Social Media can help Youth Ministers!!!
Many months ago, as I began to hone my research for my PhD candidacy paper, I found the Lord working in and through me as I pondered what it means to live in a connected world and leave a lasting impression on the vocation of professional youth ministry. Several books, experiences, and virtual communities of practice have culminated into what I believe is the key to future youth ministry longevity and as controversial as this may sound, I don't think it involves face-to-face interaction. Now...hear me out.
The field of professional Youth Ministry is historically plagued with the stereotype of inexperienced, young, hipster types possessing good relational skills with adolescents that find themselves not being able to last very long in any one located ministry setting. While formal, academic training has made significant strides in the field to remedy this problem, long-term ongoing training and mentoring opportunities are where experiences get fleshed out and refined. Within these training and mentoring opportunities, one stands out as pivotal in its ability to influence the stereotype for the better. The recent phenomena of social media facilitates a connectedness and virtual community of practice that differs from most forms of “traditional” community creating new norms of culture, unlike any that youth ministers have ever experienced. Virtual "tribes" of professional cohorts now feed each other emotionally, spiritually, and professionally not through face-to-face interaction, but, rather through the new culture of 140 characters and emojis that retrace the boundaries of interaction. Fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan rightly stated that the "medium is the message"...in other words, the ways in which we communicate and receive information has a profound impact on the way we think and interact with said information. Today, this holds true in the exponential ways in which the professional community of youth ministry shares resources, insight, encouragement, wisdom, pitfalls, failures, and laughter.
If you find yourself not being able to afford any of the awesome conferences (NYWC, SYMC, or a host of others), I encourage you to troll Facebook for support groups, search Twitter for the #youthmin, #stumin, and any other youth ministry hashtag you can think of, and equip yourself for lasting the long haul in youth ministry!! You won't be disappointed.
The field of professional Youth Ministry is historically plagued with the stereotype of inexperienced, young, hipster types possessing good relational skills with adolescents that find themselves not being able to last very long in any one located ministry setting. While formal, academic training has made significant strides in the field to remedy this problem, long-term ongoing training and mentoring opportunities are where experiences get fleshed out and refined. Within these training and mentoring opportunities, one stands out as pivotal in its ability to influence the stereotype for the better. The recent phenomena of social media facilitates a connectedness and virtual community of practice that differs from most forms of “traditional” community creating new norms of culture, unlike any that youth ministers have ever experienced. Virtual "tribes" of professional cohorts now feed each other emotionally, spiritually, and professionally not through face-to-face interaction, but, rather through the new culture of 140 characters and emojis that retrace the boundaries of interaction. Fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan rightly stated that the "medium is the message"...in other words, the ways in which we communicate and receive information has a profound impact on the way we think and interact with said information. Today, this holds true in the exponential ways in which the professional community of youth ministry shares resources, insight, encouragement, wisdom, pitfalls, failures, and laughter.
If you find yourself not being able to afford any of the awesome conferences (NYWC, SYMC, or a host of others), I encourage you to troll Facebook for support groups, search Twitter for the #youthmin, #stumin, and any other youth ministry hashtag you can think of, and equip yourself for lasting the long haul in youth ministry!! You won't be disappointed.
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