Deep & Wide Works…in any Ministry.

by Brian Ford of the Christian Retreat Center in East Waterford, PA.

After 10+ years in youth ministry serving in churches, this past September I made a slight shift. I now serve in camp ministry as a Program Director for short-term missions. Basically I’m responsible for planning and administrating a work camp for youth groups. But when I started I had a question that came to mind, how can I implement the Deep & Wide philosophy in our Teens in Missionary Service program? It didn’t take long for me to realize what my problem was, you see, I forgot that Deep & Wide is NOT a gimmick or just the latest program. No…it’s biblical. It’s not complex. And it works in any ministry.

To understand what Deep & Wide Youth Ministry means let’s take a look at its definition taken from the D&W Thesis Greg Stier wrote.

Deep & Wide Youth Ministry prayerfully pushes teenagers deeper into their relationship with God (a.k.a. “discipleship”), while also gently pushing them wider into the world with the gospel (a.k.a. “evangelism”).

Aside from Matthew 28:19-20 being given and quoted as the basis for D&W, the scriptures are filled with examples of people growing deep in their faith and then passionately sharing it with others. As a matter of fact Deep & Wide as been implemented long before it was written down in thesis format.

The woman at the well was exposed to the gospel and was compelled to tell everyone in her community. The people of the early church (Acts) grew in number because they grew deep in their relationship with Christ and was compelled to tell others. And when Paul met Jesus he devoted his life to deepening his relationship with Christ and telling everyone the good news.

Right away we began to apply the biblical principles of building a Deep & Wide Ministry at The Christian Retreat Center for our Teens in Missionary Service Program. Our focus is on helping students that take part in our summer missions program to leave camp growing deeper in their faith and passionate about going into their schools and community with the gospel. We’ve chosen a simple approach to ministry.

And the program aspect of my job is just the scaffolding. Implementing Deep & Wide Youth Ministry is the building block to the ultimate structure…furthering the Kingdom of Heaven. Deep & Wide works, and it works in any ministry because bottom line it biblical.

Brian Ford 
Program Director and Camp Youth Pastor
The Christian Retreat Center

D&W: Building an online community of Youth Leaders

This is stating the obvious, but as many of you know I am a huge fan of Deep & Wide Youth Ministry.  That’s why I blog about it so much, train on it, discuss with Youth Leaders through email and phone calls…it’s in my DNA.  That being said, as much as I love to explain the concept and strategy and introduce Youth Leaders to this philosophy, I have my limitations (I know, stating the obvious again ).  While I have the opportunity to lead a small group for our Youth Ministry at Northern Hills, I am not at the helm of the ministry itself.

That being said, I am looking to grow the online community of Youth Leaders who are implementing Deep & Wide Youth Ministry.  Starting in May (a little over a month away) I want to feature guest bloggers through this site that are actually doing D&W Youth Ministry.  If you would like to contribute, leave me a comment below and I will gladly follow-up with you.  I am looking for Youth Leaders who are willing to blog once a month.  Topics of these blogs may vary, but the goal is for you to share your successes, failures, ideas, and things you are trying as they relate to “doing” D&W Youth Ministry.

I have a few Youth Leaders on board, but my goal is to grow this into an ongoing and growing community of Youth Leaders, not just a select few.  Let’s connect and I can share more of the details. 

D2S – Friday Night

I just got back home with my friend Brian Ford after working Friday night of the Invincible conference here in Denver, CO.  What an amazing night!  God worked in might ways and it was amazing to see how teenagers responded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The drama proved to be the most powerful portion of the evening for me, as it typically is.  However this year’s drama brought something different to the table.  We see a teenage girl caught in the midst of spiritual warfare and struggling with cutting…powerful.  It seemed more real and I think on some level, every student in the arena connected with what was being portrayed.

The them for the weekend is Invincible and our text is Ephesians 6:10-20.  We get real with teenagers and let them know how serious the spiritual warfare is that is all around them.  Satan is fighting for the souls of our friends and in the process is attempting to render us apathetic…pathetic!  It’s time we take a stand for the Kingdom of God, armor up, and take the Gospel to every teenager, every friend that we know.

Extra-curriculars vs. Youth Group

So let me forewarn you that this is a pretty big can of worms.  Before I dive in too deep with my personal views and opinions (which admittedly are still in flux) allow me to give you a little background that has led to me contemplating this topic for the past few weeks.

1. A good friend of mine and fellow Youth Ministry worker, Brian Ford, recently wrote an article on this particular subject.
2. I took advantage of the opportunity to call into Tim Schmoyer’s blog where he hosts a live online chat on Friday’s.  This week’s particular topic of discussion dealt with this same topic initiated by Brian’s article.  You can actually listen to the discussion that took place (CLICK HERE).

So here are my scatter-brianed thoughts on this subject.  First of all, I am not opposed to sports activities, academic clubs, social justice causes, Boy Scouts, or the like.  I actually have encouraged students in my previous youth ministries to get involved in them and will encourage my own son to do the same.  However, I absolutely cringe when students tell me they are going to miss a Youth Ministry activity because of them.  Now don’t over react.  I can handle a few times here or there, but when it becomes habitual or they miss for several months due to another commitment, my concern becomes their priorities.  Have you ever had one of your students tell a coach they are going to miss every Wednesday of practice because of Youth Group?  Or that they can pracitce during the week but will miss every game because of their commitment to church on Sundays?  Things that make you go hmmmmm…

Now I am totally with you that it’s not about program competing against program.  I can’t stand Youth Ministries that are program driven.  But just like football practices and games are designed to breed better athletes and football players, Youth Ministry should be designed to breed students that are drowing deep in their faith and going wide with the Gospel.  (Check out the Deep & Wide Youth Ministry philosophy for more details.)

Another pet peeve in this whole ordeal is Youth Leaders who feel like they can’t compete with the extras in life.  I’m not saying that it won’t be difficult, but we are fighting for the souls of the teenagers we can influence, and beyond that the friends that they can ultimate influence that they know in their social networks.  Again, great that they have these other commitments, but are they looking at them as opportunities to take the Gospel to their friends hey are spending time with there?  Are they staying committed to growing in their faith outside of these commitements?  Are we, as Youth Leaders, taking the time to invest in them outside of their busy schedules if they can’t make a group meeting? 

I get it…we can’t always compete on the entertainment value with other activities.  In fact, students are attracted to the slightest possibility that they could get a scholarship (in case you weren’t aware, I don’t think there are many Youth Ministries handing out full ride scholarship to D-1 schools).  But what we have to offer that those other activities don’t have, the Truth.  The absolute, straight from God, in the Flesh, Truth.  Nothing else can hold a candle to it.

So where does this leave us?  I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure.  But I know this: no matter what the competition is, no matter what sacrifices we may have to make, we are in a war for the souls of every student we come in contact with and by extension, every student they know.  It will never be easy, but if we give in to the foe known as extra-curricular activites, how can we stand against the true enemy? Satan and his evil regime.

Will you join the battle?  Will you fight for the lives and souls for students all around you?  The competition isn’t what matters.  It’s whats at stake that we need to care about.