Thought this post from DYM contributor Aaron Helman was an interesting take on copying in youth ministry. I think he makes some interesting points, here’s a clip of his thoughts, head there for the rest:

When my friend Kent visited Saddleback’s youth ministry, he came back enamored for all of the wrong reasons. He was totally convinced that he needed to emulate what their team was doing.

Read that last sentence again. He needed to emulate what their team was doing.

Kent spent hours putting together the crispest, cleanest PowerPoint slides. He planned extra rehearsals for his praise team, even paying for himself to take voice lessons at a community college. He raised money for a lighting system and spent his weekends building and rebuilding his youth space. Kent was tired and worn-out, and even worse, it still hadn’t become the program he’d envisioned when he left southern California.

As surprising as it was, it turns out Kent couldn’t successfully replicate the work of fifty people all by himself. I guess when I put it that way, it’s not that surprising after all.

JG