Relational Youth Work – 2 inspiring quotes
Earlier I stated how I first fell into Relational Youth Ministry on a bus trip in Wales but I later encountered 2 quotations that helped me clarify what ‘mattered’.
The first is by George Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, he said:
Many young people are searching for a sense of identity and personhood. It is relationship, firstly with God but also with each other, that we find ourselves to be who we are.
Many of us in youth ministry would agree that young people don’t fully understand who they are as the travel across the great divide between childhood and adulthood. They are searching for identity and uniqueness whilst at the same time not wanting to stand too far out from the crowd. In today’s culture it would seem that many young people aren’t in relationship with God, certainly not to the extent where they would find ‘who they are’. In my experience they need someone to guide them into that relationship, to introduce them to God and then to stay with them as they get to know Him better.
The second quote was made at a YFC staff meeting by Stephen Gaukroger (at the time he was a member of the YFC board and is currently the Senior Pastor of Gold Hill Baptist Church in the UK. He said, and it has stuck with me for over 15 years:
Relationship without content isn’t discipleship.
Simple, yet profound.
It can often be easy to make a relationship with a young person, befriend them, hang out, have fun, do activities, sport, chill – but that is only part of what it takes to be effective at relational ministry. It also takes content, not necessarily structure, but without discussion at some point about God, faith, future etc then it can’t be classed as discipleship. Now my experience has shown that the young person usually brings the content to the relationship – they have questions, concerns, comments and rarely do I ever need to mention God – I don’t get the chance before they have done so.
Who has inspired you?
