Justice: A Missing Piece in the Youth Ministry Puzzle?

Murray Brown

I've been thinking a lot lately about justice. It has occurred to me how little we (and I include me in "we") talk about issues of justice in the context of youth ministry. We think of mission or the outworking of our faith as including service and evangelism but rarely as confronting injustice in our society.

I asked myself why and came up with some reasons:

• A salvation-focused and me-obsessed gospel has caused the needs of those treated unfairly to be forgotten amidst the rush to secure our own salvation for eternity and our own sense of happiness while we wait for it.
• For some of us anything that appears "political" belongs to the realm of a suspect social gospel at best and irrelevant to the "real" gospel at worst.
• As youth workers we are simply uninformed or ignorant about injustices in our communities and so are not in a place to challenge young people to action.
• A belief that says society is irredeemable and our eyes should be on the eternal rather than temporal matters.
• A belief that Jesus was more concerned with preaching salvation and healing people than he was with injustice in society.

Without going into details let me simply state that I am convinced that the gospel is very much about justice and that Jesus himself was quick to confront injustice. If we have a kingdom perspective on the gospel and take seriously our role in the prayer "Thy kingdom come, they will be done in earth as in heaven" then we too will be willing to confront injustice in society and challenge our young people to do likewise.

How do we begin? Firstly we need to be convinced that it is our role as Christians to confront injustice and to work to change society. Study the gospels and see how often Jesus addresses the subject of injustice.

Secondly we must educate young people as to our mandate and challenge them with stories of which their are many. What about Bonhoeffer, or Wilberforce, or Martin Luther King. Or for a more contemporary example, I recently finished reading "Bono on Bono" in which, through interviews with Michka Assayas, we get a glimpse into the passion of U2's lead singer, not only for Jesus but for issues of justice particularly as they relate to poverty and AIDS. It's a great read that inspires us to work at whatever level God calls us to bring about change. A quite different example and one our young people might relate to more easily is of the 15 year old Zach Hunter whose faith has led him to campaign against slavery (see here).

Thirdly we must encourage them to explore and examine issues in our society and allow them to dream of what a constructive response might be. Help them to see beyond mere protest to discover ways to be change agents. There is no need to go big straight away. Study the local newspaper and look for issues that capture their imagination. Or find out what initiatives exist for involvment of youth in decsions making in your country or city.*

True, these are matters that may not inspire our whole youth group. But perhaps there are just a few who can start meeting together to grapple with these issues. Not only will it lead to a more Biblical youth ministry but my hunch is these young people will uncover a whole new dimension to their faith that will see them come more closely into contact with the heart of Jesus.

* For those of you in New Zealand check out the Provoke Network.