Comments on: Random Randomness #1: In Defense of Attractional Ministry

By: Justin Herman

Justin Herman — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 02:25:31 +0000

I have never seen an empty seat say yes to Jesus.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 00:03:56 +0000

“I’ll be the all-time pitcher!”

Best line ever! I’m becoming more and more convinced that the youth ministry “thinkers” and critics aren’t neck deep in day-to-day youth ministry which makes it easy to throw rocks….but they haven’t thrown a wiffleball in years!

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 23:39:47 +0000

In reply to Earl Henning.

“I’ll be the all-time pitcher!”

Best line ever! And, seriously, I’m more convinced than ever that youth ministry’s largest critics and “thinkers” are folks no longer doing day-to-day youth ministry….so it’s easy to throw stones. The problem is, they haven’t thrown a wiffleball in years!

By: Earl Henning

Earl Henning — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:00:44 +0000

Great stuff. I’ve been in youth ministry for 15 years now and bounced back and forth between them. At one point we were the “Come have fun and then we’ll mix in a little Jesus later”. This obviously produces as much spiritual fruit as a go-cart track does. Round and round, lots of smiles and laughs but it ain’t gonna change your life. We then went the route of “They just need the serious, real Truth. They can have fun other places.”. So we cut most of our fun stuff, eased up on the “seeker” initiatives and basically put a bullet in the attractiveness of our ministry. This just made kids feel like Jesus was unrelatable and that church was a place where, like school, you sit down, shut up and listen to someone tell you what you need to do. I sadly believed the hype of some youth leaders who insist that if you cut the “entertainment” of youth ministry, God will honor it more. We had to do as you mentioned, find the balance. I realized one day this simple fact; very few kids, if any, wake up and say “I gotta go to church this Sunday and hear God!” That may be true for kids who’ve grown up in church or are the few who have that passionate, relentless heart to take in as much teaching as possible. But, at least in our area, unchurched kids are waking up hungover, uninterested and unattracted to “Jesus stuff”.

We do a Wednesday night in-depth Bible study in addition to our Sunday youth services. We actually reformatted our Wednesday nights by taking away one week of the month and doing ZERO “church things”. We replaced that week with a simple free dinner and game night. When you see kids who are uninterested in church show up to a wiffleball game and then see them return on a Sunday morning for a Gospel-driven service, it’s hard to argue that well-balanced “attractional ministry” is detrimental to God’s plan of salvation. I think some forget that kids are not like adults. Adults CHOOSE to show up at church, CHOOSE to be taught the truths of the Word. A large portion of youth service attendees are kids with Moms and Dads who said “Get up, it’s church day”. It’s a battle we as youth leaders have, to show kids that living as a Christ-follower may be more than they have imagined it to be. I think it’s important to replace their misconceptions of candle-lit chanting, finger-pointing and somber guilt-driven messages with a message of life, love and freedom and yes, fun. And hey, if that means using wiffleball to break the ice, I’ll be the all-time pitcher!

By: jodie

jodie — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 02:35:17 +0000

You know it is so refreshing to read that someone else feels this way. I am currently being exposed to this idea that attractional ministry is wrong in some sense and it really challenges me. I live in a small country town with NO CHURCH. While I appreciate that good marketing doesn’t build God’s church, I also think that if we do nothing to get people through the door, God’s church is not growing anyway. And lets face it, where I am, it is pretty clear that if young people don’t come to church, in a few more years, the closest church to us will be closing down as well. Big might not be best, but traditional is not working to invite many young people either.

Jesus challenged tradition too. He healed on the Sabbath – a massive no-no. But God had a message to deliver and it wasn’t getting through via traditional channels. Guess what, I think that’s were we are – needing to challenge tradition to get God’s message out there.

I agree that there needs to be a balance between attracting people and ministering effectively.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 18:47:04 +0000

I believe there has to be some sort of attractional element to a youth ministry. If the purpose of the ministry is to reach unbelievers, you need to get them in the door. Like you said, if all you’re doing is giving out prizes then, yes, it is not a good strategy. But for today’s students, they need something.