From Detached to Disciple by Andy & Laura Hancock

This was a live blog for Youthwork, The Conference originally published here.

Husband and Wife double team, Youth Pastor Andy and YFC Church Resources Manager Laura will be moving us through the journey from detached to disciple – from first contact to Jesus follower. From ‘park bench to life group.’

It’s the last morning of Youthwork, the Conference 2014. The last seminar. People are gathering with a little bit less pace and a little more silent contentment than yesterday. The last day blues are setting in.

However, even through our minds are on the journey home, the luggage stored in the hotel lock up and the slowly increasing weight of our inboxes – there is still a feeling of anticipation and expectancy. This seminar is covering a vital topic.

How do we go from that very first meeting with a young person to a place where we are confident that we will know them in heaven? How do we help young people make these transitions in a healthy and organic way? How do we move young people from detached to disciple?

Andy and Laura will be telling us stories of what has worked in their local church in Halesowen and how they have helped young people be part of their church community.

  (Sorry about any dodgy spelling or awkward grammar – this is a live blog!)

A couple of caveats…

Attendance in church is not the endgame. Bums on seats is not the idea. However an increasing membership in the community is a good indicator of healthy youth work.

Andy and Laura want us to know that they’re not claiming what they’re doing is the best model of youthwork. There are many areas where they are praying for a breakthrough. Think strategically at how you can apply these stories to your own local context. Some of these stories and ideas will work, some will not.

Moving on…

Youth workers by nature tend to be incredible at relationship building. Youth leaders need this too; the ability to be there for young people and to invest in their lives. However we should as youth workers also be committed to building relationships with the friends of the young people that we know. This is a great place to start strategically thinking about how to gather more young people on this journey to follow Jesus.

Strategy in youth ministry though is not something that’s talked about very much. At a recent training course, youth leaders we’re asked if they had a clear coherent strategy for their youthwork. 1 in 50 said yes.

Trying to distill a clear strategy from youth projects can be like getting blood from a stone. Youthwork is often chaotic and messy and this is great, but it’s also missing the clear intentionality needed to bring people along on a journey to Jesus and into the church community.

What’s a win?

We know we’re doing a good job if a young person is following Jesus and making disciples of their mates when they are 25 years old. It’s about the long game. Not ‘are they a Christian today?’ but are they being equipped to follow Jesus in the long term?

When we pack for holiday we checklist off all the things we will need to pack. The same is true for youth work. We need to consider what to teach and impart that will equip our young people long term.

For Andy’s youth ministry there are 7 principles that they continually teach – and these will make their way in some form to the new Youth For Christ Resources. Two of these are teaching the young people to make wise decisions, and equipping them to fall more in love with Jesus so that they will tell their mates.

Thinking strategically about the journey

This is a movement of real young people on a journey from outreach, to a followup space to, to intentional discipleship and finally to church community.

It’s not always clear cut, some young people come and go at various stages and some don’t fit in into this at all. However this progression demonstrates how a strategically thought out journey can move young people through to relationship with Jesus.

The basic pattern begins with outreach where they go into young people’s own territory in schools and on the streets. Moving on from this into a large open youth group that’s looked after by committed Christians with the skills needed to mingle and talk about Jesus.

This youth group is like the ground floor of Debenhams. You can spend as long as you want down there but at some point you will want to find the elevator to the next level. That elevator is the Alpha course and the next level is the Life Groups.

Life Groups create an intentional, unapologetic discipleship space. They use accessible language to talk Bible, prayer, spiritual gifts and church. Here they provide a safe environment to prepare young people to be part of the church community.

The final stage of this journey is to belong to the church community. It’s vital that you prepare both the church itself and the young people for this.

To make each transition as easy as possible Andy and Laura use the same team and the same venue. This makes each new group feel safe and familiar. Great idea!

If a wife and husband are miles apart, say the husband in Eastbourne and the wife in London, they only need one form of transport – a car – to see each other. However if the wife moves to Brazil they will need to change vehicles mid journey to see each other.

The same is true for a quality youth work strategy. To help a young person journey through, you will need to change vehicles. You can’t necessarily hope that just schools work or just a youth group will do it. You need to help them through by adapting to their needs.

Your approach trumps your goal. Unless your approach adapts, you won’t reach your goal. You need to constantly make decisions to help reach your goal.

Finishing up

Andy summed up the session like this: Teach your church young people to love Jesus and create spaces that are comfortable enough for them to invite their non-church friends too.

It’s important to think strategically and commit that strategy totally to God.

Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labour in vain. [Psalm 127:1a]

A few quotable quotes!

There were huge chunks of wisdom given in this seminar and a fair few nuggets of wise one-liners too. Here’s a few:

“The only barrier for young people becoming a Christian should be the cross. We don’t want as church to put any more barriers in the way of meeting with him.”

“Youth work success is not when a young person meets with Jesus. Success is when they make a step on their journey.”

“A win at the youth group is when a young person feels safe and comfortable enough to come back and bring a friend.”

“I want to do everything I can to get young people in front of the cross, in front of Jesus.”