I thought I would post a statement I made during the discussion at the CCC in St. Louis to get everyone else's take. I was kind of afraid to say it amongst a huge group of youth pastors, but I went for it. Here's what I said:
"This is something that I've been thinking about for a while. I wonder if youth ministry has actually been a disservice to teenagers, that we have done more harm than good. We see companies pandering to teenagers and so we feel like we have to do the same thing, so we pander to their desires. We have given them a product that works for them, but when they graduate, nobody is pandering to them anymore, which contributes to them leaving the church in droves. Which forces us to now hire young adult pastors."
I'm not sure if I said it in exactly those terms, but that's the general idea. I would love to get some feedback. Thanks...
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6 comments:
I feel that "disservice" may go a bit too far, but I really agree with the spirit of the comment. As I listened to Brock and Mark I couldn't help but think that they were simply teaching what youth pastors who have been in the game for a while already knew in their hearts from personal experince; that what was happening in most youth ministries isn't working long term. The church seems definitely to have created the need for age specific pastors and programs for every stage of a person's life. It seems that most of the current research out there places the problem squarely on the church (us) and not with Jesus and his message of the kingdom. We certainly need to fight the religious consumerism of our day! The hard part: NOW WHAT?
So the question is now what? There seems to be a general feeling that past approaches have failed. However, whether its the fault of the church or not, a culture of ministering directly and specifically to teenagers exists, has had some positive results, and would be incredibly hard, if not impossible for any of us to eliminate in our own contexts even if we wanted to.
So, given our reality, how do we bring about meaningful change in our churches and youth ministries that will minimize short term damage (that comes with fundamental change) and maximize the long term discipleship of our students?
I would say ....
YES
I would go to the extent that we are the reason that the percentage of 18-30 years are non-existent in the church. It is the fault of youth ministry and youth ministers.
"now what" seems to be the resounding exhale of everyone sitting around me as this CCC finished. As McLaren's book says, everything MUST change. We have to step out in faith and creatively minister to this undefinable generation of youth. But what do we do with all this?
I know I would be more in ministry if I were to sub at the local Jr. Highs and High Schools and host a weekly home group at my house for example...but that would require the church allowing me to only do typical "Director of Youth Ministries" half(or less) of the time. And like Mark & Brock mentioned, It would require the church I work for to accept the fact that kids are being ministered to that may never be counted on the church rolls.
So here I sit, wanting so badly to lay all of this out in front of my Sr. Pastor and just say: "I need you to think differently about my role and I need you to support me going out into the mission field of our community, or I simply can't do this anymore..."
I would like (I need) to ways people are creativly turning the disserviced youth program into a transformative, lifelong journey. Oh and pray for me, cuz Im supposed to meet with the Sr. Pastor tomorrow :-)
Dumbfounded:
Let me know how it went.
For me, thankfully, I am in a position and a place where I can remove most boundaries. However, in my first 12+ years of ministry; that was not the case.
I would love for us to bounce off more of the application in our different context and hear stories where it is occurring.
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