The best youth work resource…You!
Guest Blogger: Danny Ferguson
I think that there is a general feeling among Christian youth workers that they spend a vast majority of their time doing things that they would rather not be doing. There are administrative tasks, planning for programs and of course…politics. You remember back to your interview and the dreams you had for a dynamic youth group. Of course the dreams have gotten lost in the nightmare of paperwork, phone calls from disapproving members of the congregation and apathetic youth. Now you can’t dream about changing the world with your young people, in fact, you may have even given up hope of changing your group.
What would happen though if you spent less time doing your job and more time investing in your passions? What you would have is a mess. A wonderful, complex, mysterious, confusing mess. Allow me to explain. I used to run some pretty unique and exciting programs. The kind of group that seemed to double in size every week. I had worked hard at getting a mobile drop-in center for youth housed in an antique double-decker bus. We were going into neighborhoods where there was little to do except get drunk behind the elementary school and break into people’s houses. We were making a difference in the lives of the kids on the streets. We had an abundance of money coming in and I had to turn away volunteers because I had too many. Then in a series of terrible events it all fell apart and I was left with nothing. I didn’t even have an office to go and sulk in.
I felt terrible because I had nothing to offer the youth anymore. I would see them around the neighborhood or at their school, but I didn’t know what to say to them. I didn’t have anything thing for them to get involved with and nothing to invite them to. I didn’t have video games systems. I didn’t have a youth group with a cool band. I didn’t have a bible study. I had nothings. I remember distinctly tagging along with some kids one day during their school lunch break. I just happened to be in the coffee shop that they stormed into and I invited myself to sit in on their conversation. They were talking about their drunken adventures from the weekend. I felt awkward and out of place. I didn’t want to preach at them and turn them off of church forever. So I started asking them questions and truly listening to their answers. “What do you think about the laws on the drinking age?” I asked. They went on to explain to me in great detail about how the drinking age should actually be raised from the local 19 to 21. They said that the adolescent brain can be permanently damaged from overuse of alcohol. Then I really felt like I had nothing to offer. Not even education of adolescent brain development. College seemed useless.
Then they asked me a question about me. I casually shared my life story with them. All in all I though it was pretty boring and standard, but when I finished they sat there with their jaws on the floor and told me it was the most amazing story they had ever heard. They even sent other kids in the school to me to ask me to share my story with them. I knew my story was nothing special. I knew that God was using my life to somehow reach theirs. I started to spend 90% of my time with youth in coffee shops talking over all manner of things with kids. They trusted me because I didn’t try to invite them to anything – I didn’t try to change them, I simply was there with them. That’s when things got messy. Kids started to pour out their lives to me. Complex things came out: prostitution, sexual exploitation, gang violence, sexual orientation, family crisis, suicide, and self injury. Things growing up in the church I felt pretty sheltered from. They were hurting and I didn’t have answers to heal them. So I didn’t try to give them answers I just started to tell them stories I knew from the bible. I just told them the stories and didn’t explain them. Weird thing was it worked. Their lives started changing. Unchurched kids started asking to have prayer meetings and they would pray for hours. We would try to stop it and they would keep going. If I wasn’t there to witness it I probably wouldn’t believe it. It is messy, but it is real; and it is worth it. So the best resource God needs is not powerpoint games, teaching curriculum, a tricked out mobile drop-in center. The best resource God has is you. Get out of your office and spend 35 of your 40 hour work weeks out being a youth worker. It is what you were meant to be.
Danny Ferguson is the Langley Area Director for Greater Vancouver Youth For Christ / Youth Unlimited. He has served in various ministry roles over the past 15 years. Danny is passionate about work with kids in their day to day environments addressing their daily needs. He could not do his work without the support of his wife April and his two children, Josiah and Avery. If you would like to contact Danny or hear more stories about his work with youth check out his blog at http://proyouthworker.blogspot.com
JaY
Monday, 17th May 2010 at 7:14 am
(Y) thumbs up!
Iona Snair
Tuesday, 18th May 2010 at 2:04 pm
So true Danny. I think often we hide behind all the program stuff because we’re not sure that “just me” is really all that much to offer. And it isn’t!! And yet it’s still o.k. because there really is a God.
Andy
Tuesday, 18th May 2010 at 9:34 pm
This is a great article. In the end it’s all about relationship isn’t it?
It’s a good discipline to spend a month writing down a daily log of what we actually do. We might find we spend less time with kids than we realise
Derian
Tuesday, 18th May 2010 at 9:47 pm
Great Article
Ginger
Tuesday, 18th May 2010 at 10:00 pm
Well done! I appreciate the authentic tone of Danny’s writing. The kids he works with are lucky.
susan
Tuesday, 18th May 2010 at 10:47 pm
As a teacher, I would agree that what our pupils most want is to be listened to. I remember two girls sitting telling me about their home country of Lithuania one day at lunch, after their class finished. As they left, one girl said “thank you”. I didn’t think I had done anything – but for her, she was happy that I listened. I’ve never forgotten that.
And now, I must remember to go to school today and listen more …
David
Tuesday, 18th May 2010 at 11:35 pm
WOW – now that is what we all need to hear. We may already know it, but often we need someone to put it into words. Thanks for the honesty. Thanks for encouragement.
Oh !! and Do they really pay you to sit in coffee shops and listen? Sounds like a good job.
Mac
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 6:40 am
A great reminder that I don’t have to be anything but me and willing to lend an ear.
Heidi
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 6:42 am
That was great. Thanks for letting God speak through you!
Karen
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 9:18 am
The article reminds me that we require very little to do a whole lot! Good stuff Danny.
Shari Zindler
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 9:55 am
Well said and well lived…..I needed to hear this as a parent……to invest time in my kids.
Daria
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 1:47 pm
It truly is about connection. We are all souls wanting to connect and through either meditation or prayers it provides the grounding and protection of the group dynamic. Please keep moving forward with what they express as needs then the answers for filling them will arrive. You are doing a wonderful job by listening.
Amanda Martin
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 3:12 pm
Fantastic article!!!
I don’t remember Jesus running programs…
I think this is a radical and very dangerous though for a lot of established youth ministries…
and I think it is phenomenal! I know some of the kids Danny works with… and there are definately some profoundly changed lives… in all my years of running or being involved with programs… I’ve never seen anything like that kind of impact!
Chris
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 4:02 pm
Congratulations, Danny, on stumbling again for all of us onto the paradoxical genius of Jesus’ upside-down kingdom, where Life is found in dying, leaders serve, the least are greatest, and God’s strength is displayed in our weakness! Thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience with us.
Amanda
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 5:29 pm
Thank you for your article. I appreciate your heart for the youth. My husband and I work with different ages of youth at our church and your article is a great reminder to just be ourselves and to be there for the kids and lend a listening ear.
chad
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 5:37 pm
Thanks Danny, for that encouragement. Your ministry with YfC has impacted me immensely. You’re the real deal, a youth worker who actually works WITH youth, not in an office planning youth programs. You’ve challenged me many times to get out of the office myself… of course now I have no office so I don’t have a choice. Yet this article still convicts me that there is more I could be doing to connect with people. Thanks man.
Greg Poirier
Wednesday, 19th May 2010 at 9:20 pm
Danny,
That was brilliant! It was the humanization of your word with youth that Has touched me as I know that it surely has touched the youth. Your inspiration comes from the Lord so keep the messages flowing. God bless.