Comments on: youth ministry 3.0, part 2

By: Dan Rosch

Dan Rosch — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:03:22 +0000

The more and more I read articles, post, blog, etc., I read about how we as youth workers just emphasize on fun first, then everything else. We do have to realize that we have to have a way to draw youth in, perish the thought it’s a fun thing. To keep them and when they graduate to really keep them, we proabably don’t need to have fun first but give the older youth a reason, relevance, ownership, application or what ever word fits inot your YM program. What I am getting at is we need to get them to be attached even if they are away from youth group (age, moved, etc). It’s not like a sport to try out for a season, but almost like we need to get them so “hooked” in their faith, that everything they do is tied to it. We have those youth who come to youth group/church so sporadically because they play soccer, swim or competitive basket weaving. Well what if we geared our youth program in such a way that we keep our post youth kids. How do we do that? Well that’s way Marko is writing this book, so we as a youth community can think in a different way. Cause I would like ot figure it out too. “Love teenagers to the best of our ability, and help them to experience the love of God” is great but there has to be a approach to do it correctly.
Like Marko wrote, we need to look at how things worked, how they did not and how we can improve on it. Playing Bible baseball just does not cut it with most Youth Ministries now (IMO), but retreats, group building games still do.

By: josh mcalister

josh mcalister — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:12:26 +0000

I think a large part of the problem is that most youth ministers don’t focus on “trying to love teenagers to the best of our ability, and help them to experience the love of God.” Instead the focus seems to be on trying to get teenagers to love the youth minister and love God because of their love for the youth minister.

By: dave miers dot com » Youth Ministry 3.0

dave miers dot com » Youth Ministry 3.0 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:45:13 +0000

[...] youth ministry 3.0, part 1 [...]

By: Andrew Seely

Andrew Seely — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:55:38 +0000

Let’s not worry too much about whether or not we will look back on now in 20 years and think to ourselves “what the hell were we thinking?” (think “hot seat” from intro), for we will always look back on the past with eyes of the present, and it never looks like we remember it.

Let us pour new wine into new wineskins, and when those become worn, allow ourselves to part with the old and continue to create the new.

By: Lukefish

Lukefish — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:44:32 +0000

*take two
The difficulty with changing and evolving our methods is that it will often take 2-3 years before we’ll know for sure if our shift was a great new direction or a wrong turn. Mutations, morphs, and evolution take lots of little changes over time, and sadly, most youth workers don’t have the patience for that.

By: Lukefish

Lukefish — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:40:38 +0000

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:42:11 +0000

Could some of our “let downs” be a result of a God given vision for youth ministry clashing with an inadequate set of tools in the youth worker’s belt? If youth ministry needs to change, then the way we prepare youth leaders must change as well. Formal education through a college or university may be beneficial, but maybe it is time for the local church to take the place of the university. What would it look like for our churches to be the training grounds for the equipping of youth workers? The result would be youth workers who are familiar with the quirks and culture of the church and community and therefore they would be able to have healthy expectations based on what they’ve already become accustomed to. Surely this would avoid the calamity and frustration of many unmet expectations.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:20:55 +0000

@dan

So agreed,

By: Jeff Greathouse

Jeff Greathouse — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:51:07 +0000

Marko:

As you mentioned the horse buggy illustration, I was drawn to the Amish community and their “success” rate.

Rumspinga is the point where the Amish youth “spread” their wings (16-19) and decide if they are going to choose to live the Amish ife or not.

90% choose to live and accept the lifestyle. I think that is amazing and the percentage we can only hope and dream of.

The Amish do not have special camps, retreats or youth centers that “attract” them. What they have is a tight-knit community. The tight knit community “pursuades” them to stay in the community.

We, as churches, somehow, someway, need to find this authentic community and develop it so individuals hunger for it and realize that nothing else will feed that hunger.

By: dan

dan — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:04:14 +0000

Maybe the reason a ‘hiatus’ happens, as Jeff suggests, is because we are presenting a watered-down spirituality that we all have bought into as westerners, or maybe more specifically as Americans. I’d first of all be curious to see what the ‘drop-out’ rate is around the world in youth ministry. Maybe the Christianity that we present to people is not big enough to sustain the faith of American teens beyond the years that they are at home and largely influenced by their childhood and how they were raised. Kenda Creasy-Dean, in ‘Practicing Passion,’ indicates that what teens are looking for is a faith worth dying for – something so important that it’s worth giving one’s life to completely. As far as I’ve seen it, our current models of ministry are largely failing to present faith in such a light. Instead, it’s a fun place to be with your friends – come for the food, stay for the Bible.

Second, maybe this is a greater symptom not of youth ministry but the family as a whole. Several sources are coming to us saying that the greatest impact on a student’s faith comes from their parents or other mentors outside of youth ministry (ht to Hawkosky at Once a Youth Pastor). This makes me think that youth ministry is a project that’s just spinning it’s wheels, trying the wrong cure for the disease. Maybe what youth ministry 3.0 means is focusing on the family as a collection of interdependent people, not simply teens as individuals without regard to other influences in their lives. If nothing else, this means it is misguided to think that the ‘drop-out rate’ is solely the fault of the youth ministry. As Jesus said to Pilate, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. Maybe the lesser sin is on the youth ministry, the greater one being the failure to parent our children well.