Recently, youthworker.com re-ran a four-year-old article from Steve Case which offers a biblical metaphor of the man who was healed after being dropped through the roof from Mark 2: 1-12.

Case suggests “(though there is no biblical evidence to support this) that the four men on the roof were probably youth ministers and the man on the mat was probably a teenager. This event encompasses many classic youth minister traits: going out on the roof, demolition of private property — and if  they took a sick kid away from his house, it was most likely without a permission slip or even his parents’ knowledge. Most of all, they went to creative (albeit destructive) means to get a teenager to meet Jesus.”

But, he goes on to make a case for re-imagining relational youth ministry over programs. And, I’d like to suggest we re-imagine even further. The teenager in the scriptures was cared for by FOUR others.  This should be goal!  We don’t set up ourselves as the end-all, be-all source of support for young people in our community, but we ensure that every young person has AT LEAST FOUR adults committed to ensuring that a teenager meet Jesus.