Overview

Rob Bacon boils youth ministry down to one primary concept—inspire youth to see Jesus as the central, life-giving focus of their lives. Mentoring adults shepherd youth through this process, drawing on their own experience as a covenented community gathered to provide youth ministry. The CRG spoke with Rob in November, 2006.

About Rob Bacon

The Reverend Robert Bacon has served as Director of Youth Ministries in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts since 2002. He provides resources, serves as an advisor to over 190 congregations, manages his own personal ministry, and is responsible for youth programs at the Barbara Harris Camp and Conference Center. Before joining the diocesan staff, Rob served as Associate Rector for Families and Youth at Trinity Church, Boston. Before entering the priesthood, Rob worked as a legislative aide to the Governor of Massachusetts, supervised an oil well drilling crew, and served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy. Rob, his wife, and three children live outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

Interview

CRG: You've been working with youth for more than a decade. What observations do you have about today's youth?

Rob: Technology puts the entire universe at the fingertips of this generation of young people. The amount of information people have access to today is extraordinary. Today's youth are exposed to: ugly violence—war, a very sexual culture, and endless messaging of all kinds, both good and bad. My 14-year old son wanted a new cellphone for his birthday that does practically everything. Young people are so much more vulnerable today than ever. As parents, we can be overwhelmed with trying to shield our children from the world before they’re ready for it.

In part because of this accelerated exposure young people are reaching puberty earlier. Recent medical studies reveal that human brain is not fully developed until age 25! It’s easy to see why young people, bombarded as they are with images and information, often face real challenges.

Young people push to find their boundaries. How far will authority let them go? They ask a lot of questions. Who am I? What’s OK or not OK for me? What should I do in this or that situation? Young people are looking for honesty and the truth. They can tell when someone’s not leveling with them.

CRG: How do these observations influence your understanding of youth ministry?

Rob: Bishop Barbara C. Harris, for whom our diocesan camp and conference center is named, said once, "If we don’t know where we are going any road can get us there." This suggests that we need targets in our lives; focus points where we can aim our efforts. We need to know where we are going. Without this, we can find ourselves adrift and lost. Our aim and purpose in our youth programs is to learn how to know and how to love God.

Our target or goal—the target at which we aim our lives—looks like an archery target with four rings.

• At the center of the target, the bull’s eye, we have Jesus. God dwelled in Jesus who came into the world to show us how to live life to the fullest. He is where we will find everything we’re looking for; he is our Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
  
• The next ring is labeled prayer. Prayer is how we come to know Jesus and to understand his Word.
  
• Community is the next ring. We were made to live together as one.
  
• The last ring out is discipleship because the fruit and grace borne from the inner rings of the target is to be taken out into the world to give away for the benefit of God’s whole creation.

Our approach is pretty basic and simple. We believe and try to inspire young people to see that it all starts with Jesus. If we can keep him as our "target"—our goal—we can "make it." We don’t need to apprehend or acquire Jesus somewhere like a consumer product. He’s already in our hearts. He’s already within us. And you know one of the things young people like about Jesus is that he is radical!

Our ministry is about helping young people find Jesus within themselves—faith, love, compassion, generosity—all the things that make our lives full. We know that even the most faithful, mature young people can still get involved in destructive behavior—cutting themselves, drugs, etc.—in their endless pursuit to fill an inside void. We hope to fill that void with faith.

CRG: Can you provide some suggestions for creating a good congregationally-based youth ministry?

Rob: Here’s a starting assumption: Clergy in most congregations don’t have time to devote the necessary energy to youth ministry. So, if youth ministry is a priority, others need to be brought in to help. Here is a framework that works for me...

• First, identify the right adults and recruit them to serve as mentors and leaders who will form the ministry with young people. This may take time. It is challenging to get adults to volunteer in most areas of the church; but it is especially challenging recruiting adults to do youth work. Adults are scared of teenagers and young people! Expect to hear every possible objection possible to your invitation, but keep pushing.
  
• Be a pastor to the adults engaged in youth ministry. Adults will worry that they don’t know enough about their own faith or the Bible to mentor young people. Adults are afraid of the questions young people might ask. What if we don’t know the answers!? These are issues that need to be acknowledged and overcome.
  
• Form a "covenant group" of adult mentors. This is a small group that meets regularly (once a month, for example), often with the pastor or clergy leadership, to explore their own spiritual lives and to process what is happening in their youth ministry work. To set the tone, gather the prospective adult mentors together during the recruitment phase and begin to help them consider how their lives will be enriched by serving as a mentor.
  
  Participating in this group helps adult mentors learn to be together as companions on this spiritual journey. Each meeting will include some time for organizational and administrative issues, but should primarily be a time for community-building and faith exploration. Each meeting includes three components: scripture reading and study; prayer; and sharing aspects of themselves and their experiences.
  
  It is critical that this group agree to a covenant together that will preserve the confidentiality and trust within the group. Click here for sample covenant group agreements that Rob uses in his ministry.
  
  Participation in the covenant group is intended to become an important part of the adult mentor’s spiritual life. Doing youth ministry is challenging and demanding. Burn-out is always looming. These groups help refresh the adult mentors. They become a safe place where frustrations and questions are shared and ministry can be refreshed. It's a place for mentors to get their batteries recharged. I don’t think youth ministry will be successful without this.
  
  The covenant group experience provides a model and laboratory for how youth groups ought to work. It teaches mentors, and gives them the experience of maintaining confidentiality and creating a sense of trust. Young people come to youth ministry asking a lot of big questions about life or looking for meaning and connection. They are not likely to open their souls unless they can sense trust from their adult mentors. Adults need to learn how to establish trust in their own mentor group before they can expect to nurture trust in their youth groups.
  
  A critical point I want to make about gathering a group of adult mentors. Be sure the adults you recruit as mentors are known to the congregation. Do not recruit an adult who volunteers on his or her own. Beware of any adult who gets his or her needs met from young people. Good adult mentors give to the youth and gets his or her own needs met in the adult covenant group.
  
• A youth program should have a regular time of fellowship and fun in addition to and beyond church classes, serving at the altar or in worship, etc. Most group experiences should include regular times for Bible study and group theological reflection.


• Nothing mobilizes youth like service. When young people get involved in a service project where they are giving back and being of service to others, you can literally see the Spirit rise in them. The needs in this broken world of ours are limitless. While I have led some incredible youth missions to impoverished villages in Honduras, we also find plenty of ways for young people to get involved right here at home. It all becomes clear to them when young people serve others. Click here for Rob's summary of Why Youth Mission trips and a sample covenant to be used with mission groups.

CRG: What new "trends" do you see developing in the area of youth ministry?

Rob: What is it about our culture that we are always looking for new trends? When you’re busy looking for new trends, you step right over the Truth—Jesus. You can repackage things and make them more "contemporary" but the real deal never changes. If we obeyed Jesus, if we loved one another as he loved us, think of the peace, justice and fulfillment we would all enjoy! Staying focused on that "target"—Jesus—goes beyond all the new trends.

CRG: A lot of youth worship breaks from what's known traditional worship. To many over-30 types, "contemporary worship" looks and sounds like a rock concert. Do you have thoughts on how youth experience worship?

Rob: No matter how trendy a youth worship service is, it must be fairly consistent and dependable. Youth must, for the most part, know what to expect when they walk into a worship service; they'll be primed and pumped based upon prior experience. If they walk into something that's always a moving target—constantly shifting and changing—it will be hard to enter into the experience (the same can be said for any age group). Youth worship must also be utterly authentic. Just as Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?," youth are always watching and discerning for that which is true and that which is hypocritical, manipulative, and not-of-God.

Our youth worship includes a lot of contemporary Christian rock music. We use a lot of technology in our services—it can be loud!! Someone said once that our youth service looked like a Christian mosh pit! But none of this would work unless it is authentic. Young people can tell a put-on when they see one. The Spirit has to be present. To do that, we keep our eye on the center of that target, Jesus.

Resources

Unitarian Universalist Guide to Covenant Groups

This online guide provides details on how to form and nurture a covenant group. It can be adapted for use in youth ministry.

The Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center
108 Wally Stone Lane, Greenfield NH 03047, 603-547-3400, fax 603-547-3038.

The conference center and summer camp facility for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. The Center, opened in 2003, is located on 326 acres on the shore of Otter Lake near Greenfield, New Hampshire. Professional accommodations and facilities are available throughout the year for religious education, retreats for up to 200 people for non-profit organizations and churches.

Matt Redman, Singer/Songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music
PO BOX 52, Hassocks, BN6 0AS, United Kingdom.

Matt bases his ministry in Brighton, England and is associated with the Soul Survivor organization. Matt has been a featured artist at the annual Passion Conference in the United States.

Chris Tomlin
c/o Tiffani Walt PO Box 98, Wilmore, KY 40390, 859-858-2991.

Chris is a worship leader and songwriter from Grand Saline, Texas. He got his start in 1998 with a band that grew out of the Woodlands (Texas) United Methodist Church. He has led worship at the annual Passion Conference. He was nominated twice for the 49th Grammy Awards.

David Crowder Band
This six piece band is an electronic band for worship. It band provides the worship leadership for the University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas when not on the road at festivals, events and concerts.

This interview is part of the Wise Voices project, which gathers thoughts and essays from people who know congregations. These are leaders with know-how—through first-hand knowledge, academic study, or practical experience. If you are or know of a Wise Voice we should include, please contact us at info@crg.org.