Another in the fire

Last weekend I spend time with a few friends, well about 1000 friends actually! It was the National Youth Ministry Weekend and the youth ministry tribe gathered from across the country and beyond. It was a great time of deep encouragement, courageous worship, hugely relevant talks, engaging seminars and, most importantly, unhurried time together to chat, eat, pray and share.

But there was, on many of us, the smell of fire, you know the kind you have on your clothes after being round a bonfire for the evening. The cause of this odour was in fact not a fire, but the result of a significant length of time within a blazing furnace, the furnace of youth ministry which many of us have endured for a significant length of time.

I was thinking to myself about whether ministry should feel like a furnace, should we come out tainted with the smell of the fire. I don’t doubt that we all sometimes have to face tough times, but this season feels different, it feels like we have been pushed into a furnace time and time again. Like the smell from a fire, as you spend time away from the fire, the smell fades. But there seemed to be lasting effects of ‘furnace life’ on so many people. Conversation after conversation seemed to have a similar feel, and a similar ‘smell’ in fact, that of an extended period of time in the furnace.

I am not doubting the biblical insights of being in a furnace from Daniel 3, but most of us don’t find ourselves disobeying a kingly command, instead many of us are actually trying our hardest to honour the church, those we serve and our calling. In Daniel 3 the furnace was a punishment, it was designed to control rebels and show the power of the king. In the world of youth ministry there should be no furnace. Yes there are battles and difficult times, but the places we will thrive and be fruitful in need to be life-giving and offer safety and refuge during the tough times.

As painful and as uncomfortable as it can be, maybe the furnace is where we have to live for a while. But inside the furnace I believe there to be a powerful truth; we are not alone! At NYMW I witnessed the power of ‘furnace companions’, I saw people holding one another up, lifting one another up, building one another up. Many did this because they knew what it was like to be in the furnace, they recognise the smell, the fear, the pain, the uncertainty. Aside from the deep wisdom that existed in many of the talks and the creative resources that were on offer, the greatest gift available was someone else who knew what it feels like to experience furnace ministry.

Daniel 3: “He said, ‘Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.’”

I enquired of the internet how to get rid of the smell of smoke from a house after a fire and it was interesting to discover a key technique. There is something called ‘positive pressure’, the aim being to open the front door and place a large fan in the doorway. Then you close all the doors to each room and then one by one, open the door to a single room and allow the clean air to force out the tainted air. It made me realise than one of the possible solutions to our wounded and burnt tribe is to change environment, to allow the spaces we are in the be cleansed. What is it that caused me to end up serving in a furnace environment? Do I need to graciously question the behaviour of the people I work with? Do I need to have honest conversations about how many hours I serve? Do I need to find people with whom I can share the deep challenges of ministry and then together find new ways of working? Do I need allies to speak on my behalf and have the difficult conversations when I am unable to? Do I need the ‘powers that be’ to realise what ministry has done to me?

So many of us love youthwork, we have chosen this life on purpose. But did we choose to spend as much time in a furnace as we have? Unlikely. The church should be stopping us being thrown into these spaces, the church should be dousing flames so that they lose their potency, the church should be seeing youth leaders as beautiful, courageous, gifted, called, sacrificial servants and treating them accordingly. This is not happening and before long all that will be left will be a tribe of wounded, charred individuals who at some point in their life loved doing youthwork.

As many of us await the fresh air and the cleansing new environment we seek, I think we might just need to hold onto the truth of Daniel 3, to take a breath and muster the strength and courage of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We need to remind ourselves of what happens to these three in the furnace; they meet Jesus, they come out alive, they leave not just alive but clean, untainted, justified and free.