Tag Archives: youth ministry

The Lifebook Movement

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Here is a great FREE resource for student ministries everywhere! (and the price is right, eh?) The Lifebook Movement is an effort to get the bible in the hands of every High School Student in the nation. This is a product of Gideon’s International and contains:

  • An Old Testament Recap
  • The Gospel of John
  • Interactive Student Questions and Comments
  • A Challenge to Trust Jesus Christ

To receive a free packet of 1000 Lifebooks only requires an online registration and a (suggested no-mimimum) love offering. Our student ministry has organized and participated in a “saturation” in the past and I fully recommend yours doing the same. What is more effective than getting God’s Word in the hands of teenagers in your area? By handing out these compact little books, your students become “gift-givers” rather than preachers or intrusive as they learn to share their faith. Here is specific link for Youth Leaders with quick video describing how to get involved.

Isaiah 55:10-11 speaks of how God’s Word is always effective. What an awesome promise!

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with My Word.
    I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”

Check out the informative video below and see if you want to get plugged in! 

Go get ’em!

Your fellow worker in the field, Adam

4 Overlooked Back-to-School Thoughts

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Today most of the students in my ministry are headed back to school. Man, how the summer flies by. Now the harsh reality of early alarm clocks and homework deadlines are crashing in. Here are four thoughts as we all re-adjust to the school routine. (this blog is equally for parents as it is for students.)

1.) Be Thankful! –  I know what you are thinking…”he has got to be kidding”. Well no, I’m not. Here is why. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Maybe your schedule is not perfect, student. Perhaps the teachers aren’t doing exactly the method of instruction you would prefer, parents. Be thankful. We are incredibly blessed to live in a nation that, according to the UN, has a 99% literacy rate. We are blessed to have access to science labs and football fields and musical instruments and art supplies and computer technology. These are luxuries that most of the world does not enjoy. It is nothing but God’s grace to be born in a nation and live in a community with so much abundance, and we should not mistake these gifts for entitlements.

2.) Don’t complain or criticize. – In our culture of blame shifting and entitlement can be the norm, but Christians are called to a higher standard. Parents, help your student recognize that teachers and principles are authorities over them, people God had placed over them, and they helped us learn how to live under authority. Please, parents, I urge you not join in your child’s complaints about the science teacher being too hard or the history teacher being dumb. Instead, lead your child to obey God’s command to pray for those who are in authority over us, to desire their good. Our teachers, support staff, and administrators need and want our prayers, I assure you.

Paul writes, “Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…” (Philippians 2:14-15) Wow. Don’t miss the awesome truth here. When we can stop our complaining, we set ourselves apart from the rest of the world. We shine the light of Jesus in this dark world of need. Is that something worth compromising because you think a teacher gave an unfair grade? Probably not. Speaking of grades, though…

3.) Focus on character more than grades. – Students, you should do your very best on all your school work. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). And, “whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward” (Colossians 3:23-24). Yes, you can do algebra to the glory of God. How? By doing your best. Learning MLA formatting for your research paper may seem pointless, but learning to follow instructions down to the level of fine details is invaluable. The great truth of that verse in Colossians says that when we work for the Lord we are not working for a grade, but for the promised inheritance that is ours in Jesus!

Now parents, remember that your child doing his or her best does not necessarily mean that she will get an A. As you encourage your children to excel, encourage them along biblical principles. The Bible says nothing about GPAs and class rankings. The Bible does speak about working hard, but also serving others, building relationships, and learning to rest. Parents be cautious not to push your child so hard for making the grade or the starting line-up that it hurts the kid’s development as a disciple of Jesus. You want your child not only to learn a good work ethic, but you also want your child to learn when to put people ahead of tasks. It is your responsibility, parents, to help them navigate these waters.

4.) Open your mouth and talk about Jesus. St. Francis of Assisi has a brilliant quote that is often taken in the completely wrong way. He said, “Preach the gospel always, and when necessary use words.” causing some people to stop talking about Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had someone fall to their knees, repent of their sins, and trust in Jesus by looking at my lifestyle alone. Words are always, always, always necessary for people to come to know Jesus. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

Students, share your faith in Jesus. Talk about what you are learning from Him. Tell people about your hope in Him; do it with a smile. Trust me, students, there will come a time in life when you will not have the opportunities for sharing the gospel that you have today. Eight hours a day, five days a week for nine months you get to walk through life with the same group of people. Don’t let that pass you by without creating friendships and sharing the message of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

Parents, pray with your kid every day for God to give you both an opportunity at some point to talk about what Jesus has done on the cross, how He has been raised from the dead, how He reigns now as King of the universe and King of your life. Tell them about your struggles to share the gospel at work, and listen to their struggles to do the same thing at school. Encourage one another in this great task. In doing so, you start developing a relationship beyond parent-child; you start relating as brothers and sisters in Christ.

I pray this is a great school year. I pray that teachers, support staff, and administrators are given wisdom, discernment, and passion from God to do what they’ve been called to do. And I pray that Christian students and parents — and all the rest of us for that matter — will take the light of the gospel, the hope of Christ, with us from every home, into every classroom, down every hallway, through every office, to the ends of the earth!

5 Things Student Pastors Can’t Fully Teach from a Stage

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Is your teaching/preaching effective? Great. But even with the most dynamic teacher on stage every week, teenagers still learn more through seeing who you really are and how you really live.

Here are my thoughts on 5 things student pastors can’t fully teach from a stage, but MUST teach with their lives.

  1. A Genuine Love for the Word:  If you don’t genuinely love the scripture, your teenagers will see straight through your lame attempts. If you gush scripture at every opportunity, they will see that too. Teach how to memorize and cherish God’s word to your students, not by telling them to do such, but by memorizing and cherishing it yourself! A group will never exceed the level of their leader. Learn to cherish the bible of yourself and watch your group follow suite.
  2. A Real Love for People:  When you interact with students outside your cozy youth room, what example do you set for the teens watching your every move? Set the standard by loving the unlovable. Teach by example by genuinely being concerned for others and pushing your group to do the same.  How impactful would it be if while pumping gas in route on a youth trip, you took a teen aside gave them some money and told them to go inside the store and pay for the gas of that frazzled single mom on the next pump over? I feel confident saying, your leadership in that moment would permanently change that teenager! Take the lead! Really love people!
  3. Be Humble and Teachable:  Admit it! We aren’t perfect. When you mess up, the opportunity has arisen to show how a real follower of Christ owns up to their mistakes and makes biblical steps toward forgiveness and reconciliation.  By modeling humility and a teachable heart you will show a generation that is saturated with pride how a real Christians should act. These moments are not fun, but gain you great respect by responding in a mature and biblical manner. By living a life of humility you will earn the right to speak to teenagers in their moments of need.
  4. Have an Imitable Faith:  The way you handle your faith should be possible for teenagers to put into practice in their own lives. Hebrews 13:7 says, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” As teens watch the way you live, do they see the fundamentals of faith in a way that makes it clear what they should be doing? Do they see you praying? Do they see you correctly handling the scripture? Do they see a love for talking about Jesus? Make your faith a model for them to follow! Don’t cheat them into thinking it’s about degrees on the wall or charisma on the stage? Not all people will have those. But all can love Jesus in a practical, everyday way. Are you and I showing that way?
  5. True Loyalty in a Fickle Generation:  Teenagers need to see stability modeled. In a culture with 50+% divorce rate sometime that is not seen at home. Be the model of how to love your spouse. Be the model on supporting your senior pastor. Remember (and use) a teenager’s name the next time you see them after their first visit. Show your group that some things are truly important in life and it goes way beyond your favorite sports team. Longevity in youth ministry is a rare thing. I’ve heard it said that the best ministry comes after 6 years. When every student in your ministry is a product of your teaching alone you will see the fruit of your labor! Hang in there. Be loyal to what God has called you to.

Praying you will teach these things and more to the teenagers in your area of influence.

Your fellow worker in the field,  Adam

Student Ministry Road Trips: 5 Underestimated Benefits!

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Today I am loading up the vans and cars and taking a group of teenagers and chaperones to an amusement park. Yes, it’s a lot of work to organize the rental vehicles, contact group sales for the discount, plan our meals, find chaperones…yada yada yada. Is it worth it?

I sat down to think about that very thing. My conclusion was… yes. While we are not engaging in deep bible study or conducting service project I believe there is value in the fun times. God created us for fellowship, both with Him and with each other. So what are some of the benefits of a well run, smoothly executed day trip off somewhere with a group of teenagers? Here are my thoughts:

  1. Building Group Unity – A very real aspect of living the christian life is to live it within community of other believers. This is no different with teenagers. They need each other. In fact, teenagers seek out and and hunger for that social side of life more than adults! As a ministry we need to provide opportunities for our participants to really get to know one another and begin to love one another. By this love unbelievers will know that we are for real in our faith. As a group shares experiences together they bond in special ways. They develop an identity. I’ve heard a hard nosed football coach say “the team that pukes together stays together”. I believe the principle of that is the same for positive experiences. You want a cohesive student ministry that gels and sticks together through the years, provide ample opportunities for shared experiences. Build unity through action: Do stuff together!
  2. Earning Respect of Parents – With each trip you take, parents will begin to see that you are a responsible leader. (…assuming things go smooth and you really are responsible.) They will also see that you really love those kids. With every trip you will build respect and trust with the parents. All student ministers need to remember that we are working with the most precious things in these parents lives! Prove that you take that responsibility seriously. Behind every successful student ministry are parents that really buy into what is happening.
  3. Individual Relationship Building – When you go on a trip together, not only does your whole group bond, you have opportunity to deepen those relationships with individuals. Students need to know you care for them. When you sit down next to a teenager and relive “that time you lost your phone on the roller coaster” or “when GPS got possessed by the Devil and…” your relationships will soar to that next level. They know you and trust you. Only then will they be willing to come to you when the hard times hit. Create environments to really get to know students. That can’t happen from a pulpit.
  4. Antidote to Apathy – When the stats for hours per day spent on gaming or internet browsing are staggering, going on a trip together is just the thing we need to spark some interest! Show the teens in your area that you are up to SOMETHING! Most of the time teenagers will get into trouble simply because they had nothing better to do. Fight the apathy in those teenagers you have influence on, go on some trips!
  5. The Front Door of our Ministry – Lets face it. Most friends get invited to an activity before they come to a bible study or the small group setting. These activities are open doors to meet the other teenagers in the group, meet the adult leader, all in a neutral setting. If you INTENTIONALLY use your events as a way to gain prospects for your regular programming you can gather some good intel! Take it for what its worth.

So I plan regular trips to get out of the normal routine and just be together. We are living life together. When we share the good times it makes it easier to get real and share the bad time too.

Pray that I don’t lose my cookies on the coaster. 🙂

Your fellow worker in the field, Adam

Summer Camp Series: Why Go to Camp?

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Right now I am in Laguna Beach, FL with an awesome group of students and leaders for Summer Camp. Here are some of my thoughts on why a week like this is beneficial for groups of students.

  1. A Fresh Environment: When we drive for 8+ hours we leave the normal routine behind. Students are not hanging with the same friends, playing the same xbox games, doing the same old same old. With this fresh environment  I find openness to a fresh experience.
  2. Avoiding Distractions:  When away from the normal routine we also get out of the normal distractions we allow to dominate our lives. Social media, gaming, friends, are all great, but can easily take our focus away from God. When at camp we are get away from these things and can hear from God in a clearer way.
  3. Saturation in Scripture: A primary factor in choosing where I will take my students to camp is how they handle the Word of God. While at camp we soak in scripture. When we are constantly feasting on God’s Words we hear His voice and see His hand moving in a clear way.
  4. Intentional Prayer: The key to meeting with God is communicating with Him. At camp we take special time to pray for God to speak and move among us…and what do you know…He does! These times refresh us and get us ready for the daily routine when we get back home.
  5. Group Unity: When we are stuck with each other for 5 days straight we get to know one another better and realize that we do genuinely need each other. That is how God created the church. I find when we get away from home and have shared experiences we not only grow in our individual spiritual lives, but we brow in unity as a group. I make intentional times for group affirmation. This small investment pays big dividends when we get back home.

This week be praying that God will move and speak! Thank you for all the parents who have entrusted us with your children!

Your fellow worker in the field,  Adam

Less “god”, More Jesus

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The Rooted Blog has a whole series on the effects of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism on teenagers in particular and the Church in general. Check it out. As youth workers and leaders, we need to be ready to address the major spiritual issues that impact this generation. Read this insightful article by Andy Cornett which connects with so many teenagers I’ve talked with in my years of ministry. We need to adopt some changes like he did so we can get real with the Gospel for this generation.

Your fellow worker in the field,  Adam

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You know this feeling. You love teenagers, you hang out with them, you’ve studied and prepped for a talk, worked hard on a program, taught about Jesus and following him, and … at the end of the day, you find your beloved teens kind of unable to talk much about what they believe. Everybody wants to be “closer to God.” But when pressed, nobody has much in particular to say. You wonder … what is going on here? Are we that ineffective?

Your teens might be suffering from a case of MTD. According to “Soul Searching,” Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) has become the “de facto dominant religion among teens.” Though it’s without creed or organizers, MTD functions like as a parasite to its host, the church. Its chief tenets are that God wants us to be good (and get along) and go to heaven when we die, God wants us to be happy, and God is there for us if/when we need him.

Why do your teens have it? Turns out, they probably caught it from the adults at your church. In her absolutely devastating and wonderful book “Almost Christian: What the Fatih of our Teenagers is tellin the American Church,” Kenda Creasy Dean takes the argument further into the Christian territory of local church youth ministry. Dean (who was one of the researchers/interviewers on the NSYR that formed the basis of “Soul Searching”) offers both diagnosis and prescription for treatment. (Confession: this book is brilliant. I have read and reread it and have heard her speak; if anything good comes out of what follows, it’s properly her thoughts, not mine). I just want to focus on one tantalizing prescription:

Less “god,” more Jesus.

Dean notes that most of the teenagers in the study seem paralyzed when asked about Jesus himself (yes, of course, some did better than others). But here are a few observations that ought to both comfort and encourage us:

  • MTD banks on a default, ahistoric deistic concept of “G/god;” Jesus is vastly different, particular, personal.
  • MTD has some basic beliefs/practices, but it can’t tell a compelling story or capture your heart; Jesus is the best Story and captures hearts (and thus minds and bodies as well).
  • You can’t love MTD – but you can love a Jesus who has first loved you. (And as Dean says, “you learn best what you love most”).

Since reading the book, here are a few practices I’m learning to adopt in talking with students.

  • Start asking students about their relationship with Jesus – not “God.” In English, God is the default word for a deity, so those three letters become a box in which just park our own conceptions/feelings/thoughts/beliefs on the divine. We could talk about “God” all day and not being talking about the same “god.” As Christians we believe in One God- in the three persons of Father/Son/Spirit, and it’s time for us start using those names and asking students about Jesus. Who is Jesus for you? Do you sense that Jesus is with you? For you? What is one thing Jesus is doing in your life right now? And when you are done, pray with them and for them – to Jesus.
  • Use “Jesus” (and God, and Father/Spirit/Son) as subject, not as object. Talk less “about” God: talk more about what he has done, is doing, and will do. When God is the subject, it’s clear he is doing the action. We all know the red letters in the Bible of what Jesus says – but do you talk about what he does? I haven’t done this, but I want to go through a gospel and list out all the verbs where Jesus is the subject. With God (and particularly Jesus) as the subject of our sentences (past/present/future), we emphasize his ongoing, active presence in our midst.
  • Get personal: talk about your own faith story and what Jesus has done/is doing in your own life.  Let teens see the personal difference that Jesus Christ has made in you. Where possible, be explicit about the links between what you do and why. If you are taking some steps in following Jesus, be clear about his love that motivates you. If you are taking some risks in faith, be clear about your trust in him and his leadership. Model this yourself. Ask your leaders to do this. Ask parents to do this with their own kids (it has a huge impact).

It seems like the more personal God gets, the bigger difference he makes. But wait– isn’t that the whole story revealed to us in the story of Scripture? A Father who graciously sends his only Son and gives his Spirit freely that we might be united to him? Thought so.

8 Ways to Waste Your Summer

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Most students are out of class for the summer. Ah, sweet freedom! In the words of the Phineas and Ferb theme song,

There’s 104 days of summer vacation
And school comes along just to end it.
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spend it.

How to spend those precious summer month? What a dilemma. From my perspective, there are two possibilities. Action or Apathy. If you want to take the apathy route, here are 8 great ways to waste your summer.

  1. Dive into Media Quicksand:  Go ahead and waste your summer by spending ever increasing hours on xbox, Facebook, Netflix, Youtube, etc. By doing this you will lose contact with real people and effectively weaken the relationships that matter most. All while you could have built them up during the freedom of summer break. While we all use these avenues, moderation is key. Don’t sacrifice real relationships unintentionally!
  2. Cruise the Strip:  While there is some social interaction here, it is limited, and may include police officers. Plus, with the price of gas skyrocketing, cruising around town is not worth the small fortune it would take to maintain this summer activity. There are better ways to connect with friends who will build you up.
  3. Sleep-in:  Don’t get me wrong here. The absence of school makes it nice to get some extra shuteye. But if your alarm is set for noon everyday, you can kiss your summer goodbye. Don’t sleep away your freedom! This is the time to get up and make some memories.
  4. Skip Church:  With school out of session it is easy to lose your weekly routine. Don’t forget that church hasn’t stopped! Use the summer to spend more time, NOT LESS, with the people who positively impact you. Go to church camp, attend small groups, go hang out with your youth pastor! Take the summer to be a leader among your peers, not an absentee afterthought.
  5. Be Self-centered:  A great way to waste your summer is to think everything is about you and your sweet tan. Sure, go ahead and only do what fits in your schedule of self gratification and see who wants to join in. Instead, why not make the summer exceptional by volunteering at the local mission, visiting a nursing home, helping out your youth pastor. The more you give of yourself, the more you will receive. A summer of service will grow you in tremendous ways. A summer of self-centered living will be soon forgotten (along with that tan).
  6. Waiting on Mr./Ms. Beautiful:  With extra time on your hands, don’t fall to the temptation of becoming a Facebook stalker. Don’t mope around waiting for a call or text; trust God with your relationships. Take the summer to invest in your friendships that will last a lifetime, not a potential one time date of cheap pizza and a movie. Prioritize dating relationships in an age appropriate manner with a well balanced summer.
  7. Ignore your Spiritual Life:  The summer months are a unique time to grow spiritually. Ignore this fact if you want to waste your summer. You can build a habit of reading God’s Word first thing every morning. (even if its 9am!) During these months you can develop accountability with a small group in a very special way. Iron sharpens iron, so find time to make that happen. And don’t forget your prayer life. Make a list and follow through. Summer time is a great way to build off the momentum of church events and grow spiritually in your personal walk with Christ. Build the habits you will need when school begins (and all of life)!
  8. Avoid all Responsibility:  A summer where you don’t grow is a wasted summer. Take the next steps in your maturity by tackling responsibility, not avoiding it. Get a summer job, help out around the house, be a mentor for the kid down the street. When we embrace responsibility, more freedom is earned because we are mature enough to handle it. Check out Do Hard Things, by Alex and Brett Harris. It is a phenomenal book on rebelling against the low expectations for teenagers today.  Maybe this would be a good summer read!

Don’t waste your summer, make it count!  Remember 1 Cor. 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” So get out there and glorify God in the way you spend your summer vacation!

Your fellow worker in the field,  Adam

How Hard Should We Work for the Gospel?

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Ministry can be hard. It is taxing emotionally, spiritually, and even physically (you know lock-ins will send you to an early grave). When you work with teenagers you never know when one will show up unannounced. You never know when they will text a deeply personal struggle…and you have to respond. (usually text won’t do to straighten it out) But how hard should we push to allow opportunity for the Gospel to penetrate the lives of our students?

Spurgeon has something to say that young student pastors need to hear.

“People said to me years ago, ‘You will break your body down with preaching ten times a week,’ and the like. Well, if I have done so, I am glad of it. I would do the same again. If I had fifty bodies I would rejoice to break them down in service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You young men that are strong, overcome the wicked one and fight for the Lord while you can. You will never regret doing all that lies in for you for our blessed Lord and Master.”

– Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “For the Sick and Afflicted,” 1876

10 Commandments of Student Ministry

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Check out this great resource for student pastors and all those who volunteer with these ministries!  It gets you thinking and reminds you of your priorities!

10 Commandments of Student Ministry – This is produced and distributed by Tim Schmoyer.

Tim Schmoyer is the founder of Life In Student Ministry and is dedicated to facilitating discussions among Christian youth workers about youth ministry. He is the author of the Youth Specialties/Zondervan book, “Life In Student Ministry: Practical Conversations on Thriving in Youth Ministry,” a national youth leader trainer, consultant, and speaker.

Thanks Tim for putting great stuff out!

A [Brief] History of Youth Ministry

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Through a collaborative effort between the Rooted Blog and the Gospel Coalition some great articles are being published about the state of youth ministry today.

The first century philosopher, Cicero, said, “Who knows only his own Generation remains always a child.”

It is my prayer that our generation will continue to build on the shoulders of those who came before us and constantly refocus ourselves on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, faithfully passing this truth to those rising under our teaching.

All youth pastors and volunteers need to read this article to understand where we have been and where we are going.  Take these things to heart!

Your fellow worker in the field,  -Adam

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A Brief History of Youth Ministry

Editors’ Note: Everyone has an opinion about youth ministry. Parents, pastors, and the youth themselves have expectations and demands that don’t always overlap. But the rash of dire statistics about the ineffectiveness of youth ministry has prompted rethinking in these ranks. So we devote one day per week this month to exploring several issues in youth ministry, including its history, problems, and biblical mandate. The Gospel Coalition thanks Cameron Cole and the leadership team of Rooted: A Theology Conference for Student Ministry for their help in compiling this series. Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama, will host their 2012 conference from August 9 to 11. Speakers Ray Ortlund, Timothy George, and Mary Willson will expound on the conference theme, “Adopted: The Beauty of Grace.”

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To read books on youth ministry these days, it is hard not to get the sense that this experiment we call youth ministry in the local church has failed. This perspective is not shocking or new. Mike Yaconelli, founder of Youth Specialties, stated this rather boldly in Youthworker Journalin 2003. According to Lifeway Research, 70 percent of young people will drop out of church after high school, and only 35 percent will return to regular attendance. Christian Smith’s National Study of Youth and Religion found that most American teenagers have a positive view of religion but otherwise do not give it much thought. Kenda Creasy Dean, in her book Almost Christian asserts, “American young people are, theoretically, fine with religious faith—but it does not concern them very much, and it is not durable enough to survive long after they graduate from high school.” This result is far from the intention of most youth ministries. Smith describes the religious outlook of teenagers as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” a far cry from the gospel of Jesus.

To get an idea of where we have come from, let’s turn back the clock more than a half century. Space here only allows the broadest overview, so bear with the generalizations. Back in the 1940s Jim Rayburn began a ministry to reach teens at the local high school, which became Young Life (YL). Their mission—to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and to help them grow in their faith—remains to this day. The strategy was and is for caring adults to build genuine friendships with teens and earn the right to be heard with their young friends. At the same time, Youth for Christ (YFC), was holding large rallies in Canada, England, and the United States. YFC also quickly organized a national movement that turned to Bible clubs in the late 50s and 60s, shifting the focus from rallies that emphasized proclamation evangelism to relevant, relational evangelism to unchurched youth.

By the early 70s, churches began to realize the need for specialized ministries to teenagers and began hiring youth pastors. Some of these were former staff members from YL and YFC. With this the church imported the relational strategy of the parachurch movement. During the 70s, youth pastors seeking to reach large numbers of youth for the gospel began to employ a more attractional model. Gatherings with food and live music could draw enormous crowds. Churches found that large, vibrant youth groups drew more families to the church, and, therefore, encouraged more attraction-oriented programs. Later in the decade, this writer watched leaders swallowing live goldfish in both the church youth group and local Young Life club when we brought enough friends to reach an attendance target.

By the 80s the emergence of MTV and a media-driven generation meant church youth ministry became more entertainment-driven than ever. Youth pastors felt the need to feature live bands, video production, and elaborate sound and lighting in order to reach this audience. No longer could a pile of burgers or pizzas draw a crowd. By the end of the decade the youth group meeting was being creatively inspired by MTV and game shows on Nickelodeon. The message had been simplified and shortened to fit the entertainment-saturated youth culture. By the start of the 21st century, we discovered many youth were no longer interested in the show that we put on or the oversimplified message. Christianity was no different from the world around them. Some youth ministries intensified their effort combining massive hype with strong messages that inspired youth but did not translate to everyday life. We realized we were faced with a generation whose faith was unsustainable.

The Result

What happened in all that? First, we moved from parachurch to church-based ministry (though the parachurch continues). In doing so, we segregated youth from the rest of the congregation. Students in many churches no longer engaged with “adult” church and had no place to go once they graduated from high school. They did not benefit from intergenerational relationships but instead were relegated to the youth room.

Second, we incorporated an attractional model that morphed into entertainment-driven ministry. In doing that we bought into the fallacy of “edu-tainment” as a legitimate means of communicating the gospel. Obscuring the gospel has communicated that we have to dress up Jesus to make him cool.

Third, we lost sight of the Great Commission, deciding instead to make converts of many and disciples of few. We concluded that strong biblical teaching and helping students embrace a robust theology was boring (or only relevant to the exceptionally keen) and proverbially shot ourselves in the foot.

Fourth, we created a consumer mentality amongst a generation that did not expect to be challenged at church in ways similar to what they face at school or on sports teams. The frightening truth is that youth ministry books and training events were teaching us to do the exact methods that have failed us. The major shapers of youth ministry nationally were teaching us the latest games and selling us big events with the assumption that we would work some content in there somewhere. In the midst of all this, church leaders and parents came to expect that successful youth ministry is primarily about having fun and attracting large crowds. Those youth pastors in recent decades who were determined to put the Bible at the center of their work faced an uphill battle not only against the prevailing youth culture but against the leadership of the church as well.

The task before us is enormous. We need to change the way we pass the faith to the next generation. Believing in the sufficiency of Scripture, we must turn to the Bible to teach us how to do ministry (rather than just what to teach). Students need gospel-centered ministries grounded in the Word of God.