Christianity Today ran an article What's Next: Youth Church Reconnect: What evangelical leaders say are the priorities for the next 50 years in youth ministry.
A couple of things from the article that caught my attention:
- This book is a must own, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. The authors found that religious teens in America hold their beliefs as "moralistic therapeutic deism."
- Anything Kendra Creasy Dean has written is worth reading at least twice. I loved her quote in the article about making theology a bigger part of youth ministry, "The more theology you get, and the more you understand about your tradition, the better chance you have of having a sustainable faith language you can pass on.”
A Few thoughts for the weekend regarding this article.
- Getting youth pastors to think about the next 50 years, yeah right. I’ve got friends in ministry who don’t know what’s happening in November, next spring summer or even the fall of 2007! Getting them to talk about youth ministry in 50 years would be a hoot!
- One of the big complaints is that more and more students are “leaving the faith” when they get to college. I find this statistic funny since youth ministry is more “professionalized” today than it was 40 years ago. How can this be?
- The one thing I notice lacking in youth pastors is an understanding of theology, especially in the area of salvation. How many youth pastors have an ordo salutis? Heck, how many of them even know what that means? It’s not a rip, but a reality that we can’t just be about only loving students, we have to know how to think theologically about programs, conversations, retreats, missions, outreach…you name it. Love for God and others (students) must be our foundation but the first columns built up from it must be theological ones!
Friday, October 06, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Nearsighted youth ministry is what we have had for the past 20 years and I think it is why the Church (in general) is struggling now. Lack of theology and true investment of both the emotional AND spiritual person. To help a kid grow up is one thing, but to teach a kid how to live AND follow God is something that we as youth workers have missed in some ways. I know that I have not been the best in this. Thanks for hte post!
Hey Alice! Great to have your thoughts here. I like your emphasis on the emotional development of a student and do agree that more time could be spent on developing that - in the context of following Jesus!
Post a Comment