DeVries, Mark. Sustainable Youth Ministry. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008.
Summary
DeVries shares a metaphor for youth ministry that I think encapsulates well the issue his book, Sustainable Youth Ministry, addresses. On pages 51-52, he writes:
Years of preparation made her movements effortless, her turns seamless, her leaps weightless. A dancer of unparalleled talent, she mesmerized the crowd with her skill, but even more with her passion. Her countenance proclaimed in no uncertain terms that she was made for this moment.
But she would finish much sooner than anyone expected. Coming down from an arching leap, she landed with a jolting crack, her foot driving its way through the rotting wood of the floor, her body twisted in pain, her leg bent in places it was not made to bend. She was pulled from the stage, wondering if she would ever dance again.
The master of ceremonies dismissively apologized, ‘Inexperience does this to a dancer.’
But no on repaired the floor.
And then, as if nothing had happened, the next performer was introduced. The crowd responded with a smattering of applause. But with no one attending to the dance floor, the audience knew that the new dancer would also find her performance ending prematurely with a disappointing, perhaps tragic, conclusion.
Sustainable Youth Ministry is about building or repairing that dance floor that is often quite decrepit in a typical youth ministry. DeVries notes that most churches search and search for the “next big thing,” the superstar youth pastor who will be an excellent communicator, a dynamic personality who the students love to be around, a superb administrator, etc. The problem, he argues, is that without a sturdy dance floor (i.e., an infrastructure), even the greatest youth pastors will only last a couple years in a such a church before they burnout.
So, what is needed to provide sustainability to a youth ministry? I encourage you to buy the book. I don’t want to give everything away here. However, in the upcoming weeks, I will blog about what we are doing here at New Haven to build our infrastructure and change the culture of our youth ministry, much of which is taken from this book.
Critique
This book shifted my paradigm for youth ministry. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in youth ministry–whether you’re a youth pastor yourself, or a volunteer serving in a youth ministry, or the senior pastor at a church that has a youth ministry.
It may come across as dry to some. For the most part, DeVries doesn’t really break any new ground with new methods or ideas. In fact, what he has to bring to the table is very basic–almost common sense. And yet, despite how fundamental the topic of this book is, it is a much neglected one.
Have you read the book? What did you think of it? If you haven’t read it, what do you think of the premise of the book?
October 21st, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Hey Luke, Thanks for the introdution to the book. I haven’t read the book and have a lot on the list of must reads, this one sounds nice. If he is going where I think he ie going the minister, contrary to popular demand, should be on the stage. The North American culture has told the minister/youth pastor that his primary role is to be a performer/entertainer, and they have espoused this non-biblical methodology of “doing” ministry.
October 21st, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Thanks for your observations, KeleChuku. He only uses the parable of the dancers to show that youth pastors are not able to do their jobs because there are not systems in place that allow for the youth pastor to actually do his/her job. He doesn’t mean to imply that youth pastors should be entertainers/performers. He actually advocates for putting systems into place that empower the people to get involved in gift-based ministry, rather than the entire youth ministry program being centered around the youth pastor. He argues, in fact, that a youth ministry that doesn’t have a solid infrastructure will inevitably become pastor-dependent, and this is what burns out the youth pastor.
October 26th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
[...] a couple previous blogs, here and here, I wrote about the need for a youth ministry to have an infrastructure and systems to ensure [...]