If you stand at a window, looking into a room, could you give an accurate description of what the room looked like? Of course you could! But let’s say you only look through that one window for five, ten, or even twenty years. Then one day, someone comes along and pulls you around the corner to look into the same room, but from a different angle. Would anything change?
You would still see an accurate depiction of the interior, but you might notice a new clock, a new table, or a new wastebasket. How much would you have been missing all those years?
With the coronavirus pandemic, we Young Life people are being pulled to a new window. It’s new, it’s potentially uncomfortable (“I really like my window!”), but it is absolutely necessary. And while the transition might be tough, I encourage everyone working in the world of kids to consider these words: “Fear sees a challenge, but faith sees an opportunity,” (shout out to my work crew bosses a decade ago).
Here is an example: the club that I volunteer with normally sees about 50-60 kids at our weekly meetings. When Newt handed down the announcement that club would need to be suspended in order to protect our high school friends, we made the quick move to host club on Instagram live.
The result? Nearly 90 kids showed up to watch me pie my co-leaders in the face (a sacrifice I was willing to make). That was bigger than any in-person club we had hosted all semester.
Here’s what I’m not saying- I’m not saying that virtual connection should replace the actual contact work of being in the world of kids. Once the world gets back to normal, we need to double-down on our commitment to being at ballgames, grabbing coffee, and hosting Bible study.
What I am saying is that the social-distancing regulations put in place as of late have given us a new window to reach the kids that don’t come around to our clubs and campaigners during “peacetime”. The virtual world we’ve been thrown into has given the “furthest-out kid” a new chance to interact with our community. Once the social-distancing protocols are lifted, why would we sacrifice that?
When Paul went to Athens in Acts 17, he had to look at ministry through a new window. He had to offer the same gospel in a new, relevant way. As we move our ministry online for a stint, we must do the same. In Paul’s case, “…when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject,’” (v. 32). Is this not the response we get in Young Life?
So here is my call to action: as things go back to normal (and they will), let’s fight to keep those new, virtual connections alive. While we do the good work of getting to the schools and setting up clubs, let’s keep the virtual line open for the middle school, high school, and college-aged friends that may not be ready to jump into club, but are ready to watch me eat extremely hot wings and host an ask-me-anything. These connections, while virtual, can still set the stage for that 1:1 over coffee where we proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.
Staying hopeful,
Kyle Bush