Youth Ministry; Man Created not Biblically Mandated

I was youth pastor at a church in Illinois for around 15 months. Because of a teen activity, a young man started coming to church. He brought friends. He had another friend who was college age, and was impressed by "Pastor Bob" (me, not the other one on here) who was a preacher, but played video games. That guy started coming to church, got right with God, and went off to Bible college.



In my time there, the youth group grew from 8 to 14-15. A young person who swore she'd never get saved (with an unchristian father, but who's mother forced to come) got saved because of the youth ministry.



The youth pastor isn't to replace the pastor. He's an extension of the pastor, to the youth.



Also, a common misconception is shown here on the board. You can have a youth program and STILL have the teens under the pastor's preaching. Sunday morning and Sunday night, my teens were in the main service. Wednesday night bible study was my time with them to discuss relatable topics, such as friends, dating, importance of church and God over money, etc. It was also an open forum for them to bring up topics they wanted to know more about.



I will never be convinced that youth ministry, done the right way and in conjunction with the pastor, is wrong. In fact, my personal opinion is that if a church doesn't have a youth ministry, they are doing themselves a disservice. If you want to"take a church's temperature", look at its youth; ministry or no. That will tell you how on fire they are.

 

I agree here, and I hope that's how my post have come across that there is nothing wrong with looking at things and seeing how we can do it better, what are the fruits of our labors? Is everything we are doing lining up with scripture to the best of our ability?

And I apologize if I've come across offensive to Salty, Sapper Woody, or anybody else. There are many hardworking folks out there trying to reach youth with the Gospel. I'm glad that you all have had good experiences with the programs at your churches.

That being said I've probably not had the best experiences myself. For example:

(1) Had a friend in middle school/high school, he went to a large SBC church with very active youth program. Remember the joy he had when he got baptized. For several weeks after he called me wanting to have his youth group come by my house (I assume to witness even though I had already made a profession myself but did not attend his Baptist church). Several years later he got into drugs pretty heavy, etc. Don't know where he is now in his walk.

(2) Worked with youth myself for about 5 years +/- in the church I was raised in. Two of the kids in my group were the Pastor's sons. They had free access to a computer, MTV and the premium movie channels were available in their house 24/7. What good did it do me to teach on purity, etc. when the message was not backed up in their household by the actions of their parents?

(3) At an SBC church I attended for a while the youth pastor resigned to go to another church after some turmoil with the pastor had occurred. Many of the youth left as well, even though several had made a profession and been baptized less than a year earlier. They never came back, don't know if they went somewhere else. They did not join the church, they joined the youth group.

All we can do here in these discussions is cite scripture, articles/books we agree with, or share our personal experiences. These form our opinions. When it pertains to this issue I have a different opinion based upon what I believe is scriptural evidence, and my experiences. I just tend to believe the family equipping/integrated methods appear to be the best.

 

I don't know if your asking me or T Alan. I assume T Alan, but here goes.

1) don't see anywhere the Bible PROHIBITS a youth ministry, but I did provide Deuteronomy 6:6-8 how about Proverbs 22:6, both seem to be directed at the parents. There are no examples to my knowledge of the early church breaking up into age groups. When Christ fed the multitude were they not all there together (men, women, children)?

2) don't know, doubt there are statistics going back that far. Do you have any proof that teen retention has improved since before the 1940's due to the current methods? Let say that stats show 60% don't return now, but prior to the 40's 90% to 100% didn't return, then I guess the current method is successful.

 

Let me ask a question of those that are defending the current youth group/ministry model.

In the sermon I posted earlier from Washer, he brings up an interesting point, here is the snippet again.

So in addition to your youth groups, what are your churches doing to help strengthen bonds between the parents/children, how is your church equipping the parents? Do you have father/son camping retreats, mother/daughter events, etc.?

 

A good youth pastor knows that he should never get in between a teen and their parents. The youth pastor should be in open communication with both the pastor and parents.



So, yes, parents should be involved. And there should be activities that involve the parents.

 

That was not my youth group experience. And I checked out quite a few different youth groups in high school but none were like that and the one I have the fondest memories of was having bible study on Sunday mornings and Wed night and some fellowship Sunday nights. I still remember some of the lessons 15 years later.

 

And there are still youth out there today that are getting the same kind of teaching and care with a youth minister in their church.

I went to one of those YEC in Macon. They asked all the "youth leaders" to meet before one of the sessions. I went expecting to see a room full of hipster, skinny-jean-wearing, twenty-something's. There were over a hundred folks in there. The majority of the folks I saw were middle-to-older-aged adults. I'm sure several were pastors and adult youth workers, but many were youth pastors.

As far as getting trampled, we wait for all the pushers and shovers to get through the doors and then casually walk in like a boss.

 

Well you've learned your lesson. Don't go to MOVE or whatever they YEC their having. MOVE moved to Athens anyways. Too far for South Ga folks to drive anyways.