It can be difficult, a challenge at the very least, to reprioritize our approach to youth ministry away from attractional to missional.

At the risk of oversimplification, attractional youth ministries are largely focused on getting students in the door, and missional youth ministries are largely focused on sending students out the door. While some attractional mantras might echo, “If we could just get them in the door, we could convince them of who Jesus is and their need for Jesus in their lives.” But a missional mantra might be heard stated more like, “If we could just get them out the door with the passion for being and doing God’s work and accomplishing God’s mission, we could help them convince others of their need for Jesus.”

I choose the word reprioritize carefully. I don’t necessarily believe that every aspect of an attractional youth ministry model is broken, ill-purposed, or falsely constructed. In fact, many of the youth workers I know who favor this approach are doing so for one main purpose—to connect with students, build meaningful relationships with them, and help them en- gage in ongoing spiritual discovery and growth.

That said, we needn’t jettison every component of the attractional model. Rather, we’re better off reprioritizing our purpose for and methods of connecting relationally with students by figuring out how helpful attractional components (e.g., relationship building, edutainment via teaching, music, interactive games, etc., peer care and ministry, affinity groups, etc.) fit within the intentions and practices of a more missional approach.

Attractional ministry is thorny to reprioritize away from being the primary approach because it’s:

1) Measurable. It’s relatively easy to tell if students are at tending youth group. It’s easy to measure growth in numbers. It’s easy to measure the faithfulness of adults in attendance. It’s also relatively easy to measure the community’s spiritual depth.

2) Relational. It’s a great place to engage students and adult volunteers. There’s nothing like initiating a relationship over a game of billiards or darts. I mean it’s just plain and simple the easiest place for relationships to start.

3) Emotionally stabilizing. Our egos are fed when there’s a crowd. The more students in attendance, the better we feel. Attractional ministry approaches are often employed to stroke the ego of the youth worker.

4) Good marketing. Attractional approaches prove to the church as a whole that you’re up to something good. Being able to report growing numbers in attendance—as well as salvations, baptisms, rededications, and calling choices—is easy when you have a marketing tool like a weekly attractional gathering. (And what could be better for job security?)

5) Organized and manageable. Leaders organize. That’s just a part of being the one in charge. Attractional ministries are really easy to organize and manage. They’re often built around the same agenda every week, and they’re relatively easy to recruit help for and keep in front of you.

Flipping the Switch

Missional ministry approaches can be all that attractional models are—and yet so much more. Missional ministry approaches, however, have a different starting point than attractional approaches. Instead of beginning with techniques to “get students in the door,” missional approaches begin with God’s mission to restore the world back to its original condition and intent. Out of this flows God’s work of salvation and justice. Then out the door students go, but with a passion for and a commitment to the missio Dei —the mission of God.

I often observe attractional youth ministries that have forgotten why they’re doing what they’re doing. They work really hard to make their gatherings attractive, seamless, entertaining, excellent, etc., but far too often neglect helping students paint a picture of a peaceful world where salvation and justice touch all. That is the tragedy of attractional youth ministry approaches that aren’t organically bred and governed within the mission of God.

It’s not the attracting itself that can be dangerous; it’s the attracting without purpose that puts us on shaky ground.

In the end, I’d like to believe that our efforts could be attractional. I mean, if we’re not attracting students into our ministries, then how will we connect with them and help them to engage in life-long pilgrimages in spiritual discovery and growth?

Attractional elements can still be helpful if nothing less than grounds for relationship building. In my mind, this issue shouldn’t completely rid our ministries of all things relevant and entertaining. The greater issue is, however, making sure that our starting point is in God’s mission to restore the world, not in our mission to be hip, trendy or relevant. Those characteristics might help you feel more secure and productive, but they won’t sustain long-term, high-impact ministries that paint pictures of students’ roles in the salvation and justice of the world.