The three legged stool

After more than 15 years of youth ministry I found myself wondering if any lives were really changed.  I knew how to draw kids in.  I understood how to lead students into a greater understanding of biblical truth.  I knew how to contextualize the Gospel for teenage culture.  And there were certainly successes along the way.  Kids met Jesus and were baptized.  But I was still plagued by the idea that transformation was not happening to the degree that Christ desired.

As I poured over scripture I began to see a pattern in the way Jesus developed others.  When I looked at the methods Christ used to spiritually form the disciples three elements continued to rise to the surface.

First, He called them in to Community.  Most of these twelve men didn’t know each other before Christ’s calling.  They were busy pursuing their own lives when Jesus stepped in and called them to form a new community.  Twelve diverse men of varying ages, socio-economic status and cultural backgrounds drawn together around the unifying principles of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Second, He reproduced His vision, values and beliefs as He Mentored each of them.  Jesus did not merely stand on a mountain side and declare all that the disciples needed to know.  Rather, he invested His life in each of them.  He walked with them.  He made sure that the Gospel message was not a seminar to attend, but rather a fresh and beautiful way of living.

Third, He sent them on Mission.  Specifically in Luke 9:1-6 Jesus sends them out to preach the Gospel and to heal the sick.  This diverse intergenerational group of men were to go out and meet people’s spiritual needs and their immediate physical needs.  As I read the Gospel accounts, serving others began to jump out at me as the catalyzing agent of true spiritual transformation.  Jesus understood that to solidify the values of community and mentoring He needed to send the twelve out on mission.

This third idea began to radically alter my approach to youth ministry.  For many years I had succeeded in creating Community.  I had even done a solid job of Mentoring teenage students and adult volunteers.  What I had not done very well, was to expose and challenge young people to go on Mission.

Its now years since those initial revelations, and they remain as true today as they ever were.  When I began leaning into the service and mission imperatives of following Jesus, lives began changing in transformative ways.  When serving others together became a foundational principle for me, I saw students (and leaders) own their faith in fresh and life long ways.

Today I am sold out to these three ideas of: Community, Mentoring and Mission.  When lived out in an intergenerational context they form a three legged stool that supports a biblical vision for the Kingdom of Heaven.