Missing the Hole in the Whole?

Written by Dan Istvanik

“He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “ (Luke 10:27)

We obviously work to minister to the spiritual side of our students. We even make efforts to build into the emotional and mental sides, but are we still missing a “hole in the whole”?

I am not asking you take on more responsibility, but rather challenging you to be aware of the whole person we minister too. Especially in the changing inter-generational approach to ministry we can empower parents to see the connection between the spiritual and physical life. Here are three areas that we may be missing as we minister to the WHOLE student…

Social Skills

We desire for our students to go on missions trips, share faith, and serve but do they have the basic social skills to succeed?

I have discovered in order to help my 6th-8th students succeed in the areas of ministry that I want to them serve in, I have to introduce them to simple social skills like…

• How to talk to an adult…. We want our students to share their faith with someone or even serve them a meal, but do they know how to interact with an adult other than their parents and youth leaders?
• How to be polite… Do our students know what is and is not considered polite in certain settings?
• Appropriate personal space and touch… Outside our youth ministry and their circle of friends, do students know what is and is not appropriate personal body space and personal contact?

Life Skills

We talk about the “Christian life” and how to “live as a Christian”, but do our students have basic life skills?

We teach foundations for living healthy spiritually. We also can teach our students basic life skills. Things that may already be being taught at home or in school, can be connected and seen through a spiritual lens as well…

• Respect… Do our students understand how to show respect? Respect for God? Respect for others and authority? Even respect for themselves?
• Safety… Have our students been taught basic safety? What is and is not safe based on where you are? (Inner-city mission trip vs. rural retreat, etc.)
• Money…We teach stewardship, but do we teach basic money skills? If we gave our 6th students the money we spend on them for a week of a trip, would it last the week?

Personal Skills

We want them to begin to discover who God has created them to be as a person but do they know how to take care of that person?

The physical is only temporary, but it still part of our earthly stewardship. We can teach how taking care of the physical life can help us take care of our spiritual life by teaching…

• Personal Hygiene…Can we add on a little more to our “Temple of the Holy Spirit” talk?
• Dressing for Body Type…We lecture about modesty, but have you ever had a talk or even a fashion show that allowed girls (and maybe their moms) to understand how to dress for their body type?
• Sleep, Rest, and Body Needs…In the midst of our marathon lock-in events or late night chats, do we ever take time to encourage healthy rest and sleep? Do your students understand basic body need, like eating healthy?

Over the many years of doing ministry with young teen students, I have continued to be challenged that what we do is far more than just being “spiritual life” specialist only. We have the blessing of being able to take all the other areas of the lives of our students and draw it together into a WHOLE life package with the rope of God’s word. These are just a few of the areas that we have been targeting in our ministry.

What are the things you are teaching in your ministry that are beyond what would be considered the “normal” topics and life lessons?

Leave a comment below with your answer.

Dan Istvanik is 38 years old and has been married to his wife Melissa for over 12 years.  They have two children, Jenna (8 years old) and Kaleb (5 years old).Dan is currently the “Jr. High Youth Pastor” at Berean Baptist Church in Mansfield, Ohio where he has been serving for over 8 years. He has been doing youth ministry for close to 19 years. Dan is a regular writer and contributor to both “Group Magazine” and “Youthworker Journal”. Besides being a curriculum writer for JuniorHighMinistry.org, he has also written some curriculum for other sights as well.