It's All About Relationships
Alba didn’t feel she had what it would take when I recently asked her to come to our youth camp to be a counselor. A middle aged farmer, recently married without any kids of her own, I could see in Alba’s eyes she didn’t feel up for the challenge. I encouraged her that she would do great with the girls and that she’d have lots of opportunities to build relationships with them during the three day camp. Though I didn’t tell her, for fear that I’d scare her away, I could envision Alba having meaningful conversations with her campers in their cabin at night and I knew she’d speak to their hearts when leading small group discussions. Though she put it off until the last minute (as most Paraguayans do) Alba was there with a bunch of young girls she had rounded up on the morning we were to go to camp. Those girls that she had personally invited as well as others that she met once we arrived at camp were changed by the time they had with Alba. How did I know that this middle aged farm girl from rural Paraguay had what it would take to be an amazing counselor at youth camp? Alba knows little about the social media most of our youth are into, she has a terrible time singing fun songs at youth group and is awkward when playing crazy games. But she deeply cares about the young girls around her and she is willing to step out of her comfort zone to build a relationship with them.
When one studies the context of the Great Shema in Deuteronomy 6 we learn that youth ministry was always to be carried out in the context of relationship. In a relationship adults could orally communicate to their young people about the character and works of God as he or she understood it based on the Scriptures and their experience. The truth stands that it is our responsibility as Christians to teach our children and youth through example and word about what it means to have a living relationship with God. This biblical way of relating to youth is something any adult can do. Like Alba, one doesn’t have to be up on the latest trends and technology in youth culture, they just have to care enough to open up their life to other young people. This relational ministry, when faithfully carried out, can be used by God to awaken faith in a young person’s heart and draw him or her into a living relationship with Himself through Christ. But if we as the Church fail to enter into these types of intentional relationships with our youth, we have no right to expect that God will work in their hearts!
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