We heard it, but we could hardly believe someone would actually say it. Our area network coordinator was talking about some calls he'd made since our last meeting - calls to encourage a few sporadic attendees. In one such conversation, he'd shared the content of our meeting and the area's vision for networking. The response? "You haven't convinced me why I need to add another meeting to my schedule."
That's troubling! Except that many of us in that same room - all enthusiastic believers in networking - had probably weighed our own participation similarly at one time or another.
Is this the state of unity in youth ministry today: another meeting? As long as we view biblical unity through that filter, youth ministry will never experience the revolutionary promise Jesus prayed for in John 17 - that through our unity, the world will know that the Father sent Jesus and will experience His love.
The great heartbreak is that "Jesus-Grade Unity" in youth ministry represents one of the great untapped resources of the church. It brims with potential - chiefly, unprecedented campus outreach. Perhaps by refreshing our application of Jesus' prayer for unity, youth workers today can be a catalyst for the great spiritual awakening He promised in John 17.
What John 17 Unity Is
The Trinity Revealed
Let's face it. The Trinity is tough to comprehend. Just when we think we have a grip on some great analogy to explain it, something comes along to blow our analogy out of the water.
Yet Jesus welded us to the Trinity. And He provided the perfect model for unity in the simple prayer "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you" (John 17:21). If you are in Christ and I am in Christ, there's nothing greater you and I could have in common - not even if we're blood relatives! What's more, anything beyond "in Christ" - be it differences or other things we hold in common - is nonessential.
Here's the catch: My observation is that the overriding tendency in the body of Christ today is to focus on these nonessentials. Yet if we were to make our commonalities in Christ the subject of our meetings, the very word "meeting" would soon become woefully inadequate to describe what we experience together.
Outreach Unleashed
Jesus' prayer reveals that when believers achieve John 17 unity, two things will happen:
- The world will know and believe that God has sent Jesus.
- The world will know the love God has for His people.
That sounds like receptive ground for the gospel, if not a full-blown spiritual awakening!
Imagine an entire student body believing that Jesus is the Son of God, sent from heaven by the Father. Imagine those students being absolutely floored by God's love for them! That's fruit so ripe that it practically picks itself. An entire campus could experience that kind of spiritual awakening, simply as a byproduct of believers on that campus focusing on their commonalities in Christ.
The Resources of the Citywide Body of Christ
Believers experience the body of Christ on many levels - in the local church, across the nation and worldwide. But how about citywide?
If you were to survey the needs and hurts of students and the strengths of student ministries in your community, you'd likely see an uncanny parallel between the students' needs and the ministry resources available to meet those needs. So why not match them up? It might be invigorating for youth workers to serve on a citywide team, ministering to all the teens in a city, rather than serving as islands, ministering to pockets of teens. The final picture may not be as clear-cut as "You guys do evangelism, and we'll do discipleship." But if we lean that direction, we're bound to improve our dependence upon one another and experience yet another aspect of Jesus-grade unity (John 5:19; 8:28).
What John 17 Unity Isn't
An Event
Event-driven unity has given unity a bad rap. Yet it's often the "default" setting for student ministry collaboration. First, event planning can consume every meeting's agenda and suck the spiritual energy right out of a group. Second, the lofty goal of unity often degenerates into "Hey, bring your students to my event!" God can use planned events to unleash unity in a community. But it's not the only way He works. In fact, it may be nowhere near where God is calling your community of youth ministries to collaborate.
Another Meeting
Perhaps it's event-driven unity that has created the "just another meeting" mentality we spoke of earlier. After all, that's what many meetings are: just an efficient way to divvy out tasks.
But when we really apply John 17, we find that the most productive student outreach comes as a result of simply listening to and praying with other youth workers. That's when we discover, through story and sharing, how bonded we truly are in Christ - just as Christ is one with the Father. Those gatherings will never be confused with "just another meeting."
A Threat
God is the one who puts the body together and arranges its parts (1 Corinthians 12:18). And since God is doing the arranging, there's no need to get nervous about our students being attracted to other ministries. The fact is, if we lose a student to another ministry, we can celebrate! We've just been part of God's movement in arranging the parts of His body as He sees fit.
What John 17 Unity Can Look Like
Obviously, we need to refresh our concept of John 17 unity in youth ministry. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
Consider replacing the plan for your next Network gathering with this sample agenda:
- Share with each other the highs and lows of your recent personal spiritual journeys.
- Pray for each other.
- Talk about the hurts and needs of your students; then talk about how to combine resources to minister to these hurts and needs.
- Pray for your students.
A few gatherings like that, and you'll begin to experience the results of unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17. And no one will have left the meeting with more to do!
Radical Gathering
Ask the students in your ministry to compile a list of Christian ministries represented on their school campuses. That action alone will prove fruitful. Then help the students spearhead a gathering of these ministries. Suggest that they do the first two items on the sample agenda above.
Radical Day
Schedule a day to visit several youth pastors in your area. Ask them about their personal strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their student ministry. Compile a composite list of strengths and weaknesses represented in these ministries. And, voila! You've just taken the first step toward mobilizing the body of Christ to meet the needs of your community.
Unity is barely on the radar screen of student ministries today, while campus outreach is often agenda item one. And yet, time spent with fellow youth workers intent on trusting Jesus' prayer in John 17 can be exponentially more effective in campus outreach than anything we can do on our own.
Will we take Jesus at His word on this? We've too much to gain - and nothing to lose - not to.
Editors Note: The National Network of Youth Ministries and InWord Resources have collaborated to develop All For One: A Teen Study on God-Sized Unity, a small-group study to help student ministries, schools and cities experience John 17 unity. Network members can receive a 25% discount by going to www.inword.org and using the promo code "nnym5" when prompted in the ordering process. Or, call InWord toll-free at 888-422-3060.