Old School Youth Ministry
My first youth ministry job was in the summer of 1989 in Los Angeles at The Church On Brady, which is now called Mosaic. So I have been in youth ministry in some form for almost 20 years. As I was reflecting back and comparing how youth ministry has changed I was embarrassed and dumbfounded at some of the things I did as a youth pastor in terms of programming. I can’t believe students actually showed up and were honestly exicted when we did them. Here is a random order of things I have done in the past: I call it Old School Youth Ministry
1. Once called our discipleship groups “Get Nailed Teams” (like in nailed to the cross).
2. I used to teach through every Dawson Mcallister manuel with overhead transparencies and fill in the blank note sheets for students. (my favorite as well as the students was his book on the Rapture)
3. I once called our youth building the F.R.A.T. House (Friends Reaching Area Teens) Nothing like a safe place for teens with a reference to the family friendly movie Animal House.
4. I bought the Al Denson Youth Chorus Kit and I used to lead worship through cassette tapes. Here is a sample song set:
Pharoah Pharoah
Lean On Me
I am Somebody
Jesus Is The Answer For the World Today
Humble Thyself in the Sight of The Lord (1st guys, then girls, and then in unison.)
Be The One (make sure you dim the lights… if your real creative give each student a candle…high impact)
5. When they were bored of Al Denson songs I would then lead with real CD’s. I used to do:
The DC Talk Version of: Lean On Me
Carmen’s: JC is in the House
Geoff Moore’s: Friend Like U
Audio Adreneline’s: Big House (we brought the house down)
6. Did the Video Series: Hells Bells - to cleanse my kids from rock music.
7. For shock value I went all Tony Campolo and said on several occassions “your friends are going to hell and none of you give a shit.”
8. Created the the sweet slogan for our youth ministry: “Catch a Vision Change The World”
9. Showed the Jerry Jonston’s video series: “Why Suicide” (it was great he talked to demons)
10. Spent hours on weekly announcement sheets to give the appearance our youth ministry was fun, cool, hip and that there was a lot going on. (picked up 90% of them off the floor every week but damnit it looked cool)
11. To inform parents about youth culture and demonstrate how culturally relevant I was I showed the grammy award video of Pink, Christina Aguleirra, and Lil Kim’s version of the 70’s soul song Lady Marmalade. (some parents walked out so I know my effort was successful)
12. In an effort to stay cool, relevant, and protect kids from boredom I changed our Wednesday Night name 3 times: from Solid Rock to Impact to 360 Turnaround.
13. Showed the Micheal W.Smith video “Secret Ambition” almost every easter in Sunday School (he has a great mullet in this video)
14. Here are some high impact phrases I used frequently in youth talks:
“If your too busy for God your busier than God intends for you to be.”
“If you are asking the question how far is too far then you are already asking the wrong question.”
“Go as far as you would go if you knew Jesus was standing beside you.”
“Girls if it ain’t for sale then don’t advertise it.”
“God can take a mess and turn it into a message.”
“Bow your heads and close your eyes…if you were to die tonite do you know for certain…”
I just have one thing left to say “what the hell was I thinking”. Holla back now!
September 13, 2007 at 7:32 pm
“Holla back ” nothing worse than an old person trying to be funny or trying to sound young.
Like your misguided choices you list this is yet another to add to the list.
The situations you mention are simply another example of what is wrong with youth ministry and many youth pastors. 20 years has not changed this.
September 13, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Annonymous
I’m not sure what point you were trying to make or what your assumptions about me are.
I wasn’t trying to sound young or hip. It was meant to poke fun and
laugh at myself, to indirectly critique what youth ministry was (and in some places still is), and to confess that I can’t believe I thought all of those things were real ministry.
I still work with students today and if I was to do any of the above mentioned things they would laugh me out the door. Which seems to indicate that students are recognzing the superficiality components of youth ministry.
So relax take a chill pill and have fun with it.
September 13, 2007 at 10:56 pm
I loved Pharoah Pharoah. Good stuff. Hollah!
September 14, 2007 at 12:51 am
Len,
Thanks for stopping by. I am trying to imagine what it might look like if Dave Crowder started a worship time off with Pharoah Pharoah.
September 14, 2007 at 1:35 am
gotta love the mullets man!
September 14, 2007 at 4:06 am
I was in your former youth group, and coincidentally, was google-searching old friends and teachers today. I was REALLY sad to read these comments. I hope that you did not mean them the way that they sound. I always respected you and looked up to you—and then now I’m reading that this was all a fake? I believe that God does bring us through various levels of maturity throughout our life and does teach us as we go—but it doesn’t mean that earlier ministry is completely ineffective and completely unuseful. God looks at the heart, and if the heart has false intentions and superficial motives, I do believe He will judge that. Even though I appreciate that they are people too, I would like to hope that leaders in ministry are not superficial/fake/phony/etc. That is why I was discouraged to read your comments.
September 14, 2007 at 6:05 am
So are you saying I should stop showing my VHS version of Secret Ambition and stream it live from youtube?
September 14, 2007 at 6:08 am
I bet you have the entire “Fire by Night” Series as well as Carman’s copy cat videos. Does anyone remember what they were called?
September 14, 2007 at 6:13 am
Sorry for the multiple comments. They were called Time 2 and they are still for sale for only 4.95 each a carmen.org
September 14, 2007 at 8:43 am
Former Youth,
Since you didn’t leave any contact information or identify yourself I am not sure who I might be talking to. I have served in 5 different churches so I am not sure at what point in my ministry you might be refering to. I would love for you to e-mail me and we can converse that way, and perhaps clear up any misunderstanding.
But for now I will simply say I don’t believe that everything I did was fake nor insincere, at the time I really beleived that this is what youth ministry was really about….flashy programs, cool messages, catchy slogans and logos, lots of activities…hip names for our youth mnistry…cool looking T-shirts. Looking back what I learned was that youth ministry is not really about any of those things.
I think and hope I did some things right and hopefully made a difference in the lives of some students. Not everything I listed was meant to be taken that they were all bad things…much of it was a nostalgic look back at what most youth ministries looked like and how different the emphasis is today, and that there is a paradigm shift happening today.
Hope that clears some things up but seriously e-mail me Dzaragoza@cox.net and we can talk further.
September 14, 2007 at 8:50 am
Topherspoon,
thanks for stopping by…no worries about the multiple comments it will just appear that this is a really hot conversation
I did have some of the Fire By Night videos…plus I remember wathing “Real Videos” on TBN late Friday and Saturday nights…I would record them so I could show them on Wednesday nights…
September 14, 2007 at 8:55 am
Dude, I was laughing so hard reading this I nearly pee’d. I remember the Dawson conferences, Denson, all of that stuff. And the songs, oh the songs.
In honor of anonymous I’m going to randomly say “holla” until I’m at least 70 or 80 years old, at all the wrong times and places.
I hope your former student knows that all of us who chased those things did it because we believed that’s what was needed to reach students. I believe our hearts were in the right place, but looking back now some of those things are so apparently misguided that all you can do is laugh.
loved reading this
September 14, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I used to be in youth ministry. In fact I still am because I have teenage kids, and those kids have friends. But I’m not “in” youth ministry at the local church level anymore. Except that our youth minister just asked me to lead a Sunday night missions emphasis.
Anyway - I don’t think any of us “intentionally” were fake, or insincere or any of that 20 + years ago. We were doing the best we could as leaders in difficult situations with an ever changing youth culture and serving in churches that had 1950’s mindsets.
On top of that we were trained at seminary by people who had 1970’s mindsets (who most people were suspicious of because they were so “cutting edge” - even though they were 20 years behind themselves.
So, the one thing I still think about from those days was when I would actually say “if you don’t stand up for Jesus before others on earth, then Jesus won’t stand up to God on your behalf” or somesuch statement.
God worked in those settings despite my weakness - thankfully He is stilll working today even though those serving in leadership have weaknesses.
September 15, 2007 at 1:10 am
David,
Thanks for your insight…good thoughts….look forward to hanging out with you more often.
September 17, 2007 at 5:57 am
It’s not just the message but the medium you use to reach teens that has changed in the last 20 years.
The Pew Institute has done some great studies on instant messaging and teens. Much of what they found will likely reinforce what you already know, but some of the findings are eye-opening stuff.
I’ve got a link to their latest report @ http://hismedia.wordpress.com/2007/09/16/omg-txt-gr8-vfmm-text-messaging-is-a-great-value-for-ministry-money/
Blessings,
-jack-
September 17, 2007 at 10:21 am
I once encouraged a group of youth to get “Cross-eyed”. What was I thinking?!?
September 28, 2007 at 2:38 am
We’re we leading the same ministry? Man you sure did a good job of describing my ministry 20 years ago. I wonder what we will be thinking 20 years from now about what we are currently doing.
October 27, 2007 at 7:29 am
Topherspoon,
I wrote one of the sketches on the Time 2 video titled “On Abortion.” The one I wrote is the Nazi criminal on trial juxtaposed with the “20/20″ type interview. I never saw the Fire by Night series, but worked in one as an actress. I think, however, they canceled that one. I worked for a while in youth drama ministry. I wrote many plays that we performed. Now I am working on screenplays.
April 16, 2008 at 12:08 am
hey dino..stumbled across this blog and found this to be the funniest thing ever! you KNOW that the f.r.a.t. house was where the party was at every wednesday!