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Does The Burden You Have For The Young People You Serve Lead You To Your Knees Or In Search Of Another Curriculum Or Program

 

Today we begin looking at the details of Nehemiah’s four step process for dealing with the burden he had for the people in Jerusalem.  We as leaders should have a burden for the conditions our young people face and an action plan for supporting them.

 

Step 1 – Nehemiah heard the report of his city.  In response, he spent four months of fasting, praying, weeping and mourning.

 

Our communities are deeply broken by the conditions society, some self-imposed, others that have been created.  We face economic breakdown with parental loss of jobs or the inability to acquire employment.  Businesses are struggling or closing.  We face family breakdowns in two family homes, parental relationships and the relationships between parents and kids. Single family homes are overburdened by the responsibility of the one parent.  Our educational system now pits teacher union reps against administration looking to get control of massive budgets; while neither is really focused on the education of our young people.  The young people themselves don’t see the true value of education and the capable ones dummy down to fit in and avoid peer pressure, thus affecting their long-term prospects of economic self-sufficiency.  Our men are being broken by a system that has devalued them and targeted them in a way that makes high school to prison the norm for a large number of our men.  The political system is run by power brokers whose self-interest sacrifices any other efforts.  The little man with few financial resources has no voice.  Services and assistance are being cut or redirected to those who don’t have the greatest need.  People have lost hope and see no way out and are giving up.

The challenges described above are not just in the urban communities; I am describing all communities.  Unfortunately, we don’t always want to face up to the reality of trouble existing in our own community.  By not addressing these head on we leave our young people exposed to deal with what they see, in their own way.  I conducted a workshop, last week, at a suburban youth ministry and after the workshop the adults were amazed at the attitudes of their young people and the experiences they were having.  The youth workers assumed the issues were in the other communities, not theirs.   They said they have “the good kids” but learned they were not equipping the young people to effectively make Godly decisions.   The young people began to discuss not only their issues but also how they felt the youth workers didn’t understood them, were not equipping them or living as an example for them.  This was incredibly eye opening to these youth workers.  This upper middle class, suburban, curriculum rich ministry learned they had not spent much time in collective prayer seeking God’s guidance in equipping their young people to deal with the issues they face.  Now don’t confuse my point; curricula is necessary but not the end all be all to helping our young people grow.

As youth workers and leaders, we have to engage more in the lives of our young people to understand what they are dealing with day-to-day and not assume everything is ok.  Issues may not be the same in every neighborhood, but every neighborhood has issues.  Your burden for the young people should lead you to find your neighborhoods issues.   That search starts with prayer and fasting on their behalf.  Engaging them in conversation about their challenges and taking those issue to the Lord for guidance.

 

The Bible says when Nehemiah heard about the challenges of his people he was grieved –

3And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

 4And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

 5And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:

 

Nehemiah was a middle class person who had a seat at the table with those in control.  He was considered successful and set.  Even though, he was concerned about his people and felt he needed to take action. He knew that phrase the old folks us to say and we must understand today that – “but for the grace of God, go I”.  People have to care and we are the people who have to lead the caring.  Our young people are depending on us to step up and equip them to be able to discern and make Godly decisions.  Stay encouraged. Stay engaged. Stay upon the Wall.  Our young peoples DESTINY demand our diligence.

 

Next week we will look at Nehemiah’s next step after praying and fasting.

 

What is the burden you have for the young people?  How is your team collectively getting it’s understanding?  How are you engaging them?  Join the conversation and be a blessing to someone else.

 

 

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4. You need more than an urban curriculum to minister to urban youth.

GUEST POST: Erick David Townsend

Today we continue are conversations of understanding for those currently ministering or wanting to minister in Urban communities.  Our guest post today comes from a dear friend and partner in Kingdom ministry.  Erick has a heart for young people and is a husband, father, lead worshiper, vocalist, songwriter and has been a celebrated on-air radio personality for Chicago’s top rated Moody Christian Radio.  Erick now host The Urban Message on Total Christian Media.  Notable guest on his show include nationally renowned recording artists Kirk Franklin, Richard Smallwood, Deitrick Haddon, Fred Hammond and Marvin Sapp.

 

 

 

I currently have lived in a Chicago urban setting for more than 10 years and am fortunate enough to have 20 plus years of rearing roots in rural and suburban dwelling places. I agree with JP Paulus’ assessment of issue #2 and believe issue #4’s answer also begins to develop in what most of us, no matter our current living arrangement, have fashioned little time to perfect…more on that later.

 

Today’s technology and social media have made it almost effortless to keep up with whomever we choose, but what about those who are assigned to us? Those who aren’t concerned about the ease of connection, rather wish to see valiant effort.  What about those who have connected with your urban youth group only because of proximity rather than preference? Or even those who can’t see anything other than their desperate need and desire to at the very least, not get lost in the dominant or sub-dominant culture’s priorities, whether on a macro or micro scale. More questions than answers and not by accident.

 

There is nothing more offensive to a young person than giving false testimony.  It is always better to say you don’t know or have yet to experience than to make something that happened to you “fit” into every urban context.  It is understood that we will have transplants or urban immigrants but the way the immigrant handles their adjustment period and assimilation, determines their own effectiveness. Stereotypes and assumptions only render you effective-less. So, is urban curriculum needed, YES!  Is urban curriculum the answer to doing urban ministry effectively, I say NO!

 

As we are finding our gathering of youth, inside and outside of church settings, becoming more and more diverse in culture and ethnicity, how can we expect a “good for the goose, good for the gander” curriculum to address the vast issues of the city?  A common mistake of same color equals same culture, I believe, imprisons us into a mentality of “one size fits all” and what worked for Tyrone will work for Tanisha. What we then fail to see is, Tyrone’s truth has more in common with Becky than he ever will with Tanisha. We have allowed the proof texting of Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” to keep us in a state of “Blind Denial,” when it comes to the diverse and connected issues of today’s youth. Why “Blind Denial” because we take the stance of the famous monkey statue “Hear No Evil, See No Evil” but we forget to “Speak No Evil.” We should instead be freed by that text into understanding that my differences ON the table don’t make us different in the eye of God thus I should be willing to treat my neighbor as myself. Not simply like I like it!

 

The urban places to gather are increasingly becoming places where, Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White are all precious in the owner’s sight (LOL). As the dollar brings us closer together and the economics of today simply force us to actually spend money together, we mustn’t forget that after the transaction, we must live together. Now neighbors by the Bibles calling and by proximity have doubled the need to understand that my example and many others may not be in that workbook of yours.

 

We have all heard the argument of standardized test examples keeping underserved urban youth from excelling but what about the standardized youth group examples that instead of keeping you connected to youth drive you farther away from them and no closer to authentic relationship with Christ? Today’s multicultural, multi-ethnic youth group takes more devoted work than ever before. Which leads me to where I started, piggybacking off of JP Paulus…RELATIONSHIPS. Yes it was the driving force behind Christ’s walk here on Earth and it is the underlying rip current to successful or unsuccessful ministries…Urban or otherwise. When learned how to navigate, rip currents can be a great asset. When ignored, they can be the relational and spiritual deaths of you and all involved. The same is true for urban curriculum.

 

So what do we do as conduits of truth and leaders of our future leaders? Great question! Here are several practical “Duh” answers:

 

–       Be YOU. Don’t try to be anybody else…Period!

 

–       Admit you don’t know. Not only will you learn something new, you will begin to gain credibility.

 

–       Ask if the curriculum example is authentic. Don’t treat the curriculum as the Bible. IT can be wrong in the context of your  urban setting.

 

–       Be willing to look silly (old). There is nothing more rewarding than being laughed at because you were born before cell phones were invented then turned right around and being called on the cell phone and trusted to answer a question that will change their life today.

 

–       Build RELATIONSHIPS not religion. Urban dwelling, in itself, has its own religious practices, by definition of the word religion. In order to gain access to that world, one must be willing to spend the time it takes to establish trust and permission to reveal the way, truth and life.

 

Let’s pick our heads up out of the workbook and work the Book. What do you think? How can we be more effective with the urban curriculum that we have?

 

Please see the links posted by JP Paulus for practical places to further training. If you are feeling brave, there are plenty of hangouts for you to immerse yourself into the urban youth world. Ask for an invite, reply with those you know of and we can provide others.

 

You can hear me Weekdays from 11am-2pm CST on my radio show “The Urban Message” on www.tcmradiostation.com. I can be reached for bookings or comments at erick.townsend@gmail.com.