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Too Much Talk and Not Enough Action

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Youth ministry has morphed into a never ending conversation. Let's face it. Those of us in youth ministry run from one meeting to the next planning, sharing, envisioning, describing...talking. If we got paid by the word, we'd all be rich.

And now there are all sorts of seminars, workshops and conferences where we pay to hear others talk. We take what we have learned from their talks and incorporate it into our talks. Hopefully those we talk to talk about it with each other. Every once in awhile those we have talked to will talk back which will lead to even more talks.

I don't think the early church was immune to this problem. I John 3:18 says

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Too much talk and not enough action.

It's easier to say "I love you" than it is to wash somebody's stinky feet.

Jesus was all about action. He was always on the go serving, teaching, healing, feeding, touching and sharing. If we build our youth ministries in his image then they will be active not passive, focused on obedience and not just content.

I'll never forget being a Jr. High intern at Community Baptist Church in Arvada, Colorado about seventeen years ago. As the new guy on the block, I thought I would try something different. My talk was on evangelism (no surprise there) and I finished it about thirty minutes early (big surprise there).

When I said "Well, that's the lesson for today" the handful of confused teenagers all kind of looked at each other and their watches with the "what now?" look. I seized the opportunity and said,

"Now we are going to go do it?"

"Do what?" one seventh grader asked.

"We are going to go out into this neighborhood, serve people and share the gospel" was my blunt response.

"We can't do that?" one teen said in fear.

"Why not?"

"This is Sunday School."

"Well, you take field trips in school, right? Think of this as a field trip."

One kid said, "My parents will get mad if they find out."

"I'll take all the flak," I assured them.

So off we went…door to door, raking leaves, cleaning up, initiating conversations, taking prayer requests, sharing Jesus. At first teens were terrified. They were absolutely in shock to be doing this on a Sunday morning.

But then it caught on.

By the time it we headed back there was a buzz among those young souls. Their Christianity was no longer theory. It was no longer a classroom situation. They had an opportunity to live it in very tangible ways right in their church's own backyard.

Sunday school was never the same after that. There was always a sense that anything, anytime could happen.

That's the way church should happen every time. Why? That's the way the early believers did church. It wasn't just about the meeting, so much, as the mission that followed.

Why do we compress all of our outreach efforts into a quarterly meeting or an annual missions trip? Maybe it's because we prefer a strategy that depends on words and not actions.

Now don't get me wrong. Words are important.

These words string together our philosophies, theologies and strategies. Without words, our actions would be misguided and misled. But words without actions are like fire without heat…useless.

Life changing youth ministry has fire and heat, words and actions. Effective youth ministers talk the talk and walk the walk.

So why not have an application at the end of every talk that you do right then or soon after? Your teens will soon catch on that "faith without works is dead" and that God wants us to "be doers of the word and not hearers only."

That's one of the reasons that we take students to the streets to collect canned goods and share the gospel at every Dare 2 Share conference. We want students to experience the joy of doing what they've learned.

All talk and no action makes Jack a dull Christian.