The Urban Suburban Crossover

Ever wonder why Sunday Morning in majority of church services across the globe are considered the most segregated time. It appears our youth groups are mirroring the same reflections of big church. In our society and especially the area we live in 98% of our students attend diverse schools, live in diverse neighborhoods, and participate in diverse athletics & clubs. A few years ago we noticed many of our students hung out in mixed groups within their schools. Although, our students hung out with a diverse groups; they never invited those friends to youth group. We had and are having to re-access the reasons why our youth groups looks the way it does. We are examining the words we use, the music we play and the jokes we tale. We discovered sometimes not realizing the jokes we used were only relatable to the community we were serving. We were not exposing our students to different genres of music, although many of them listen to different genres other than hip hop. I think it’s good to look at events and music that your students would relate to but it’s good to challenge them and expose them to other things.

If we had a glimpse of Heaven I think many of us would be surprised to see there is NO Black side, Asian side, Hispanic side or White side. For many of us this would be a dramatic change, at what times to you socialize with others outside your race? If we seldom crossover as Youth Ministers or Pastors; how do we expect our congregation or youth to crossover? To fix this mindset we have chosen to become a Bridge. We began to expose our students to different and diverse conferences, concerts, events and projects. We began to look for event and projects that would promote diversity. We have started collaborating with other youth groups and churches on projects. We have created a network of youth leaders that is diverse. In doing this it felt very comfortable to us, it’s who we are it’s not something we are trying to make ourselves become. If we let down our barriers we would discover we can learn a lot from others.

There have been several studies that show how our communities will change drastically over the next 50 years. Is the church being prepared for that change? If the church continues on without any regard to our changing world we may become ineffective and lost in a changing world. Check out these projected stats:

Nation’s Changing Makeup

Racial/ethic groups	2005	2050
Foreign born	12%	19%
White	67%	47%
Hispanic	14%	29%
Black	13%	13%
Asian	5%	9%
Note: *=Non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native not included Source: Pew Research Center; Julie Snider, USA TODAY

Don’t get me wrong you are going to reach the blueprint you are called to reach but our communities, schools and neighborhoods are changing, our world is changing. If we the church are going to survive this change; we need to rethink the way we do church and our strategy will need to adjust. We may need a new blueprint the one we created 10 years ago may not be relevant anymore.

We have thousands of churches that are doing satellite venues within various areas of their cities and states. Having the same blueprint will not work for all venue communities and defiantly not for all youth groups. Our goal as youth leaders shouldn’t be to only reach the students in our youth groups. We must equip and send our students to reach others in their schools, neighborhoods and communities via friendship evangelism. That world does not look just like them. Students can do it, we’ve seen them go clear across the world on mission trips and reach hundreds and sometimes thousands. How are we preparing them for the challenge of reach their schools and neighborhoods?

It’s not changing who you are but it’s about reaching those God has placed in your community for you to reach. Sometimes that require a change in strategy!