Everything I Needed To Know About Youth Ministry I Learned From Jack Black


On the prompting of a friend (AJ), I recently rented the movie "School of Rock". I'd rented it before, but AJ challenged me to watch it again, this time with youth ministry in mind, and watching for parallels. If you've never seen it, you can see a summary of the movie by clicking here. I gotta say, though there are defiantly some parts that have absolutely no relevance, there are definitely some similarities. I will list them below:

1. You gotta stick it to the man.
Jack Black's character is a wannabe rocker who seems o have the philosophy of rock down to a science. The most important thing about Rock: Stick it to the man.

At first I was tempted to draw a parallel between "the man" and the influences that secular culture has on teens and young adults today. Culture, or "the man", tries to entice them, to enslave them with weeknight events, sports, ipods and such, enslaving them to it's corporate and individual driven chains. As Youth workers, our task must be to teach young people how to rebel against "the man" and think for themselves, expressing themselves through their true liberty as rockers, or in this case, Christ Followers.

Of course then my wife mentioned, "Maybe the man is actually the Senior Pastor who you have to sneak around and "convince" that your "methods" of youth ministry are legit." Interesting thought.

2. Help the kids find their place in "The Band".
It's true that God has given each person special gifts and abilities. Some people could preach to thousands, while others really serve God best by having some friends over for supper and just hanging out with them. Jack helps each of the kids find where they fit in "the Band" and then goes a step further to encourage them and even challenge them when they don't think they can do it. Furthermore, when a kid thinks that they can do more, Jack always gives them a chance and never lets them simply be comfortable in mediocrity.

3. They gotta make the music their own.
At one point in the movie, we see the lead guitarist playing a song and he is doing it absolutely perfect, exactly how Jack had taught it to him. And Jack stops him. He explains that Rock is not about playing it perfectly, you've gotta own the music.

With youth, I've seen to many kids that simply try to mimic the faith of their parents, their friends, or even their youth pastor. This is a huge mistake, because when these kids make it out into the real world (or the stage of life?), they fall flat on their face because they have never taken he time to really examine what it means to be a disciple. They may have played the role beautifully, but they never took the time to make it their own. We need to encourage teens and young adults to take their faith serious. Yes, faith is a community thing, and your faith will affect those around you and vice versa, but let's encourage our young people to go ahead an question their faith. Allow the kids to stand up when you are teaching and say, "Prove it!" "Where d you see that?' "How does that apply to me?"

4. Let the kids play their own song.
Yes, you are the youth leader. You are the teacher who has some capacity of training or life experience, but that doesn't mean that every single thing in the group needs to be done or planned by you. In the movie, Jack has written a song that he plans to have the kids perform at the "Battle for the Bands", but at the last minute he switches it up and tells the kids to do a song that one of them had written.

In other words, Jack realizes when it's time to step back and let the kids take some leadership (not complete mind you). He realizes that at some point, the kids arrive at a place where they know what is relevant to the "Rock Culture" even more then their teacher. In youth ministry, let the kids take some measure of control, form a "leadership team" or something like that which will allow the kids to have some say in how things are done in their ministry.

5. It's not about you.
You would think that this would be pretty obvious, but I have met to many students at Bible College studying youth ministry, or even Youth Pastors in the field, who are where they are basically because they want to relive their teen years. I'll even admit, I was one of those. I started in youth ministry in order to try and reassure myself that I was "hip and cool".

In SOR, Jack starts off teaching these kids about Rock and Roll so he can enter them in battle of the bands and win the grand prize, with plans to just take the money and run. He had no plans to invest in these kids, he just wanted to use them to "make it" himself.

Even though it might not be as blatantly evil with some youth workers, we need to be on guard that our focus is not on "making it" in youth ministry, but rather, on building the kids up and helping them to make it in life and when all is said and done, teach them how to truly stick it to the man!