- entertainment- especially entertainment in the form of passive receptivity. i think for many students, having their faith catered to them as a perspective and way of living that is available for their consumption and the notion that you can "entertain them into the kingdom" just doesn't make sense to me. that whole notion, "it's a sin to bore a kid" just doesn't jive for me, it operates on the false notion that if the students aren't 'having fun' they will not buy into this whole 'Christian thing.' my pops has been good to remind me that "The means by which a person is converted, is usually what they are converted to."
- 'It's all about YOU!' Youth ministry- that is student centered youth ministry, where the goal, similar to entertainment, is to make the students comfortable, complacent, and the center of all activities and events. What happens however when they realize the radical demands of the gospel means that we must carry our cross and follow Christ (Luke 14:27)? Or better yet, that we are called to love our enemies, and give up the very things that seem to give our life meaning apart from Christ...we must remember, that everywhere our students look, whether on billboards, tv, on the radio, stores, etc. they are being catered to, advertised to, and manipulated to get a desired result--how radical and life-changing might it be to thwart this practice of manipulation and self-centeredness, and call the students to a life of radical transformation with Christ?
- I avoid only doing thematic Bible studies. I am not saying that there are times that it may be necessary to study themes for a while, but, if your students are anything like the ones I work with, they struggle to understand the basic narrative outline of the Scriptures. I think that as adults we have assumed that they can't handle reading a book of the Bible (probably b/c we too struggle to read and make sense of a lot of the Scriptures) and figure that we should shelter students from reading whole books, or even the whole canon. I think that we should avoid this belief that students can't handle reading the Scriptures. (I'm not arguing that you start with a book like Revelation or Daniel however...)
What are some things that you try to avoid in youth ministry? What are some perspectives, themes, notions, theologies, etc. that you think we should be aware of that could change the landscape of how youth ministry is practiced?
