Sunday, January 28, 2007

Purpose of Youth Ministry

Firstly, this blog was written by request for the friend of a friend. I worked a little at a time on it over the past couple months, but I was very close to NOT finishing it as my friend Luke wrote something I felt was similar. But I had a few minutes in the early morning while I was at a conference and so here it is.

Youth ministry (as in ministry to teenagers) began in the 1960s. Para church groups actually made the original strides in youth ministry. The church had been doing Sunday School for some time and had become effective at reaching children with the Gospel. However, they were not able to keep the children after they had grown into teenagers. There were a lot of things vying for time and attention and the Church was not, by-and-large, keeping teenagers after they were out of Sunday School/Children’s ministry.

With that background said, I’m going to share a little bit now of what I view as NOT a good reason or primary purpose of youth ministry.

- a positive alternative for youth that offers a safe environment for kids and doesn’t have the negative effects that the world does.

We hear this so much. We want to offer a “fun” alternative to the world for youth. Many youth ministries can be seen doing this when it seems that all they offer is fun and there is no real Gospel teaching or discipleship. There’s a national Christian radios station with a broadcast tower in our area whose slogan is “Positive Alternative”. Even Christian music- while alternative may not be a bad thing, it should not be the main thing. Youth ministry should be more than just “an alternative”.

The purpose of youth programming in the church should be primarily this:

Providing a venue within the Church for evangelism to and intentional discipleship of teenagers and working toward their incorporation into the Church.

I like this working definition because it outlines a few key things. It provides that we are not just serving our own, but there needs to be a reaching out. Just as churches should grow through conversions, youth ministries want to see that positive growth. Reaching lost people with the gospel is important. Hand in hand with that, it also outlines that youth ministry should be used as a process to be discipling teenagers. It doesn’t take someone who’s cool or someone who knows it all- it just takes being real with them. As our primary focus should be the kingdom of God, however, and seeing as Jesus commanded his disciples to “make disciples of all nations”, it makes sense that discipleship should be a major concern. And as my Evangelism and Discipleship professor in college used to state, Evangelism and Discipleship are like “fruit and fiber”- why have one without the other?

Also we hear a lot of talk about how the youth are the church of tomorrow. But the truth is, just because they are young does not disqualify them from participation in the Church today. They are the Church of today AND tomorrow. The Church has not simply stayed the same for the past 1900 years and in the past 50-100 people have decided to change it. Christ’s body has been like the organism it is- shifting and changing since its inception. It does not mean that to shift the “look” of Church (without compromise of the message of Christ) is to betray our heritage.

Finally, I’d like to make the point that youth ministry, just as adult ministry, should rarely be about the “Get as many people as we can here and preach the evangelistic message to the so that hopefully a few will respond”. I do not mean anything against large evangelistic meetings, but to do so has met with such poor follow-up results. If we are about making disciples as much as we’re about simply evangelizing, then we MUST recognize the small value of getting someone to say a prayer at an event and then not ever think about that again. In youth ministry especially, teens want people to be real, and they themselves aren’t going to make a commitment lightly at an event if they don’t think they’ll do anything about it after the event.

There, I think I’ve hit my creative quota for the day. Does anyone who reads this have any other ideas? Or thoughts? Or, most especially, any dangers of youth ministry? I haven’t listed any of those- maybe I’ll blog those another time. But I welcome the thoughts for such a topic.

Friday, January 05, 2007

and this little piggy went wii, wii, wii...

I got my major birthday present yesterday. albeit 3 days after my birthday, it was worth the wait. I wasn't expecting it on my birthday because before Christmas, stores couldn't seem to keep this in stock- and still can't. But I have a friend who's an electronics manager at a local wal-mart. And when he got the shipment yesterday, he clocked out and went and purchased a Nintendo Wii. Which he gave to Rachel, who paid him back for it and it then was given to me as my birthday present.

I have been very excited about this. I can't think of any one game system I have gotten so close to it's release. But my gaming experience goes far back. I seem to remember we had an Intelevision when I was very young. When I had my heart surgery when I was 6 (1987), mom purchased a Nintendo Entertainment System for my brothers and I on our way back to PI from Portland. It was an early one. it came with ROB the Robot and the game Gyromite and Duck Hunt(for those of you who are thinking, yes, it WAS before they all came with the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt combo cartridge). Sometime shortly thereafter, our grandmother unkowingly got one of the best games ever made for us for Christmas- the Legend of Zelda. Unlike so many times it is portrayed that grandma gets the "golf pro" game or something lame like that- she actually asked a guy in the store and he directed her to the Legend of Zelda as one of the hottest games at the time. It still stands the test of time.

For Christmas in 1993, I asked my dad for a Super Nintendo. It had been released a good time earlier, but by now, they were findable and they had just released the 3rd Zelda game- A Link to the Past. this is consequently perhaps the best Zelda game created (in regards to the story). Ryan got the Zelda game, I got the Super NES. it was a good combo as he was the best gamer in the family and i took after him as much as i could (he may have just had more time since he had 4 hip surgeries and was bed ridden for a long time- his bed was moved into the living room so he could watch tv/play games).

I remember Ryan got an N64 not too long after it was released and I liked playing it- I remember playing the Ocarina of Time in the spring of 1999 during my spring break (leading up to a huge youth conference he and I were going to with his church's youth group) and I beat the game in 5 days. It is the best game of the Zelda's with the combination of graphics, good story and excellent playability with a small learning curve. In getting my own N64 system, however, I was quite late and i only got Ryan's extra one as a Christmas gift.

I was also late with my GameCube, which i waited until fall of 2005 to buy one, as i was laid off work and also figured it to be useful in my ministry stuff. I only bought this for the Zelda game, but was rewarded with a handful of fun titles. and also rewarded because of the multiplayer fun games that my youth group eat up when i bring my system for fun nights.

Now, Rachel has gotten me the Wii. which is exactly what you do when you play it- say "Weee, Weee" because not only are you playing a game, but you are forced into it. you are forced into Boxing, tennis, bowling, baseball and golf (meh) by swining the bat or racket, rolling the ball and punching. it's excellent!!

much like the GameCube, I REALLY wanted this for the Zelda title that was released- since I had been anticipating the Twilight Princess for over a year now. And it doesn't disappoint!! But as for the system, those who laugh at the title should still be awed at how engaging it is to play! you cannot simply sit on the sofa to play it!! And for the price, it beats the other ones in it's generation- beating the already been out for months xbox360 by at least $150. And with some great launch titles.

There's a reason that my friend has 3 ps3's sitting on his shelf while he sells out of Wii's in mere minutes. Way to go Nintendo- you may not win the console war, but you will win a lot of people back with the innovative control style and the easy of use with the new controller!! as a Nintendo guy for most of my life, this one does not disappoint!!