By Kenny
As I said in my previous post, I am heading into my first year in fulltime youth ministry. There a couple of prospective churches that I may get a position at and a few other churches I have looked into – all of which are about the same demographic and all of which the position would be categorized as traditional church based ministries.
Today in class we got to hear from five extraordinary people who are during incredible things in the Spokane area. Each of their ministries is doing something rather unique and would not likely be categorized under ‘traditional’. As each person shared their story I began to think more and more, “Is doing youth ministry in the contexts which I have sought out, enough?” I understand the importance of youth ministry in every demographic. I feel that youth in affluent areas need the same love and guidance of Christ as youth in poorer areas. The confliction I am feeling is that there are likely much less youth pastors/directors/leaders in areas of high poverty or inner-city areas than there are in the affluent areas. Therefore, there would seem to be a greater need for more youth leaders in the inner-city/poorer areas. I wonder then, am I being more missional if I seek out a potentially greater need in the realm of youth ministry? I feel that I do have a set of skills that make me capable, especially in inner-city youth ministry, to lead an affective program and I believe God could easily use me 
in those areas, but I worry about my ability to relate. I simply do not come from a background of poverty or inner-city life and I am concerned that if I cannot relate to the youth then my attempts at a speaking truth into their lives might fall upon deaf ears. Of course I could relate to the struggles of life to a degree – problems with relationships, doubts of faith and all the temptations that surround us, but I do not know what it is like to go without food for an extended period of time or how to deal with something like gang violence.
I know my vocation is youth ministry. I know God is going to use me to love youth. I just am not sure in what exact context. I thought I did – but maybe I wasn’t thinking drastically enough. I see a need but I don’t know if that outweighs the needs of youth in a demographic that I more comfortable with and that I myself experienced growing up. Advice?
KH
A thought I just had as I was reading your post and reflecting on our time with the panel of guest speakers today was that most if not all of those speakers/guests today as far as I could tell came from an affluent or privileged background. Three of the six went to Whitworth. So I going to assume that working with youth that have grown up in a different environment than themselves was new to them as well. Like Danielle said God has a tendency to use passions to advance His Kingdom. If your passion is for serving youth and entering into the pain and the brokenness of their lives God will enable you to adapt or adjust in the ways He sees fit.
Kenny,
Today Tom (The Youth for Christ guy) said something that I think may apply to your situation. He talked about how when he was in college he was constantly asking God “What do you want me to do?”. Tom later realized that his biggest priority is to be in relationship with the Lord and to love him. So many Christians are getting burned out because they are trying to do something, when they should be trying to be something.
So my advice is this. Get on your knees and ask God how “you can best love him”. Ask the Lord to enlighten and empower you through the Holy Spirit as to which choice is the correct one. And pray and pray and pray until you get an answer. The last thing you want to do is go into a mission field without the power and blessing of the Spirit because without his help, nothing eternally good will come of it.
Kenny,
I like your thoughts. You are on a journey that I doubt will be completely settled – maybe ever. Remember, we need to stay in the place of creative tension. Perhaps you will spend time in a variety of contexts. The key is to be with or near whoever you are seeking to influence and love well.
Hmm this is a tough question and good arguments could probably be made for both possible directions. I think that it is true that it might be easier to be effective working in a context where you are more comfortable and familiar with the kids’ backgrounds. I also believe that it is really important to challenge yourself and not just stay where you will be most comfortable. If you did choose the inner-city type option you would probably quickly become familiar and connected with their stories even if you didn’t grow up in that context yourself.