A youth minister, a theologian, and a tech guru log onto Twitter…
So began a theological debate last week about mission trips carried on in 140 character increments amongst Andy Root, Adam McLane, and myself. It all started when Andy posted this little snippet of theological provocation:
the point of mission trips is to invite kids to witness in their feeble acts to the promise of God’s action to make all things new.
Adam’s response was:
Maybe in an idealistic world. But in the practical world of YM, there are many different reasons/justifications for missions.
And my contribution to the topic was:
I don’t think it’s idealistic. Our mission trip theme last year was (God’s coming) “shalom” and we talked about exactly that.
The way I read it, we were approaching mission trips from three different perspectives:
- A theologian
- A person who interacts with tons of different churches, youth ministers and youth groups
- A person who primarily works and ministers within a specific local context
Adam wasn’t necessarily disagree with either Andy or myself, but saying that, for the most part, “most youth groups don’t think theologically about much.” He also said that “Most youth groups aren’t as sophisticated as yours. There are a lot of youth groups on trips.” That Adam used the word “sophisticated” to describe our youth ministry was quite surprising. I would expect that if anyone ever came to observe or research the way we do youth ministry at our church they would be significantly underwhelmed. To me our youth ministry isn’t sophisticated, at all. In fact, it’s pretty simple. No bells, no whistles, no lights, no fog machines, no in-house videos. That stuff sounds sophisticated to me. I don’t have the time or creative energy to mess with that stuff.
I do try to ground everything that we do theologically, but to me that isn’t sophisticated. Theology can’t be sophisticated because it permeates everything we do, whether we acknowledge it or not. So, whether a youth minister is a seminary grad who reads obscure theology journals on weekends or is a volunteer who has only been theologically trained through Sunday school classes the net result of our ministry is the same: theology–what we believe about God–is communicated through our practice. But we need to help people interpret our practice since we are “hermeneutical animals.”
That’s where theology comes in. Rather than going on a mission trip to “help people,” we are witnessing to the hope that the Christian community confesses in a God who will one way restore all things unto himself and make all things new and whole. Any group can go and help people. There’s nothing distinctly Christian in helping people; it’s just pragmatic. But a pragmatic approach falls short: people will be hungry again tomorrow, houses will continue to deteriorate and need further repair, another hurricane will come and do damage again. Practically speaking, mission trips make no sense because they are lessons in futility. The work is never finished, there is often more to do, and many times the people don’t deserve our help. However, the point is not to practically help, but it witness to our hope in God. So, even though drug addicts are laying in a bed of their own making, we still feed them because we too are unworthy of the grace given to us in Jesus Christ. And even though that house will need to be repainted again in another 20 years, we paint the house because we are witnessing to the day when God will make all things new and there will be no more pain, nor more decay, no more deterioration.
It’s really not that sophisticated. Christians believe in heaven and Christians believe in forgiveness by grace alone through faith, so I interpreted the practice of mission trips through those lenses. That’s all it means to do youth ministry with some sort of theological foundation. All we have to do is to interpret our practice through simple lenses like that in order to help our communities understand the point of why we do what we do. Left to themselves, they will interpret practice through the lens of cultural norms. Our job as leaders in the church must be to take those actions and reclaim them for the purpose of forming people in faith.
I think that Adam was right in saying that some people don’t think very theologically about youth ministry because it is too sophisticated. But why?
Is it really that sophisticated? Where have we gone wrong in our churches to make people think that they are incapable of thinking theologically (when in reality is is impossible to avoid)? Can theology be reclaimed by laypeople in churches? Can volunteers lead theologically robust mission experiences? How can we help them do that?
Thanks for sharing all this. I think the challenge is that many youth ministries put thinking theologically way down on their list of priorities, below such concerns as increasing their numbers and keeping youth from being bored. I think your understanding of mission trips is helpful, and it’s worth remembering that the work each individual mission group does is just part of the total effort of the whole Church (big “C”) to witness to and participate in God’s mission.
Wow, great thoughts! I have struggled through almost the exact situation. I have been in churches where we went on missions trips and now serve one that we don’t. All of those were intentional, though some would not have been theological decisions.
Sophists?
It seems to me that most people make decisions very simply from whatever it is that they want to do. Most sophistication or complication of that decision comes more from trying to understand that decision or explain/justify it.
Where did we go wrong?
I don’t know that there is an answer to this, but I served a church in a denomination that prides itself on having theology figured out (you wanna guess which one?) and my situations were full of people trying to sound more like professors than teachers probably to sound or look smarter than they really were. Yeah, that’s a chip on my shoulder.
Possibilities?
Can it be reclaimed, can theology come from odd sources, etc.? I think it is. What I see around my area is that teens especially are having to decide for themselves what they believe because there are so many different ideas being presented to them. Church says one thing, TV says another, there own loves say some else entirely, etc. Pluralism, though viewed as detrimental, seems to be having a good impact on many of the people I work with because thy have to figure all this stuff out for themselves and decide which they believe.
As people who give spiritual direction to others, we can help them using theology to understand what they believe and why they might believe it over all the other systems of belief in place.
Just my two cents.
I guess part of my concern is that people think they can make a decision or build a ministry a-theologically. By that I mean that they believe that they not making a theological value judgment when taking an action. My contention is that you are forming people theologically whether you think you are or not, so you had better own up to it and make sure your practice lines up with your theology.
I too have worked at churches where everything was “figured out” theologically, and yet that articulated theology was seldom put into practice in a way that reinforced the stuff that was coming our of our mouths. It’s as if our churches have multiple personality disorder: one kind of theology is coming from the pulpit, but another kind of theology is coming from our practice and ministry.
I totally get the multiple personality disorder! Great way to describe it.
Maybe this is a semantics problem for me (and possibly others). I think most people think “Biblically based” when they hear theology of ministry. I don’t think there is a thing done in anyone’s life that isn’t theologically centered, though we don’t think of it that way. So, to be clear, theology=what we believe about God, even if we don’t believe his existence.
I don’t think there is a definite way or reason for a mission trip. I think there can be many & it is based on the context of the group & the context of the trip destination. So whether or not we craft up well-worded statements regarding what our mission trip is for, Youth Pastors can’t create that, they can only describe it.
OK, now more than 140 characters.
Having a paid staff member automatically makes your youth ministry more sophisticated than probably 75% of youth groups out there. Most youth groups are run by volunteers who just said yes or accidentally raised their hand in a congregational meeting or because they have a kid in the youth group. So, “most” youth groups just kind of happen sans specific purpose. They do what the youth leader did when she was a kid in youth group. They play the games she liked and sing the songs she liked and she teaches things that she remembers as important.
There is great thought put into those types of ministries… but they are pretty simple and lacking in sophistication. (like specific training, formal education, etc.) If you asked them what their philosophy of ministry was and how a mission trip fit into that… I’d hazard a guess that they couldn’t articulate “why” they just know that it works and that it meant a lot to them in their own spiritual formation.
So, idealistically… it would be great if youth groups went on mission trips with an understanding of why they are going and how it fits into the greater scheme of their discipleship plan. I mean, wouldn’t that be cool? I just don’t think that a high percentage of folks can articulate it quite as theologically as Dr. Root would like.
Thanks for jumping on that little exchange. It was fun. 🙂