Church Planters Corner
Keys and Issues in Planting the Local ChurchConsiderations in Modern Youth Ministries
by Missionary David R. Cox
Dealing with Basic Issues
Problems
(1) Ungodly Influence of TV, Music, and Peers.
(2) Entertainment, Fun, No Hard Work Mentality.
(3) Promiscuous Sex and Unrestrained Lifestyle.
(4) Drugs, Alcohol, and Life Dominating Sins.
(5) Sports, Competition, and Draining of Life.
(6) Vanity, Frivolity, and Life Elements without Moral Value.Goals
(1) Spiritual, Emotional, and Social Maturity.
(2) Integration of Our Youth into Adult Church Life.
(3) Christian standards in Dating, and the Social Life.
(4) A Christian, Godly Life Mate.
(5) A Christian Work Ethic.
(6) Desire, Motivation, and Practical Experience in Christian Service.
Dealing with Basic Issues
Problems with Youth - We in Christianity are constantly dealing with the garbage that the world throws at us, and in the issue of youth, they are constantly bombarded by several key elements in their life. We need to recognize these forces in their life, and deal with them biblically.
(1) Ungodly Influence of TV, Music, and Peers.
(2) Entertainment, Fun, No Hard Work Mentality.
(3) Promiscuous Sex and Unrestrained Lifestyle.
(4) Drugs, Alcohol, and Life Dominating Sins.
(5) Sports, Competition, and Draining of Life.
(6) Vanity, Frivolity, and Life Elements without Moral Value.(1) Ungodly Influence of TV, Music, and Peers.
(2) Entertainment, Fun, No Hard Work Mentality.
(3) Promiscuous Sex and Unrestrained Lifestyle.
(4) Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, and Life Dominating Sins.
(5) Sports, Competition, and Draining of Life.
(6) Vanity, Frivolity, and Life Elements without Moral Value.
Goals we want with our Youth - We want our young people to be properly prepared for their Christian adult life. Therefore, we see various elements that should be in place in every case. These elements are a solid Christian home, a Christian education both in a secular or pure school context, and in their religious education, a Christian peer group that builds instead of destroys our youth, and an influential local church where they may grow spiritually.
(1) Spiritual, Emotional, and Social Maturity.
(2) Integration of Our Youth into Adult Church Life.
(3) Christian standards in Dating, and the Social Life.
(4) A Christian, Godly Life Mate.
(5) A Christian Work Ethic.
(6) Desire, Motivation, and Practical Experience in Christian Service.(1) Spiritual, Emotional, and Social Maturity.
(2) Integration of Youth into Adult Church Life
Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Was not Jesus putting forth the principle that even children should be allowed the things of God just like adults?
Quite simply, the pastor should do some real heavy thinking before you go wild in the modern theories and practices of youth ministry. When we deal with teens (ages 10 through a young working adult), we always separate them from the adults. This was Rakes (?) principle of Sunday School in 1910 (date?) when he first started Sunday School, or a graduated Bible education class before church services. This gives them specialized attention which is good in many ways, but it also gives them the idea that they are not adults, and that they (teens or youth) should be catered to with a constant diet of "baby food" (every spiritual class needs to be "dumbed down" to a teen's understanding), and they deserve a constant, fun environment.
First of all, many teens have a spiritual understanding surpassing many Christian adults, so they need no "dumbing down" of their classes. In fact isn't this really against one of of our primary goals in working with youth? To integrate them as young adults into a normal adult church life? Does this special treatment work for or against what should be our long term goals? I would think that the best course is to have some specialized "youth only" activities and Bible studies, but to try an wean them off of a fun atmosphere in everything they do, and to regularly integrate them into the adult Christian church life. By no means do the youth need a separate service for every service and Sunday School hour. Our problem comes in here when they are so drugged up on fun, excitement, and making everything they learn and do easy and "fun", then what happens when this youth turns 20 or 25? He no longer feels comfortable with the youth, and he goes in with the adults and again he feels it is boring or dull. He feels out of place, so he drops out of church altogether. There was no transition between childhood and adulthood.
This is one of my big problems with programs like AWANAs. The fun and entertainment and club atmosphere overtake any spiritual benefit provided. This causes tremendous problems on down the road because it creates a dependency in the youth that causes great problems when they become adult Christians.
Being a missionary and traveling far and wide, I see a lot of things. One of the better things (which I personally would want to imitate) is to have a youth night in the main church service where the youth take over the service and provide everything from music, song leading, special music, prayer, and even preaching. Granted not every church has teenagers that can even stand and speak in front of the group, much less preach, but it is an excellent goal nonetheless.
On the negative side of things, I feel it is a great disadvantage to pull the youth and teens out of Wednesday night prayer meeting, women's missionary society meetings, church visitation programs, etcetera. They need to kneel and pray beside the adults in the church, they need to be gradually integrated into the adult functioning in the church. This is wrong to exclude them completely from all adult things. It does them no good in their Christian lives on down the road.
By the way, this also helps the church budget, because churches that cater to the youth with all these programs an entertainment oriented activities usually spend a great sum of money on youth, and they usually drain the parents' pocketbooks too.
(3) Christian standards in Dating, and the Social Life.
(4) A Christian, Godly Life Mate.
(6) Desire, Motivation, and Practical Experience in Christian Service.