A Deep Critique of: Deep and Wide Youth Ministry

In this post, I will critique The Deep and Wide Youth Ministry model which was developed by Dare 2 Share Ministries.  D2S does an excellent job with its theological foundation, but doesn’t design a YM model that understands the realities within the adolescent spiritual development process.

**note:  my critique is of the model and not of the organization or the youth pastors who implemented this model in their ministry.  Matt Cleaver has an excellent critique of this model as well, here.

Also I just realized that Tim Schmoyer @ Life in Student Ministry will be hosting a live talk about Deep and Wide YM Friday – 1/23.  Come check it out.

First off, Deep and Wide Youth Ministry sounds more like an adult film or a football play, than a youth ministry model.

Why is Deep and Wide Model so Problematic?

*  It heavily relies on evangelism and discipleship as a fused entity in order to determine “explosive spiritual growth”.  D2S states: “evangelism and discipleship work together like nitrogen and glycerin and that result in explosive spiritual growth.”  Discipleship and evangelism always cannot be dependent of each other, rather it must be independent of one another.

*  The goal of Deep & Wide Youth Ministry is to help teenagers attain a point in their spiritual development where they begin to become spiritual multipliers.  Unfortunately youth pastors are not in the business of over night fruit.  I am sorry.  I will not set up a model that guarantees spiritual multipliers.  It is manipulative, unnatural, and has many false expectations.  Andrew Root in his book Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry directly speaks to how to do relationships without being manipulative.  Emerging Youth has a great Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry book review here.

*  This Deep & Wide YM model functions like a pyramid scheme.  First, you get a student in your youth ministry, you get them sold on Christ, you teach, coach, and disciple them and then the students taps into their relationship to evangelize until he/she is blue in the face.

*  If the teen doesn’t move through the deep and wide paradigm, then the youth pastor can conclude their teen is not spiritually growing and  the kid is screwed because he is not like Timmy who is evangelizing is socks off.

*D2S defines evangelism like this:  in order to prove that you are spiritually mature, go tell all of your friends about Jesus.  Chap Clark argues in Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church, “Evangelism is the cumulative conviction of the entire local family of God to reach out to students on their turf.  The family of God be relational, no strings attached contacts are made with student in multiple settings.”  Why do we encourage our kids to be like Christ, before they start telling their friends about Christ?  Teens are in such a transitional phase one minute they are this person, while the next minute they are taking on an entire new identity.

*  Dare To Share claims not to be a gimmick or a method.  I am sorry to say:  If there is a diagram, then it is a sequential youth ministry method, which about 60% of youth pastors in America attempt to implement….which then makes it a gimmick.

*  The emotional movement from Apathy to Interested and Interested to Excited and Excited to Passion is too difficult to evaluate.  Only if it was that easy.  One minute a kid is deeply passionate about God, then the next week a kid is pissed off at God.  To base a students spiritual health off of their (the adolescent) spectrum of emotions is completely unpredictable and unreliable.  Mid to late adolescents are emotionally bi-polar.  If you don’t believe me monitor one of your kids facebook status for two days.

*  The Deep and Wide YM assessment test that gauges student spiritual maturity is not a real and accurate assessment.  It is like trying to pin down mercury.  You cannot.  Assessing our student’s spirituality is not like a job interview or taking a personality test.  It is a little more complicated than that.  Basically the youth pastor becomes the spiritual gate keeper.  He/she gets to determine who is growing and who is not.  We are with our students for about 3 hours out of the week of 168 hours.  How the heck are we going to measure our student’s spirituality with our limited exposure to them?

*  Deep and Wide is performance and adult driven.  D2S states:  “Teenagers today are getting pushed everywhere. They are being pushed by their teachers, coaches, employers and parents. About the only place where they aren’t getting pushed is the church.”

Exactly.  Church is different.  Church shouldn’t be about spiritual results. Church encourages students to BE in the presence of God.   Chap Clark, in HURT, argues:  “By the time adolescents enter high school, nearly everyone has been subjected to a decade or more of adult-driven and adult-controlled programs, systems, and institutions that are primarily concerned with adults’ agendas, needs, and dreams”(46).  Let us not make church like school where students become slaves under adult driven youth ministry model that requires them to produce spiritual results.  It seems this model is more about doing, than about being with God.

This Model Assumes That…..

*  the teenager spiritual maturity is a straight line progression and it can be charted as a steady climbing line.     This is not how life or spirituality works.  The growth within adolescent spiritual development is random, rough, and ridge.  Mike Yac said it best: following Christ is anything but a straight line; it is mixed, curvy, confusing, ambigious, rough, smooth, jagged, and difficult.

*  teenagers are always going to be interested and excited in order to grow.  The logic is this:  If they aren’t, then they are not going deeper and wider in their faith.

*how they classify teens is way too general.  In the 21st century teens cannot be lumped into one big category.  Marko perfectly argues in YM 3.0 that our youth ministries need to be multiple YM to multiple peer groups.  Deep and Wide Ministry does not have any flexibility and does not address the spiritual and teen diversity in our youth groups.

My Critical Questions For This Deep and Wide YM Model Are:

In this model, when can the teens question, doubt, and test their faith and be affirmed for it?  To me, a deep and wide ministry is when a student starts to deeply question their faith and live it out with their actions, not words.  And sometimes questioning a faith that has been spoon fed to us, is not necessary an exciting process.

How do you motivate the kid who is pissed off at God and is very socially awkward so if and when he is ready to share his faith it may be a trainwreck?  Why was Aaron’s Moses mouthpiece?  Maybe Aaron was a better speaker than Moses?

How does this model steer away from putting the kids who are in level 3 on a pedestal?

Since youth pastors have such a limited exposure to the students, how is this model equipping the parents (the ones who can actually gauge the spiritual health of their son/daughter) to lead spiritually?

How on earth can a youth pastor evaluate a student’s spiritual maturity by conducting a test?

This is nearly impossible and frankly not our job.  Think about it….how can we really know what is taking place in the teen’s heart?  Yes we may have a few indicates like student’s exterior behaviors, student’s church attendance, student’s good deeds, student’s witness, but can we really truly know?

This YM model needs to be sensitive:

*  to the students who are not going to fit in this nice and neat paradigm.  What about the student who just wants to check out the teachings of Jesus?  Immediately he/she is labeled as a apathetic, piece of poop kid who will never be like the other perfect Christian bubble kids (who are the Youth Pastors pet and favorite) who are always verbalizing their faith.

*  to the students who are NOT verbal evangelist.  I argue pretty strongly (click here) that not all kids need to be verbal evangelist.  Although all kids need to GO, which means be the light and salt to the world, not verbal evangelist to the world.  Paul made clear that some will be prophets, evangelist, teachers, pastors, and disciplers.

*  how they use the word “push”.  D2S is very clear you need to be gentle, but firm in how you gauge the student’s growth.  If the YP pushes the wrong student cluster, they become resistant not only towards the YP, but the church.  I have a hard time visualizing a youth pastor calling a teen apathetic, and if he/she does that is really pathetic.

* of it’s ridigness.  Unfortunately the YM portrayed in the Deep & Wide is not exactly a realistic type of model that is fluid.  It seems too perfect and mathematical.  It is like inserting kids into a mathematical equation and hoping and praying that they will get the balls to share their faith.  D2S argues that this model will be messy, but I don’t see how it can get messy.  Everything is pretty clear and spelled out.  It is simple you take a apathetic kid, you motivate, teach, and mentor them and then they are excited for God, just like that.  Then, that kid taps into his friend network and start evangelizing until he/she starts deeply questioning the realities of God.  What if a kid never gets pass level 1 and the youth pastor has been working with him for over 10 years?  Think about the intense frustration this would bring the youth pastor.  Why?  Because Deep and Wide YM model sets up strict and unrealistic expectations that are placed on not only the youth pastor, but the students, which sucks!

Bottom line: I can see this model working for about 50% to 60% of America’s youth ministries, especially if the youth pastor wants to play it safe and keep their youth ministry in a vacuum.

How about we let God assess the hearts of our students, not us and keep encouraging them to be light and salt, not Billy Graham.  I don’t care how much prayer you do in order to assess the hearts of your students, we simply cannot make an accurate decision so the students can move to level 2 in The Deep and Wide Youth Ministry Model, which will make us (the youth pastor feel good).

I would really hope and pray that we not cling to these “models”, but we really explore how we can have a maintable and sustainable youth ministry.

Possibly Related Posts:

• How To Be A “Superhero Youth Pastor/Youth Worker”
• Earmarks of the Future Youth Ministry
• Remedy.fm Interviewed the Small Town Youth Pastor
• Youth Ministry Male Mentorship
• Establishing Our Youth Pastor Independence