God will want to do something new - don’t rest on the past

What if God is about doing something new in our youth ministries?

Do you like new things? I love new things. I love new developments and tools in youth ministry.

Most people I know engaged in youth ministry do, but then, are they really new and innovative ideas? Do they reach a young generation of youth in Europe today?

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Maybe you have experienced this as well, you start things and they simply work. To your surprise, you find enough volunteers to run a certain youth programme, parents are generous in their support, the church thinks it is a great idea and the young people actually turn up to your youth meetings and other offers.

It really seems God is on the move and he is up to something in Europe. Everything in your youth ministry becomes a success and you think you have found a key to continue doing what you are doing. I mean, this is just going great!

Next time I will plan and do something, I think back of what had seemingly worked and think, let´s do it again, according to what we have tried in the past.

If only we would repeat it in a similar way, it might just about bring the same results. I am not particularly a traditionalist but often subconsciously I want to do things the same way because they worked once.

It could be the way we do church on Sunday, the way we run youth clubs, the format of engaging with young people and more.

But is God always doing it the same way? Is he simply repetitive in what he does? And can we anticipate what works in youth work in Europe will work in Africa or Asia? Or the other way around?

At a youth leaders´ conference recently a youth ministry leader challenged us youth leaders with this statement: “The biggest barrier in being used by God is having been used by God”.

Let me repeat this: The biggest barrier in being used by God is having been used by God”. It sounds wrong, but the deeds of God can lead me to believe I know what God will do next.

When we start predicting how God should work in Europe, because he has done it like that in the past, this can become a huge obstacle in our youth work.

When I have experienced God using me, I think he will simply repeat it the same way. But there is no automatism with God.

He loves to create. He is about new things. This is portrayed at the end of the Bible in Revelation 21 where God is about creating a new earth and a new heaven. It is in his DNA. He cannot simply repeat himself but create new.

Especially when we hear about the latest reports from the UK (“Quiet revival”) or France (mass baptisms in the Catholic church), we feel, God is on to something new in Europe.

The young generation is much more open spiritually than the former generations. I experience inviting young people to come along for an event, they are more likely to come with me and explore.

One seventeen-year-old young man, who joined my niece and myself, told me after he heard me preach in a local church in Hamburg, “this is the first time I have been to a religious service. It was kind of cool”.

Youth are indeed far more spiritually curious in Europe today than what we have experienced before, and the least reached with the Gospel.

The prophet Isaiah challenges the Israelites in chapter 43:18, “Forget the former things, don ´t dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”

It is far easier to dwell on the past than seeing the new thing. The past can even work against us and become a hindrance to expect something new. We start predicting how God will work.

Isaiah here is challenging us today to observe, to look up, to see where and how God is doing a new thing among our young people and follow his leading.

I am fascinated how Isaiah describes the new things God creates and how varied they might be. One time, God is creating a path through the sea, another time streams in the wasteland. This is a total adventure trusting God´s creative leading.

Within our youth work, we will find people with a readiness to embrace the new but they are not the majority (only 20%, called adapters or change-friendly).

The largest group are neutral, not having decided if they are pro or against change (50%, the neutral or fence-sitters) and the last group are actually resisting change (30%, the resisters).

No matter, where you are in your love for change, God is inviting us to dream change for our young generation in Europe.

Old methods will not reach today´s generation, but collectively and individually we need to discover what God is doing in Europe and partake in the ways he has prepared.

The journey of change can be very challenging, as the graphic depicts the journey of change, but we cannot allow our own feelings, experiences, lack of faith etc. to not come on board to reach our young generation with the best hope we have received.

[photo_footer]Graphic from Be the Change.[/photo_footer] 

As we soon restart youth ministry after the summer and you plan a new project, event, a new branch of your youth ministry, ask yourself, “Is God doing a new thing here?” and then be creative to try something new, experiment small steps, test and try again, listen to the whisper of God and explore what he is up to.

You are invited to be a partaker of God´s new things. And don´t forget, have fun!

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