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This is part of our e-journey through the gospel of John. This week’s from John 17.
I was interviewing in Little Rock for the Grace youth pastor position. I was in a room full of ministry volunteers and leaders. I was getting informed of the student culture of the area and the church.
“We have private school kids, home-school kids, public school kids, and private Christian school kids. How are you going to lead a ministry that meets all their needs and keep all those parents happy?”
The room laughed. I smiled. Amy tried to kick me under the table because she knew what was coming out of my mouth next.
“I won’t. In fact, if we do our jobs right, most every one of those parents are going to be mad as ….well, mad because their kid wants to skip college and live in China telling people about Jesus. My calling is to ruin teenagers with Jesus and release them back to the wild. Not lock them up away from the wild. It’s not safe work. It’s not always going to be popular. But man, I can’t think of a better way to spend life.”
I wish I had the presence of mind to just quote Jesus.
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
We’ve spent a lot of money and time finding creative ways to get “out of this world.” And I understand the motivation is to protect. I understand (especially now with three kids of my own) the desire to keep anything unpleasant and unholy from our kids. I imagine that Jesus had to have some of the same feelings with the guys he just invested 3 years with. Protect them because of what is ahead of them.
What is astounding to me is Jesus seems to have had a completely different understanding of protection than we do. Instead of isolating his disciples from the “world,” he threw them in the middle of it and walked with them through it. He was touchable, approachable. He risked the conversation with the outcast and the “dark side.” He seemed to take more risks with his reputation, not less. And on this night…when he was about to die…he kept the mantra going.
Don’t take them out, but protect their hearts and minds from the evil one. There is only one evil one. The rest are just victims. Teach them to know the difference and live in that place.
1 response so far ↓
1 kurt // Oct 4, 2007 at 6:19 am
This concept was one of the biggest challenges I faced as a youth pastor…trying to get church leadership and parents see that my calling wasn’t to keep the students from any contact with the world, but to prepare them to be sent out into the world.
Perspectives changed quite a bit when they saw i was willing to challenge my own kids in this way. In some ways it proved that I truly believed my own personal ministry philosophy.
Interesting, in the first few years of a 13 year youth ministry tenure at one church, the church leadership really put the clamps on anything they perceived as dangerous. Way over-protective. Result: Hardly any discernible long-term fruit. At the most some pew-warmers. When I finally got some green lights, things changed. Out of that group of kids came forth a slew of pastors, missionaries, church leaders, etc. One girl who came from a upper-class family now serves in SF with a ministry to street kids and gutter punks. Amazing what can be done for Jesus when we are ruined by him.
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