Calling Student Ministry Leaders to the Fight
- parentswhofight
- Aug 7
- 4 min read
For the last year or so, we've been collaborating with pastors across the US to weigh in on the challenges addictive technology presents to students, families, and ministry settings. We've held roundtables, asked questions, and listened a lot.
Collective Action in the Church
If you've heard us on a podcast or at a live event, you've probably heard us talk about the fact that we had over a dozen families at our local church to link arms with to delay phones and socal media until well into high school. It was a gift we can't articulate to have a small army of other kids who were in the same boat as our two. Even though our boys were most likely the VERY last kids in their grades at public school to get phones, they had super close friends at church who were all waiting too. And they'd tell you now that it made all the difference. It also helped us come up with 4 Norms for a Church Family.
Beyond personal family convictions to do tech a different way, we were also blessed with two key leaders in our church family who had stepped out in courage to boldly lead some big tech-free shifts that impacted our boys in ministry settings. First, Pastor Joel Evrist who helped pioneer The Pursuit Camp, a multi-church summer camp that's been going for 10 years... phone-free since day one. Second, Pastor Grant Ebright (our youth pastor) who followed the Lord's leading to implement this same phone-free protocol in our weekly youth services in 2020. We refer to it as the Tech-Free Zone, allowing students to engage with peers, worship, and the Word without distraction. We've been doing that for 5 years now!
We saw the fruit before we even realized what a huge need we were solving. The parents were already on board to slow the tech train down—now they had ministry leaders who were true partners to help. Our kids were thriving without the constant pull of devices in these sacred gatherings—taking notes, getting involved, experiencing the presence of God. They were also learning how to fast technology for days or weeks to develop patterns of rest and devotion. Game changer!
Collaboration
Last year we asked Pastor Joel and Pastor Grant to embark on a collaboration to write a simple resource equipping Next Gen ministry leaders. We focused on key contributions that only student ministry leaders can make to help untangle students from the chaotic intensity of addictive tech. After all, youth pastors may not have much say about how many of their 7th grade families have already handed over fully-loaded iPhones, but they have tremendous authority (and a responsibility) to make sure those fully-loaded phones don't deliver pornography, bullying, or self-harm content to students during youth camp or a Wednesday night service.
The result of our collaboration is each of us weighing in with our unique vantage point on 5 principles:
The importance of being a good example with healthy tech use as a leader.
Developing staff and volunteer teams who also exhibit health and seek accountability around struggles with tech. Also training them on boundaries with digital communication among adults and minors.
Keeping sacred gatherings set apart, without distractions (camps and services).
How to help students take regular breaks from technology through fasting.
The necessity of courageous leadership to push back on the status quo and do what is in the best spiritual health of the students.
Each chapter has the following portions:
FROM THE WORD by Pastor Joel
FROM THE FIELD by Pastor Grant
FROM THE RESEARCH by Sarah Siegand
Bonus content will be uploaded and refreshed in a digital folder online, including surveys to learn more about student and leader tech use, policy templates to make your own, recommended podcast episodes and book lists, a seven-day Unplugged Devotional, and much much more.
What if we do nothing?
In student ministry, we hear a lot about tech’s effect on the mental well-being of the next generation, but what about the spiritual impact of addictive technology? And what toll will it take on the Church over the decades to come? Discipleship can not effectively happen alongside addiction... eating disorders... pornography... (you get the point). The Word is being sown, just like the seed in the parable of the sower (Mark, chapter 4). But it's not falling on actual soil in many students' lives, it's just going to the path and the rocky places where it gets snatched by the Snapchat birds or springs up and immediately dies because there is no depth in soil saturated by YouTube shorts.
When phones have their hours but their Bibles have mere minutes, we are staring down the eventual collapse of discipleship. We can change the story.
"We've got dust on our Bibles and brand new iPhones, no wonder why we feel this way." —Josiah Queen