What we try to do at 180°
by Rev. Scott A. Moore
We are situated in the center of Germany. More
accurately, we are situated in a region of the former
East Germany that has one of the smallest Christian
populations (estimates hover between 12% and
16%--Catholic, Evangelisch, and Non-Denominational
congregations.) The perspective for many of our youth
appears to be very bleak. Unemployment is high. There
is no industry coming to Eisleben in the foreseeable
future. Most if not almost all of our active youth
will not be in Eisleben in 10 years. We feel called to
equip young people to be ministers of the Gospel in
this place now and learn and grow and take what they
learn to their homes of the future.
Many of our confirmation age youth come from
un-churched homes. We sometimes meet resistance from
parents and the confirmation students meet resistance
from their friends. At the core of 180grad is the idea
that older youth working for and with younger youth
will provide a dynamic place for ministry of those
post confirmation and be attractive and infectious for
those we hope to get into our confirmation classes.
Events, music, and youth to youth Christian witness
created and executed by youth (guided and encouraged,
of course, by three Hauptamtlichen Mitarbeitern) is
the missionary model we have chosen for our context.
Many people ask us how is it that we are able to get
the youth from our congregations as well as youth from
margins to take an active interest in "being" a part
of the Church in this place and time. Our answer is
simple: there is no secret, there is no magical
formula, there is no special recipe. Instead, there
are a few basic elements that we endeavor to employ
over and over again. These elements are: Berufung,
Beziehung, and Beschäftigung.
Before going into detail, it is important to state at
the onset that there is no hierarchy among these three
elements. There is, however, a dynamic interdependence
at play. When this tripod of ministry is missing one
or two of its legs, then the whole becomes out of
balance.
Just as there is no order of importance among the
elements, there is also no set order of when each
element happens or should happen. It is more like a
concentric circle, or a more apt metaphor for youth
ministry, a Wirbelsturm. In each section of the
Wirbelsturm, individuals come into contact with
moments and occasions where they are "berufen", where
they are in "Beziehung", and where they find
meaningful "Beschäftigung". As they fly around in the
whirlwind of their lives and of ministry in the
Church, they pass by each of the three B's over and
over again; sometimes in the same, familiar forms
(rituals in the JungeGemeinde or yearly events) and
sometimes in new and exciting ways (a particular
once-only project). As the Wirbelsturm of our
ministry/project moves through the lives of others in
our context (or Eisleben), these individuals are drawn
into the dynamic energy either through opportunities
to engage in meaningful Beschäftigung, through
"Beziehung" (the area that seems to be most attractive
and effective for youth), and through some sense of
being "berufen" to something larger than themselves.
Berufen
We believe and emphasize that we are "berufen" in our
baptism (whether as an infant or a youth/adult) and
throughout our entire lives: through God's Word and
prayer, through praise to God in celebration and song,
and through encountering the need of Jesus among the
weakest of those in the world. This God-centered
aspect focuses on our relationship to God who made us
and loves us. We find ourselves needing to
re-emphasize this from time to time either in JG or
when we experience difficulties in losing our focus
about what we are about. Often, the youth with whom we
serve remind us and each other of the fact that all we
do and are is and should be centered in the one who
created us and who lived with us and died for us. That
is one of the greatest joys we experience when these
amazing youth (and their parents at times) step
forward and call (rufen) us back to our initial call
(Berufung).
One of the ways we emphasize that we are "berufen" to
a life of Christian service and to service in our
congregations through 180grad specifically is through
ritualized Einsegnung and Einführung. This component
of "Berufen" takes place at our annual 180grad
celebration worship service (Einsegnung) and in
regular Sunday morning worship in the respective
congregations from which our youth come (Einführung).
These ritual/liturgical experiences involve
exhortations from Holy Scripture, interrogation of the
youth's desire to be part of this ministry, prayer,
laying on of hands by the pastors and members of the
respective congregations, and affirmation of the new
co-workers.
Beziehungen
We also believe that we are not "berufen" to a life of
solitary Christianity. (We do not discount or devalue
that lifestyle, we simply do not see it as the primary
experience of the majority of Christians). This is why
we take care to devote time and energy to establishing
and nurturing relationships with our youth co-workers
and with the other youth in the wider community we
desire to serve and hope to reach. We attempt to model
positive ways of relating to one another. We have
intentionally taught some elements of "peer ministry"
hoping along the way to give our co-workers skills (or
make them aware of the skills they already have) which
will help them reach out to their peers in the places
where they are (school, free time, etc.). And, we
strive to create an environment of hospitality in our
own "Räumlichkeiten"where this can take place whether
it is in the form of providing for mood-lighting,
drinks (non-alcoholic, of course), and comfortable
seating.
We stress attendance at JG, events, and especially at
worship (in whichever congregation that might be). We
encourage them to get up on a Sunday morning and
participate in the liturgy by simply being there. We
also intentionally seek out ways for them to serve in
worship (lector, ushers, regulating sound, communion
distribution, Anspiele, dialog sermons, special music,
Kirchencafe, etc.) Since the inception of 180grad, we
have had a noticeable increase of youth attending our
regular Sunday morning liturgy (even though the music
is something that, more often than not, is not to
their liking). They understand the importance of
community centered around Christ. They make an effort.
We still have room to grow regarding their attendance
and a lot of room to grow in the rest of the
congregations' acceptance of their unusual presence in
Sunday morning worship. Our congregations struggle
with the idea that we are nurturing individual
Christians for service in the Church and the world.
The congregation often only takes seriously a presence
of youth in worship when they are "doing something as
a group"as in the form of an Anspiel or even more so
in the form of a worship band or choir which is ironic
considering the fact that very few of the adults
"spice up" worship in that way and most of the jobs in
worship are executed by a handful of members. We are
sure that this phenomenon is not unique to Eisleben.
Beschäftigung
We strongly believe that programmatic ministry is
important as a framework in which relational ministry
can take place. We don't believe in program for the
sake of program. We are not interested in
Beschäftigung simply in order to give youth something
to do. We are very intentional and spend time in
prayerful discernment about how we might integrate
each newly-confirmed, newly-baptized, or newly-won
co-worker into the work of 180grad. We strive to find
a place for each and every newly-confirmed youth and
approach them as confirmation nears and share with
them our hopes for them. We look at their gifts and
our current programmatic needs as well as keeping an
open mind and an open heart to how the Holy Spirit
might be changing the shape of our programmatic
ministries through the gifts of new co-workers. So
far, we have had a very high retention rate of our
confirmed youth. We have also won new youth through
various elements like our bands or our homepage
project. We work at staying as connected to each team
as possible. We want them to learn autonomy and to be
able to set goals for themselves. On occasion, we find
that we need to step in with a kind word of
encouragement or a firmer word of challenge or
exhortation if we sense that they might be straying
too far from either their sense of "Berufung" or
respectful "Beziehung". But this kind of
accountability is not a one-way street and certainly
not always from the top down. Our youth are often
empowered to ask for what they need (more singing or
more content in JG, different songs in the bands, a
better way or method for communicating the faith to
our confirmation students, pastoral care for
themselves or others, new ideas for how to reach other
youth in Eisleben, just to name a few.) Sometimes we
get caught up in working for ourselves and not enough
for others. Other times, we are too ambitious and work
too much. Once in a while we professional leaders need
to put the breaks on and give everyone a break in
order to avoid burnout.
Berufung, Beziehung, Beschäftigung: we do all this in
180grad. We experience great joy and success as well
as pain and failure. From all of it we learn and grow
together and we trust and pray that the Holy Spirit
will take these experiences and bless them and the
youth we serve so that they can be a blessing and
spiritual yeast wherever decide to serve.
Answers to additional questions:
What conversation topics do we find ourselves engaging
in with "konfessionslosen" youth?
Theodicy is a common topic among youth and adults
alike. If God is omnipotent, then why did x, y, or z
happen to me or someone else? It is a simple question
that quickly take the wind out of anyone's sails
rather quickly. One of the best responses that I/we
have heard (from our colleague Claudia Bergmann) that
can help turn the conversation from a defensive one
back into something positive is to ask: what good
things have happened to you for no reason whatsoever?
Why did God do that for you? It helps focus on the
sometimes arbitrary and unbelievable nature of grace
that we try to convey as often as possible.
The nature of sin and sinfulness in the workings of
the Church and her Christians is also a regular topic.
It has been our experience that those on the margins
that are not apathetic tend, in general, to be looking
for a fight. It is always easier to attack and watch
someone flail around trying to find a suitable defense
than it is to truly engage in conversation. Quite
honestly, we experience successes and failures in
being able to prepare our youth for those kinds of
attacks.