Middle Space Youth Work

A New Model For Youth Ministry and Outreach

Loyd Harp

• Publisher: Monarch Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781800300125
• eBook ISBN: 9781800300538
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

A new model of youth work and outreach is emerging across the UK and elsewhere, in which churches and faith communities are no longer content to invite outsiders across the great threshold that is the front door of the church.

On the other hand, detached youth work has made great strides into taking the church out into the streets. Between these two polarities is nestled a third way. Middle Space models carve out space in the middle ground for dialogue, relationships, safe spaces, exchange of ideas, not to mention inclusive activities.

The concept of Middle Space is simple. It's not our space, nor is it their space, but a shared space somewhere in the middle. However, Middle Space is about much more than simply utilising so-called "third spaces." Rather, it's a whole new approach to youth work, in which the physical space becomes a metaphor for the youth work itself. While the concept is simple, it is a profoundly new way of doing youth ministry.

This book will be the first of its kind in describing and reflecting upon emerging Middle Space models, and also giving some tips and insights for best practices moving forward.

1

The Essence of Youth Ministry

The first thing we need to do in any book about youth ministry is to think about what youth ministry actually is. Sure, you and I know what it is, but how often have we truly reflected on what we do in youth ministry? Youth work and children’s work are undertaken by a variety of different people in different settings. Some of us are fortunate enough to get paid to work with young people. Invariably we also rely on a lot of volunteers to assist or, in many cases, lead the work. All of us are in need of some critical reflection on what we do. We hinted at this in the Introduction, and here we want to go a little bit deeper into what we actually do as youth workers.

To help us understand the need of such reflection, I relay here an anecdotal, but absolutely true story. A volunteer children’s worker I used to work with and I were once having a conversation about our Sunday groups. Although I worked with the teenagers, there was obviously some overlap with the children’s work, so we were discussing how to work together. As we were discussing the groups, and in particular the timings of the morning sessions, she admitted, “Let’s be honest – what we’re really doing is babysitting them for half an hour.”

I was shocked. Although her honesty was refreshing, her blurted-out thoughts held a key to understanding how children’s work was being approached in that particular setting. My mind went back to the children’s work model I grew up with in Oklahoma. Our volunteer children’s pastor was lovingly referred to as “Aunt Clara”. Even though we technically shared no blood relationship, there was a deep familial bond because of the way she cared for the children in the group. Week in, week out, she taught us from the Bible, organized the puppet ministry, recruited volunteers to assist – and all unpaid! I have a vivid memory of something she said once, during her teaching, as she was trying to explain God’s empathic love for us through Christ. With tears in her eyes and compassion in her voice, she exclaimed, “All I know is that when Jake hurts, Jesus hurts. When Jake is happy, Jesus is happy!” I don’t know if Jake still remembers that moment, but I certainly do. To this day, I can’t repeat this scene without getting goosebumps! I don’t know how much Aunt Clara had reflected on her model of children’s ministry, but she certainly had not received any formal training. Nevertheless, I can say with absolute clarity that she did not see what she was doing as simply babysitting, nor merely entertaining children while the adults were having “big church”, or worse, “real church”. I often use Aunt Clara’s story to inspire my volunteers and other youth and children’s workers to believe in the power of what they are doing. What are we doing and saying today that children will remember twenty, thirty, or in my case forty years later?

I suspect that the children’s worker in my first example wasn’t truly primarily concerned with babysitting children for half an hour, but was rather expressing frustrations with the time limitations in that local setting. However, the story does get us thinking about our approach to youth work. Let’s take a brief look at a few different models of youth ministry. Although it may be tempting for some youth work veterans to skip over the next few pages (“Why is this guy telling me about youth work models I already know about?”), I recommend that you don’t. We’re going to be using them to build the case for our new model, as we consider the strengths, weaknesses, contributions, and shortcomings of each of them.

What Do We Do? A Few Dominant Youth Ministry Models

Entertainment/Babysitting

Although there is no formal model called “Babysitting” being taught in colleges, and almost no one would admit this is what they are doing (except for maybe my refreshingly honest friend above), it is indeed a working model in actual practice. People using this model will not generally have thought much about what they are trying to accomplish. They won’t have considered questions like, “Are we primarily concerned with evangelism or discipleship, or both?” They don’t worry themselves with things like a five-year plan, how to engage the entire family, or how to reach out into the community. Primary concerns in this mode include, “How much time do we have to fill?” Or similarly, “How can I keep them busy for ______ amount of time?” Or, more subtly, “What activities can I plan for them?” The final question is not a bad one, but if it characterizes the totality of your work with children and young people, it might be time to dig deeper.

As negative as it may seem, there are some useful things to take away from the entertainment model. All of us will use entertainment at some point in our youth ministry. After all, who hasn’t hosted a late-night movie marathon: The Lord of the Rings or the Star Wars series, no doubt. If you haven’t started one of your sessions with an ice-breaker game, I sincerely doubt you’re actually doing youth ministry! Most of us at some point have been plagued with the following scenario: “I have ten minutes to spare. What are we going to do to fill that time?” If you can answer that without a panic, you are benefitting from the positive aspects of entertainment. In fact, the simplest definition of the word entertain is “to hold the attention”.1 Nonetheless, a youth ministry that is built primarily around babysitting or entertainment will not offer much in terms of long-term positive effects on the lives of young people.

Safe Space/Refuge, and Other Specialized Youth Ministries

This youth ministry model is a specialized one that is particularly beneficial in areas where there are intense societal needs or problems. They are often found in areas of urban or rural poverty, areas with high rates of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, or other related issues. As the name implies, proponents of this model seek to create a safe space or refuge for young people from vulnerable or dangerous situations, and it has been utilized by organizations such as Teen Challenge (a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation ministry for young people), or programmes and ministries like the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and the Salvation Army. Although all of us hope that our work with youth does indeed provide a safe space – a refuge from the world at large – it is not our predominant model of youth ministry. The model itself specifically focuses on providing intervention in and/or a shelter from intense life situations.

In addition to the Safe Space or Refuge model, there are other specialized youth ministry models that may have a particular focus. For instance, a church with a strong music ministry might have a youth choir, band, or orchestra that serves as a youth group in and of itself. Youth drama, dance, and sports teams can function in largely the same way, as well as other mentoring programmes which may involve some combination of Christian discipleship/teaching, paired with a particular emphasis or life skill (technology, the arts, sports, etc.). Often, specialized groups are not run by one local church, but rather by a cooperation of nearby churches, or even a parachurch organization. These organizations do some amazing work, but we want to spend most of our time in this chapter thinking about more common forms of congregational-based youth ministries. In chapter 11, when we look at specific examples of Middle Space ministry, we will consider some innovative approaches involving specialized work with young people.

Standard Church-based Youth Group

One of the most common forms of youth ministry (at least in the United States and the United Kingdom), by my observation, is simply the church youth group. The shape and size of these groups vary greatly, as does the theology, which is generally in keeping with the parent church. Nonetheless, there are a number of elements that are commonly present in such groups:

•Regular meetings. Almost all church youth groups will have at least one meeting per week (some will have two or more) that mirror and/or provide an alternative setting to the larger congregation. These meetings take many forms including youth-oriented worship services, Sunday school classes, youth group meetings, small group Bible studies, and so forth. These sessions generally take place in a room within the church building or an adjacent building on the same property. We’ll talk more about the use of space a little later, as it is an important, defining theme in Christian youth work.

•Camps and retreats. Most church youth groups will create time and space to get away together. These events are strategically planned to create environments of liminality, or spaces where change can occur. As Kenda Creasy Dean puts it, “In youth ministry, liminal practices leverage dissonance for the sake of divine transformation. Thrust into spaces where none of our usual cultural tools work, we are forced to step back and scan for new ones. In so doing, we observe ourselves and our new situations anew, rethinking our former understandings of God, self, and others.”2 In other words, youth ministries often utilize camps, retreats, and overnight residentials as environments for change. Getting away from the distractions of home, social media, normal peer groups, even the home church helps to create a sense of focus. We’ll speak more about the importance of liminal events in chapter 3, but for now it’s enough to acknowledge they comprise a key aspect of most forms of church youth ministry.

•Social events. What would a youth group be without social events? Pool parties, gaming nights, overnight lock-ins, adventurous outings (from canoeing to spelunking to amusement parks), and so forth all have a place in most youth groups. From a simple shared meal to a well-executed overnight trip, these events strengthen social bonds. Though not primarily ministry-oriented, often these events will help serve an evangelistic purpose as Christian young people are encouraged to invite their friends who do not follow Jesus, in hopes that they will make new friends and be exposed to the Christian culture of the larger group. Another key goal of social events is group bonding and strengthening friendships with those of a shared value system.

•Personal contact. A key component of youth ministry is the personal relationship(s) formed between the youth leader(s) and the young people themselves. This can take the form of one-to-one mentoring, leadership training in small groups, or simply congenial contact before and after youth meetings, in addition to many other settings. (We’ll talk more about this in chapter 8, but responsible youth work must always take into account best practice regarding safeguarding, child protection, and background checks.) Personal relationships with young people can be more difficult in larger church or youth group settings, but it is my contention that modelling faithful walking with Jesus depends in large part on having some form of healthy, personal contact between faithful adults and young people. This applies not only to a salaried youth pastor, but also to volunteer youth leaders.

•Small groups. Some churches/youth groups may also have smaller groups that meet outside of the larger, regular gatherings or as breakout sessions within the main meeting. Not all youth groups have them, but they can be especially useful in larger churches or youth ministries where building community can be more challenging, due to the sheer numbers of youth involved, and/or the distance families travel to church. This is particularly true in megachurches. However, they are often utilized as part of a smaller gathering of young people. For instance, many in youth work have used small discussion groups as part of a larger teaching session. Small groups can also be a great way of utilizing young leaders and developing their gifts. They can also take the form of focused small groups with a special emphasis. These include things like leadership training, confirmation classes, worship band practice, drama teams, and a host of others.

•Service and mission. Lastly, many youth ministries will include some sort of emphasis on mission or serving. This could take the form of evangelistic efforts in the local community, volunteering in a nearby poverty ministry, visiting the elderly in a retirement home, or even an international and/or cross-cultural mission trip.

A little later, we’re going to spend some time examining a form of youth ministry called “Attractional” youth ministry. It’s a specific form of the traditional church youth group as outlined above, that is particularly dominant in larger churches, and especially megachurches and in urban and suburban areas. It has a huge following in American churches, but is also the dominant model of church-based youth ministry in the UK. It takes all of the above elements, but with the subtle, often unstated goal of attracting large numbers of young people into the church. As such, it also adds larger events, often with the goal of outreach or evangelism. We’ll look into that more deeply in the next chapter, and affirm some aspects of this type of youth ministry, while also offering a firm critique of it. Attractional youth ministry is driven by the larger Church and its appeal and influence are widespread. Many smaller youth ministries rely heavily on attractional means, perhaps without realizing they are doing so.

Above, I made the claim that these six elements were almost universally present in the traditional church youth group, but now we need to qualify that. Because Christian youth groups often take on the personality, culture, and theology of the parent church/sponsoring organization – or indeed the personality of the youth worker – these elements will not necessarily be present in equal measure. For instance, some groups will place a high emphasis on pastoral care and personal relationship. The young people are loved, and have a real sense of belonging, but perhaps they are weak in discipleship. Other groups might emphasize the teaching of scripture, even to the point of stressing memorization, while there are few (or non-existent) opportunities for service. A well-balanced youth group will have a representation of all of the above elements, but their proportions will largely follow the theological emphasis of the parent church.

Youth Church

Although proponents of the Youth Church advocate it as a distinct youth ministry model, in my observation it is more or less the same as a traditional youth group (often with a strong Attractional emphasis), but with added religious language. Rather than a youth group, advocates refer to their group as a “youth church”. Instead of having a “youth leader”, a youth church would have a “youth pastor”. In my limited observation, the differences are more or less semantic. Although seeking to have biblical and theological language to describe the efforts of such youth ministries should be applauded, the emphasis on language can also be a set-up for failure as it implies a sort of religious superiority over other Christian youth groups with similar goals. Furthermore, although I agree that young people following Jesus can be, and are in fact, part of the Church, it is problematic to imply that a Youth Church is an end in itself without the necessary inter-generational nature of the Church universal. There is a subtle danger that, instead of these groups being church, they could potentially be merely mimicking church. Furthermore, the Youth Church model by its very nature is often also Attractional, as it follows the patterns of the larger Church, and is often driven by the “bigger and better” motif. Visiting speakers, big stages, and ligh...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1 The Essence of Youth Ministry
• 2 Diagnosing the Problem
• 3 How Do We Do Evangelism in Youth Ministry?
• 4 What is Middle Space?
• 5 Theological Foundations of Middle Space
• 6 From Sacred Space to Middle Space
• 7 Discipleship in Middle Space
• 8 Youth Ministry is Not DIY
• 9 Making Middle Space Sustainable
• 10 What’s Next?
• 11 Middle Space in Practice
• 12 Afterword
• Endnotes
• Bibliography