The Death of Youth Ministry | Introduction

July 29, 2008 in Blog with 9 Comments

We have built a monster in the last 25 years…youth ministry. If you are a Gen Xer like me, then there is a good chance that your spiritual journey started in a youth ministry setting. You can almost taste it, the youth room you were in several times a week. The sounds, the sights, the people. It was a huge part of you life, and for some it was the period in your life where it all started. And for a lot of people, spiritual journeys ended soon after.

Please understand, I think youth ministry is a great thing, I do however think it has a lot of flaws that we have been unwilling to talk about. Sacred cows if you will. And like anything we need to start at the beginning.

Youth ministry exists as an afterthought.
Youth ministry got its start because churches are unwilling to create an environment that meets the needs of young people. So instead, we created churches within churches and called them ‘youth groups’.

Eventually these youth groups needed to become more independent as churches within churches and we created youth pastors.

The youth groups were so good at being relevant and meeting the needs of youth that when the students graduated they had no ability to be a part of a stagnant adult run church.

So for the last 25 years we have been raising Christians that have no idea how to be a part of a church. Don’t get me wrong, ‘adult’ churches are just as messed up as anything else that is run be broken men.

Over the next few months I will layout what it is that I think is wrong with youth ministry and maybe together we can come up with some ideas on how to fix it_

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9 Responses to “The Death of Youth Ministry | Introduction”

  1. Damon July 29, 2008 at 1:12 pm #

    If you’ve never heard Dr. Voddie Baucham speak, this is a riveting message that he gave to the SBC a while back, and it addresses this very topic. You can stream or d/l it as an .mp3.

    http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=15348&commentView=itemComments

    [Reply]

  2. Chris July 29, 2008 at 2:19 pm #

    Sounds good, I’m in.

    [Reply]

  3. Adam July 29, 2008 at 7:21 pm #

    Sounds like it should be interesting for the next few months. I’ll be reading.

    [Reply]

  4. michele letizia July 30, 2008 at 11:10 am #

    I also will be reading.

    [Reply]

  5. brad cooper July 31, 2008 at 9:28 pm #

    soooo i dont know you.. but… i love you! Praying for you as you tackle this obvious and disconcerting truth.

    [Reply]

Trackbacks/Pingbacks:

  1. The Death of Youth Ministry (pt 2) | The Church Doesn’t Take it Seriously at nikao | a collective - August 1, 2008

    [...] The local church as a whole does not take youth ministry serious. This is clear from the fact that youth ministry actually exists as I pointed out in pt 1. [...]
  2. The Death of Youth Ministry (pt 3) | Parents Don’t Take Youth Ministry Seriously at nikao | a collective - August 13, 2008

    [...] the series :: intro :: the church doesn’t take youth ministry seriously Filed under death of youth ministry | [...]
  3. UYN Newsletter #12 « UYN Newsletter - August 20, 2008

    [...] Death of Youth Ministry.”  Interesting title, fascinating reading!  Check the series out here: Part One; Part Two; Part Three.  And make sure to listen to this related sermon by Voddie Baucham called, [...]
  4. Podcast: Problems with youth group as a “minichurch” | Life in Student Ministry - August 26, 2008

    [...] This past spring I blogged a bit about my view on how the mini-church approach can be dangerous and other’s have, too. Not everyone agrees, however. This LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation is probably one of the most [...]

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