Ministry by Youth

I was 15 when I stepped through the doors of the Glen Mhor camp dining hall for the first time. I’d never felt so awkward and alone. I was there for a weekend-long youth event, and I knew no one in a room full of boisterous teenagers. I was shy, bookish and an unabashed nerd; would I make any friends? Was this whole Presbyterian Young People’s Society thing a terrible idea?

I think I carried that horrible feeling in my stomach for all of 10 minutes. Then I was approached by a pair of girls—one whose hair was green at the time, as I recall—and I met the first members of a circle of friends that would expand over the next decade of my life.

As a preacher’s kid, I grew up in Presbyterian churches in small Ontario towns. Church was always a part of my life. But there’s a difference, in my experience, between attending a church and being part of a church.

The distinction registered in my mind sometime during that first camp weekend.

There was an adult guest speaker and some deans and advisors, of course. But the worship services and prayers and songs, the small group discussions and games, the devotional times in the evening and the morning services in the chapel by the lake—they were all led by young people.

Growing up in church, I had only experienced events planned by adults for youth. As a child there was Sunday school and Vacation Bible School. As a teenager there was a youth group and a Bible study run by a youth pastor. I was used to other people doing the legwork, planning everything, and then taking me by the hand and leading me on a faith journey.

Here were young people prayerfully leading each other. And the “leaders” were not so different from me. These were simply young people who were journeying with Jesus and wanted to share the road.

A few simple realizations—leaders and followers can switch places and following Jesus should be exciting—changed my outlook on the church forever.

Over the years, prompted gently by peers who had more faith in me than I had in myself, I took on leadership roles within my synod’s PYPS. I helped plan weekends and worship, I led devotionals and small groups, I was a communications co-ordinator and, in my last years, even president. In that role I was able to sit on the synod executive and the committee in charge of regional staff.

The road was rarely smooth. We made mistakes—lots of them—and other members of this church of ours often reacted with grace, for which I am grateful. We struggled to create a flexible leadership structure. We sometimes fought adult involvement if it meant someone else would be planning things for us (even if they might have done a better job than we did). And we tried, not always successfully, to deal with our own anxiety within an anxious church.

I’m now 26. I no longer fit into the demographics of PYPS, although I’m still considered a “youth” by most churches’ standards.

It seems like there’s a lot of focus on young people leaving church these days. According to a study commissioned by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, only one out of every three young people who attended church as a child is still there today.

I wonder, if a survey was done of today’s ministers and elders, how many of them were involved in PYPS or camping ministries in their younger days?

Sure, some of the young people I know from PYPS have drifted away. A few left angrily and slammed the door on institutional Christianity. But others have become ministers and elders and Sunday school teachers. Some, like me, have stuck it out because PYPS taught us what church can look like. It taught us about servant leadership and about our own gifts as disciples. In a culture where teenagers are often expected to be irresponsible, self-absorbed and obnoxious, youth-led ministry was a way for the church to tell us: “I trust you. Go and do.”

Paul writes: “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully” (Romans 12:6-8).
Amen.