Tuesday he posted:
A few weeks ago a reader left this comment:
"What I feel Jesus leading me to do in youth ministry and what my church expects me to do in youth ministry are often quite different. My church expects the T-shirts and the hundreds of kids laughing and playing and having a good time. Oh yeah, and then they want those same kids to show up for "real" church. My team and I feel Jesus calling us to a much quieter, more "insignificant" (as far as numbers) existence that allows students to question, struggle, doubt and grow in their faith at their own pace - something much more lasting than the emotional high of a bait-and-switch
event.”
I have a young youth pastor friend who faced a similar dilemma. He
recently resigned from his first youth ministry position because his pastor (aformer youth pastor himself) wanted the high-profile, event-driven, bells-and-whistles youth ministry mentioned above.Walking away is an option.
But is it the best (or only) option?
I think this happens more than we will ever know. why do we run church like a business, trying to fit every ministry into this mold? What will it take for us to be open to the idea that just maybe God wants us to really build a life long sustaining faith in the lives of 3 teens over planning blow out events that bring in 50 teens but reach none?
Am I being clear as mud here? thoughts?
2 comments:
I have been reading this blog since it started and it has given me some excellent things to think on. I expect to post a blog about it sometime soon, in fact.
But, the long and short of my thoughts is this: he's right. Youth ministry doesn't work like it used to, it's broken. But, the problem is, I don't know how to fix it.
Youth ministry today is so wide a subject and no two are the same, makes it hard to try to do what Jesus wants us to do and meet the needs. But where is the line between worship and entertainment, teaching the word or the world? As a youth helper, its hard to try to help folks who don't want help, just feed me, entertain me and let me out early! We have lost God in all of this and that's sad.
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