My knowledge and expertise at golf is strictly limited. I play the same hole very differently each time I take to the fairways — you can do that with par 5s (they’re the long ones with the bunkers at all the wrong places) but when you play the par 3s (they’re the short ones) there’s only one way to do it. The first shot must hit the green then you have to get the wretched ball in the hole with two putts. It’s sometimes called target golf but your target on a par 3 is clear — hit the green in one.
It is very possible to do our youth ministry like a par 5. We wander all over the place and from week to week you’re never quite sure what you’re going to do. You just turn up, run a meeting or a drop-in and go home again. Youth ministry done this way can very soon become stale because you are not setting yourself clear targets each time you go along. You’re such a relational being that you just hang out and hope something happens and another meeting just comes and goes.
I’m not heavily into management speak but I know that having clear aims when you go to a meeting with young people is something we youth leaders aren’t too good at.
