Do We Really NEED Another Youth Event?

Do we really need another youth event?

I know they’re fun (if you’re an extrovert) and they’re cool (if you’re a faux-hipster) and an ego-bump (if you’re a youthworker) and they look like you’re doing something (if you’re a trustee) – but do we really need another one?

A big flash-bang-wallop youth crowd event is something like a rite of passage for a youth worker: ‘you just haven’t made it until you’ve done one!’ You haven’t properly broken in your adrenaline-soaked, caffeine-fueled, slightly-demented Youthworker brain until you scored over 100 on the attendee register.

It also needs to be big – with big names and big people and big broken guitar strings and big florescent jackets and big lanyards… oooo the lanyards. It needs to have an explosive name, like … explode! Or a cool revitalising, flavored water sounding name like … revitalise (spare no creative expense here).

 A big flash-bang-wallop youth crowd event is something like a rite of passage for a youth worker

How Long Can We Keep It Up?

After the dying glow sticks are cleaned away and all the lollypops have been swapped for fake email addresses; after you’ve had the requisite three weeks to sleep it off – and the requisite shouting match with your treasurer about your doctored event-expenses; after the event is done and dusted – what do you do then?

How many of those young people do you ever see again? How many ‘seeds’ were really planted? How long can you keep competing with the ‘youthphoria’ nights that the local nightclub keeps running? How long can you keep telling people, we really need this event! How long can you keep telling yourself that this is what successful Youth Ministry looks like?

Smelling The Rat

I was brought up in event-driven youthwork culture. My youth group was a youth church with full-on band, lights and comfy chairs. We regularly ran big nights with famous Christian bands and speakers. We got shed loads of young people there and had a whole bunch of leaders too. I eventually became a leader in this setup, carried on the tradition and furthered it by working with events across London. But somewhere the novelty wore off, and the young people started to smell the cheep, imitation rat.

How long can you keep telling yourself that this is what successful Youth Ministry looks like?

My Beefs With Crowd Events

Don’t get me wrong – youth events can do things that other programs can’t… with some thought. There is a place for them… sometimes. Some kind of crowd interaction is needed in a successful, healthy youth ministry… somehow, somewhere.

My big beefs though, are these:

1. They are often flat-packed, copies of something else with no evidence of any thought put into the local context at all.
2. They drain things: people, money, resources, time, effort, program shapes. You need to have a Godly approach to stewardship but crowd events tend to throw this out of the window.
3. They only cater to part of the young people population and psyche – often the popular-hungry extrovert. Whereas the solitude-seeking introvert is hiding in a corner wanting the floor to swallow them up.
4. They often don’t fit into a broader youth work strategy of followup and discipleship.
5. They often steal from from other groups without thought for their own programs or relationships.
6. They tend to present a dishonest view of the Gospel though the sugar-vibe. That’s lots of crazy, hyped up experiences that model ‘look, this is what Christianity really looks like’. Reality check: it doesn’t
7. They thrive off crowd-driven mentality, but they seek individualistic responses. Want to guess which overrules the other?
8. They can encourage passive ‘entertain me’ young people, rather than productive, participatory, experience seeking young people.
9. They often compete/dilute with secular consumerist culture which simply does it better.
10. They mostly simply don’t work. On their own, with no thought to context or strategy they fumble, burn out and die – taking people with them.

So Is There No Place For Them?

Of course there is. My problem with events is that most that I’ve seen advertised to my young people, and most that I’ve worked with are cookie cutter and haven’t come out of seeking to fill a real intentional need.

“The gathering of worshipers is an amazing missional tool – when done right.”

Crowd events can be amazing when they create safe space to develop family, mimic the celebration of heaven and seek to give secular culture a run for its money. The gathering of worshipers is an amazing missional tool – when done right.

So How Do We Do Events Right?

Start by asking the big questions:

1. Do we really need this right now? // Is this where we are in our Youth Ministry Journey?
2. Do we have a core group of developed relationships with young people to build out from? // Are our current young people going to grow though this in fellowship, worship, prayer, mission and discipleship?
3. Has God given us the resources needed to create this properly? // What other opportunities are we inadvertently closing the door on?
4. For what purpose do we want to run this // What need is it fulfilling?
5. Have we talked to local pastors and youth workers about potential harmony with their programs? // Is this crowd event genuinely serving the unity of those who are working with members of that crowd?
6. What else could we do creatively with the resources that we have? // Are their other, creative options that better fit the people and context that we haven’t considered?
7. How do we intend on doing followup? // And who are we doing that with (see 5.)?
8. Do young people here really care who these ‘Christian big names’ are? // What else could we spend the money on?
9. Are we trying to represent who we are? // Are we trying to use this as an opportunity to repackage/reinvent who we are?
10. Are there already things in the area that we can partner with? // What about other things that will be sucked dry if we don’t partner with them?
11. How will the Gospel be presented and how will other elements help or hinder this? // Whoops – did we think about presenting the Gospel clearly?

There’s obviously a bunch of other bits n’ pieces to throw in, but I felt a wee bit ranty – so this is all you get! Enjoy 😉