The last fifty years have seen an explosion in the number of ministries devoted primarily to reaching young people ranging from preschool age to college age. I was involved with one of them, Word of Life Fellowship, which is based in the Adirondacks of New York and was founded in the 1940's. Word of Life has grown internationally, and operates Bible Clubs, Bible Institutes (one of which I attended for 2 years), youth camps, and conference centers. In New York, it runs the Campground, the Island, the Inn, and the Ranch - all catering to different age groups (not just young people, but families and older people as well). However, Word of Life's primary mission is to reach young people for Jesus Christ, and its ministries are developed with this end in mind. WOL is just one example of the many parachurch ("alongside the church") groups developed to meet the growing needs of the youth community - other organizations include Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade for Christ, Young Life, and Campus Bible Fellowship.
It is amazing to see all the services that Christians have for youth these days. I am grateful for such ministries. I fondly remember my times as a new, growing Christian in my church's youth group. Yet I do wonder if we tend to overemphasize this aspect of our ministries, especially in our developed countries (America and Europe). That's why I am writing this blog entry to examine more closely the purpose of youth ministries and how we can balance things better.
The Scriptures present the idea of a unified Body of Christ - where there is no distinction between nations, races, gender, and age. The Body is uniform in the sense that everyone has an equal standing before Jesus Christ, no matter what type of person he or she may be. Galatians 3:28 says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." A similar passage, Colossians 3:11, declares, "Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all." I am sure that old and young people can belong into this category as well. The great tragedy of the past 50 years has been the great youth rebellion away from authority and from their elders. Because of this, a split has developed in American society, where both groups tend to do their own thing. This has tended to spill over into churches as well, and I do know of some churches where young people hold their own separate services, without any spiritual contact whatsoever with their elders. This is a destructive practice that grievously wounds the Body of Christ. There are a host of commands in Scripture where the young are called to respect the old, and there are even some church teachings concerning this matter. For example, Paul in Titus declares concerning older women: "[They] likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled" (2:3-5). We see here a fundamental principle in church ministry: that the older people act as examples to the younger people, teaching them and training them to live their lives reverently and godly. Not only does this make Biblical sense, but it also makes practical sense: older folks tend to have a better overview of life and know the mistakes they've committed in the past when young, so they are in a position to teach young folks all about how to live rightly.
Thus, I greatly desire youth ministries to be better overseen by the older members of the church. A common objection one may make is that the old folks don't understand these newer times, with all our recent technological innovations - so how can they teach us accurately these days? That is a lame argument, however - because time has shown, over and over again, the solidness of the foundation of elder (and Scriptural) respect. Great upheavals have occurred in society, but usually a return to more traditional ways has proven to be more beneficial. Moral principles never change, no matter what manner of society is dominant. Murder is still wrong all across the world. It is the same way with Biblical authority and principles. I have further addressed this issue of absolutes in my entry on Truth.
By no means am I saying that youth should no longer take leadership positions in these ministries. After all, Timothy was the pastor at Ephesus; and he was young and intimidated by such a great responsibility. Paul said to him, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12). God has called up many bright young people to key ministry positions all over the world. Nevertheless, the general pattern is for leaders to be people of maturity, which does often mean having the wisdom which a greater age gives. If a young person is qualified for a important role in ministry, it should only be confirmed after much prayer and much advice and much examination by older believers.
One other thing - I feel that the emergence of the "teenage" age group has been an overall detriment to American society as a whole. The term "teenager" has been around for only about 65 years and is a more casual version of "adolescent." Of course, I recognize that this time period, from the ages of 13 to 19, is filled with complex changes in both body and mind that need to be adjusted to. However, it is my opinion that we have encouraged teenagers to see this period of transition as being a time of "extended childhood" rather than "young adulthood." Hence, there is a catastrophic blend of childish impulsiveness with the material possessions of "grown-up people." College life also seems to be a continuation of this mentality, albeit with a more adult-oriented aspect. I know many will disagree with my assessment, but I feel that this state of affairs can easily be seen just by a general examination of American society as a whole. There are some solutions in my mind that I think might help the situation, but they are beyond the scope of this blog entry to address.
I will now list some key points that can be followed when dealing with youth ministries:
1. I think youth groups should be limited to the children of church members/families with consistent attendance. They do not exist just for the purpose of "having fun" and gathering a group of similarly-aged people together. A youth group is a ministry of the local church that is designed to disciple and train up the young people, more specifically those who have professed salvation. Youth groups are traditionally comprised of teenagers, so this means that only teenage believers in the local church should be allowed to regularly participate in youth groups.
2. The focus of the time in youth group should be teaching. I do not say that youth groups should be "a church within a church," but I do say that the teaching should be of such a nature as is designed to build up the young people in the faith, teaching them the Biblical foundations and main doctrines of theology. Along with the pastoral teaching from the pulpit, the teaching of the youth pastor can be combined to present a wonderful body of spiritual material that can be greatly used by God to mature His young believers. These truths also need to be applied within the youth group, and that is where activities come in. For example, the youth group can go on evangelistic trips, do outreaches to elderly members of the church, and have Bible studies designed to sharpen the theological skill of the members. I see no harm in having times of fun, but these are not the focus of youth group - teaching and building up in the Word is the focus.
3. I personally looked forward to retreats as one of the most enjoyable events of my time in my church's youth group. Some helpful comments I can give about retreats are:
- Do make sure you have a valid spiritual reason for the retreat. These kind of events are, strictly speaking, about getting away from normal life for a while to focus on the things of God. Sometimes, I felt that the times of fun at retreats were more important than the times of Bible teaching. That is why it is important for the overall tone to be about Christ.
- Do provide times of relaxing. Fellowship is a very wonderful thing when done in the name of Christ.
- Again, only believing teenagers should be a part of retreats. Unbelievers will not understand the nature of such trips, and I would only condone their appearance at a retreat if the general tone of the Bible messages was going to be about salvation. In that case, I would make sure that these messages overshadowed any times of fun that were planned.
- If the main purpose of a trip is to have a fun time of fellowship, do not call it a retreat!
4. The youth pastor can be an older man (middle-aged), rather than a young person. The focus here is not on "being relevant" age-wise to young people, but on imparting Biblical wisdom to teenagers. If in doubt, it is always good to have assistants who are still young (early 20's, perhaps?) and show spiritual maturity, so that they can have a more personal idea of the contemporary struggles today's youth experience. Situations, of course, are always flexible, and each church needs to examine itself to determine the best type of person, whether young or old, to be the youth pastor. I will not express an absolutely adamant opinion on this matter.
5. As for parachurch youth ministries, they need to be complementary to the work of the local church. One problem I felt that Word of Life had was that, while it had a local church branch, it did not actively encourage all of its students from the Bible Institute to find churches. That may have partly been due to its remote location in upstate New York. Instead, we had services every Sunday on campus. This raised interesting questions about the validity of Communion in our gatherings, since we often partook of the Lord's Supper as a Bible Institute body.
Another blog entry is needed to fully address the parachurch movement, but for now it suffices to say that parachurches must not interfere with the local church in such a way that they entirely replace the church's work in a community. God's plan for this age is to work through local assemblies of believers that practice the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper; parachurches are simply organizations developed by believers that are designed to improve the effectiveness of local churches in a particular aspect (i.e., evangelism, apologetics, missions). Thus, parachurch youth ministries are to support the youth ministries of local churches so that the Body of Christ can be built up and become stronger.
These are the main points I feel need to be addressed by youth ministries. I recognize that there is much room for diversity of opinion on these points, and I respect those who may hold different practices for managing youth groups, as long as their reasons for doing so are soundly Biblical. I just wanted to reveal some personal concerns and suggestions about this whole matter, so that we Christians can all have better communication regarding youth groups. They are an integral part of today's society, for better or for worse, and we need to always be looking for ways to improve them. As always, I am open to further discussion on this topic!
God bless, and I hope to write more entries now that I have adjusted to my routine of a new job!
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