- 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?
4 comments:
You make some great points. What I like most is that it reminds people like me what to be aiming for in the "deep" sense of youth ministry.
I definitely agree with avoiding the whole entertainment paradigm. A more holistic approach to youth ministry will by definition include "fun" or entertainment, but not at the expense of everything else. Entertainment-dominated youth ministry is just surface stuff - we must go deeper. Our failure to be more holistic in approach is one reason we are seeing youth graduate from the church when they graduate high school. We've got to set the bar high, so that our students will strive for things that seem impossible to reach (transformation of our lives), but that are an important part of our spiritual journey. Being a Christ-follower is not easy for me as an adult who has been a Christian for 26 years, been to seminary, and served the local church in one way or another since college. Why do we think it will be easy for our students if we can just keep them entertained and having fun!
Stephen,
I'm not sure why we think that if we can just keep them entertained and having fun that they will experience transformation. It seems to me that this youth ministry thing has a lot to do with orientation...where are we trying to orient our students? Is it in the way of Jesus? Or is it in the way of having a good, fun life, with some Jesus along the way as Jesus fits in with what you are already doing. I think what ends up happening is that students then wonder, when they leave the youth ministry, why the church doesn't continue to "entertain" them into the pews, and they finally bag the whole thing (perhaps to start the process back up when they have children). If we orient students towards God in a way that is really just a big circle back to themselves, we shouldn't be surprised when they act that way. But if we orient them on the journey of faith in the way of Christ, there will be sacrifice, suffering, joy, hope, peace, trials, and much more...but we will have taught them to look for those things. We won't have tried to keep them entertained so their parents keep coming to church, and add to our membership count and tithes...
Tom,
I hope this stuff is helpful...it is just some thoughts and reflections from growing up in the church, from being a youth pastor, from going to seminary and from some guesswork...
peace,
Josh
I think it is helpful...and I am learning from you too. I enjoy reading what you have to say from one youth pastor to another!
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