Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/87

Contributor - Siebrand Wilts

Title - Thoughts on Youth Ministry

Topic - Youth

Youth ministry is always a frontier for the church. It's a place for the probers and experimenters, for the brave, the slightly wacky, and definitely a place for the unfinished. It's the adult still growing, still changing, who can most readily identify with youth ministry issues.

Youth ministry also passes on the traditions of the Church. It conserves values in its style that are rooted in the Scriptures. This is the nurturing function, the teaching function, of youth ministry. Yet, youth ministry loses it when it becomes custodial in nature or merely seeks to "take care of the kids." Programs that merely echo Sunday school content or that are nothing more than fun and games show, on the one hand, little imagination, and, on the other, merely offer a glorious baby-sitting service for kids who no longer need sitters!

Youth ministry anticipates new emphases that arise from the culture and the youth sub-culture. If energy conservation and dwindling global resources are a concern currently being discussed in the media and by the society, then they become "hot" topics for youth ministry programming. This is important not because youth are in a position of power to effect necessary changes in these areas as much as it is important because youth then get an early look at some problem areas that will be more fully developed as the youth mature and attain decision-making power.

Since youth is a plastic time, a time for growing and shaping, youth ministry is malleable in its many forms. For example, one year's programming may be slanted to the sophomore issues of a group because of a preponderance of that age group where another year may call for lost of athletic activities because of the makeup of the group. Youth ministry is always exploring, experimenting, probing. This is what gives youth ministry its excitement, its joy, its zip.

Youth ministry can flow into current fads, jargon, cultural phenomenon because of its flexibility, but its centre remains constant. The center for youth ministry is what it means to be a new creation in Jesus Christ. That's the anchor point. Christ as center anchors all our forays into wacky, far-out, relevant, experimental, traditional, careful, sloppy programming.

Youth ministry is boldly tentative - just like a teenager! Programs and ideas that may work today are passe next week.

Though the basic faith content may not change, "the package" does., Therein is part of the fun (and danger) in youth ministry. The fun comes in working up new programs that capture the attention of media-blitzed youth. The danger comes in making the package more important than the content. For example, one could spend hours working up a program on the future that was complete with Star Ways characters, outfits, and strobe lights, but if the biblical content was short-changed, then ministry has not taken place, but party has.

The amount of denominational staff time and energies that get assigned to youth ministries varies from denomination to denomination and from era to era in the life of the church. Personalities at the denominational and regional levels can make a difference as to how much "push" youth ministries is getting. Youth ministry is always needed and always important in the life of the church - not just because youth of today are our hope of tomorrow, but in an age of future shock when the future is here before we're ready for it, youth need all the help they can get from adults who care deeply about both youth and the future.

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