Youth Group (Part One)
Friday night comes around and you've had a hard week at work. You make your way home, open the fridge for an afternoon snack and see your name down as the organiser for tonight's youth program. The theme: Mock Olympics. You grab all the sporting gear you have, down some grub, make a few phone calls and head out the door....Everything is set to go and the kids start pouring in. It's as though they've consumed every preservative under the sun as they are fired up for the night...All goes well, they enjoyed the games. Before supper takes place it's time for the "Bible Talk". What will I say to them tonight? I don't want to take my Bible cause it will alienate the new kids! I don't want to be to heavy as the kids are tired and don't concentrate at this time!
Ever been caught in this situation? It seems to be a classic model of Youth Group these days and has been for a while now. We think that we need to entertain kids to get them in the church building so that we can share the gospel. But then the gospel isn't proclaimed as it may cause offense. So Friday night becomes a babysitting night for teenagers to keep them from doing worse stuff. It must be said that I am making gross generalisations; however, it is not far from many youth ministries in churches today.
Surely there are better ways of running a youth ministry if your goal is for them to hear and respond to the gospel. If we continue to entertain kids to get them in we implicitly teach them that the Bible is no fun and the gospel is the second class citizen next to games.
Part Two soon
Ever been caught in this situation? It seems to be a classic model of Youth Group these days and has been for a while now. We think that we need to entertain kids to get them in the church building so that we can share the gospel. But then the gospel isn't proclaimed as it may cause offense. So Friday night becomes a babysitting night for teenagers to keep them from doing worse stuff. It must be said that I am making gross generalisations; however, it is not far from many youth ministries in churches today.
Surely there are better ways of running a youth ministry if your goal is for them to hear and respond to the gospel. If we continue to entertain kids to get them in we implicitly teach them that the Bible is no fun and the gospel is the second class citizen next to games.
Part Two soon
posted by Mully @ 6:58 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Mully,
Good call. Although you may be generalising, it seems to be an alarmingly consistent pattern.
As far as I can tell, it seems that while this model for youth ministry seems sensible in principle, it does not succeed in practice, even when success is measured by attendance or engagement. I think the problem is that we assume that teenagers are so emotionally and intellectually shallow that all they can handle are games. In my (admitedly limited) experience, however, teenagers find this type of activity hollow and tire of it quickly. In contrast to these game-centred youth ministries, churches that have run a more gospel-centred programme have been more successful (over an extended period of time), in terms of attendance, engagement and in more 'spiritual' results.
I guess the gospel really is powerful, as we've been told!
Mullo Man
Some of what you have described are the reasons why I have decided to not be involved in babysitting/youth group activities...Yes generalisations, however far too often it’s far too close to the truth.
For me personally, a big problem lies with the notion that we need to 'get them into' the church and share the Gospel in that building/setting/experience – and that from this we can measure success in numbers/size/engagement etc.
I currently am working towards outward focused ministries, and see the need to go out and work amongst young people, in their culture, missional focused, rather than trying to get them into the church or its established culture – (even if for some reason we still think church is cool)… hehehe
As you know measuring success in numbers is dodge… how about in depth of service/love and care, in strength of relationships and walking together towards Christ. Sure its slow and effort/time consuming, it will never pull the numbers or impress the crowds – but hopefully it will point towards God’s Kingdom…. What you think?
Thanks for the comments guys. I agree with your assertion Matt that effective gospel ministry does not have to occur within the four walls of the church building. Nor should we be playing a numbers game. Effective youth ministry occurs in the environment in which these people live. I would also like to add the importance of good solid Biblical and gospel training for our established Christian young folk, as these folk meet face to face. regularly, with their own peers in their own environment. They know the language and the culture and with good Gospel training under their belt they are sure to be effective evangelists.
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