join us. sure, the price is an extra twenty five bucks because you missed the deadline. but even at $350, this thing is a deal of the youth ministry training world (since fine dining and accommodations are included!).

SECOND: i’m stoked to announce that steve argue has joined us as our final ‘tribal gathering’ speaker. steve is a deeply good guy, a brilliant thinker, and a local church youth ministry practitioner. after a bunch of years in youth ministry training and teaching youth ministry at colleges and seminaries, steve is back overseeing youth and children’s ministries at mars hill bible church.

THIRD: (and this is way cool…) a particular church in ohio had registered and paid for four spaces early on. then their junior high pastor, who had registered for the spots, moved on. the other day, the student ministries pastor at that church contacted me to let me know they would like to give their FULLY PAID spaces away to someone who would benefit from them. i announced this to the wonderful people who have ‘liked’ The Youth Cartel facebook page, first, and two of the spots are now gone. but i have two left. you can win one or both of them. and all you’d have to do is get yourself to springhill camp for the event (since everything else will be taken care of).

i’m going to limit this to people who can join us for the whole weekend (in other words, you can’t get the free spots if you’re only going to join us for one overnight).

here’s how we’re gonna do this. send me an email ([email protected]) if you’re interested. and tell me two things:
1. why you want to come to the event
2. what nice thing you’ll do for the youth pastor who gave up these spots (and isn’t expecting anything in return)

i’ll pick a winner friday at noon (pacific, october 7), so act fast!

church, youth ministry, youth work

the future of youth ministry, episode 6

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i led a late night discussion at the national youth workers convention this past fall on “the future of youth ministry”. in preparation for that discussion, i emailed a few dozen friends with better youth ministry minds than my own, and asked them to complete the sentence, “the future of youth ministry….” about 15 of them responded (often with more than a sentence!). i’m posting them here as a series, sometimes with a bit of commentary from myself, and sometimes merely as a reflection-prod. would love to hear your responses.
part 1 (searching for the right way)
part 2 (discipleship, barriers)
part 3 (intergenerational ministry)
part 4 (parents)
part 5 (re-weird-ifying christianity)

*************

holy cow, steve argue comes out swingin’ and gets in three or four punches before anyone even realized the bell rung. dude.

but if we all dodge to the left for a brief second, we can see that steve – another of the most brilliant minds in youth ministry; a guy who could out-intelligent me with his eyes closed and one arm tied behind his back – offers up some significant fodder for consideration.

steve has a serious youth min pedigree, with a buncha cool roles. currently, he’s on staff at mars hill bible church in grand rapids (where rob bell is the teaching pastor), where he oversees birth through emerging adults; he’s an adjunct professor of youth ministry at grand rapids theological seminary, and a phd student at michigan state. he writes regularly for slant 33 and other publications. and he might just have the coolest hair of any middle-aged youth worker out there.

i’m choosing to leave the swear word in his quote, hoping your church email filter will let it slip through. after all, it kinda seems the appropriate word, and is close to one used by the good ol’ apostle paul:

Steve Argue
Hey church, adolescents are NOT leaving you. You are perpetually leaving them. Stop using statistical bullshit to project blame. Repent.
Unless you’re willing to let adolescents mess with your own life, you have no business messing with their lives.
Most churches are not worthy of youth pastors. Youth pastors, stop giving yourself to organizations that use you to better “market” their church to families; that expect you to “produce” programs; and that exploit you because they know it’s hard to leave the kids you love. Walk away. Don’t take the job, because if you do, you’re wrecking it for all of us. Raise the bar. Boycott churches unworthy of youth pastors. Amen.

let’s unpack this a bit.

first, steve addresses churches. he pokes, in a very un-zuckerburgian manner, at the raft of studies we all quote these days about the high percentage of post-high school teenagers leaving the church. he suggests we rethink who’s leaving whom, with the inference that the church has “left” teenagers long before the physical absence of those emerging adults. church embody this “leaving”, according to steve, by viewing youth ministry primarily in utilitarian terms — as a means of attracting families (with a between-the-lines inference to donors).

just when we think steve is leading the charge for all of us youth workers, he spins around and stares us down: stop perpetuating this messed-up system by finding job security in churches with this mindset.

oof. that one stings a little. and i think it stings because there’s at least some truth in it.

this all feels very yaconelli-esque to me: it finds harmonic resonance with “getting fired for the glory of god” and “run for your soul.” it gets me excited and pumping my fist in the air.

but.

i know so many youth workers for whom this is so complex. i like (really, i do!) steve’s black-and-white battle cry. and i’ve often found that it’s in that kind of hyperbole that we find the courage to take the baby steps we need. after all, jesus didn’t literally mean we should pluck out our eye or chop off our hand. so what’s the deeper meaning — the implied meaning, for your context — of what steve is yelping for us to see?