People of Transition

“Why do you like youth ministry so much? Clearly, you could do other roles in the church?” 

I think it’s a conversation so many of us in youth ministry have had repeatedly. In this case, it was a casual conversation with another pastor on our staff while we attended a conference.

“I love this time of life. They are in transition.” 

But, when you think about it, it goes deeper than that.

People of Transition: Students

Middle and high school students are obviously in transition. There’s the physical impact of puberty. There’s the emotional and psychological emergence of all sorts of brain development. There’s the social convergence of developing friendships based on affinity versus proximity. There’s the sudden awareness of their sexual self, manifest in crushes and dating and all that goes with it. And, relevant to the church, this is an incredible time of faith formation.

This is a tremendous opportunity for youth ministry because if you can point a teenager to Jesus in this time of transition they can and will do amazing things with this faith in Jesus. History has proven time and again that great movements of the church are fueled by teenagers and adolescents.

People of Transition: Parents

Not to be lost in the big and obvious transition of teenagers is the transition of parents of teenagers.

Parenting a teenager is flat out different than parenting an elementary-aged kid. So that’s a transition right there… things that “worked” for a 5th grader just aren’t working, and parents have to wrap their heads around figuring out how to parent a child who is much closer to adulthood than infancy.

At the same time, parents in this age group are dealing with their own transitions. They’ve left the educational years in the rear-view mirror, they are invested in their careers… for some it’s going great and for others its a disappointment. Moms especially, seem to be transitioning out of wrapping their lives up as a “mommy” and figuring out what life is like without kids needing her all the time.

And, if married, there’s a whole myriad of stuff going on in that 10-20 years of marriage thing. It’s a marriage in transition.

People of Transition: Youth Workers

Lastly, let’s not forget our tribe itself. The past few weeks has been a reminder that we are a people of transition ourselves.

• Since we trend younger, we tend to move around vocationally and educationally.
• Since we trend younger, we tend to experience dating, engagement, marriage, babies, and all of that is transitional.
• Since we trend newer in church leadership, we tend to be still sorting out things like organizational fit. And since we’re lower on the totem pole we tend to get bounced.
• Since we trend younger, we tend to take more chances, see things as easier to fix, and are less likely to be effective leaders, meaning we get in over our heads or end up on organizational islands… which means we either get bounced or mess up so bad we need to bounce!

Ministering to People in Transition

As I’ve been reflecting on what it means for me to minister to teenagers, parents, and youth workers in transition I’ve been continually pushed back to stories of transition in the Bible.

Over and over again I see this pattern: In Scripture, people who step out willfully (or are forced into) times of transition depend the most on God as their provider, protector and source of wisdom and strength.

I’m thankful to God for putting me in the lives of people who are in transition. And I’m fully enjoying the irony that in His wisdom He’s placed me in a position to speak truth into the lives of transitional people.

We just chose to label these groups of transitional people in the church as “youth ministry.”