The Death of Youth Ministry

I read an article this morning in The Christian Century titled “Is Youth Ministry Killing the Church?” Of course the title caught my eye; it was designed to do so. But, in reading the full article, the words resonated with what has been moving through my heart for quite some time. The words of this article even reflected a conversation which took place at our cabinet meeting the night before, “Is Youth Ministry Killing the Church?” We did not ask this question specifically, but we did seek the same answer. 

I believe the reason for the mass exodus of our young people may very well be YOUTH MINISTRY, that is, the traditional model for Youth Ministry. I know this sounds strange from someone whose sole purpose in the church is to create THIS very model of ministry, but hear me out for a minute. We segregate out the babies when we send them to the nursery. We segregate out the young children by sending them off to Children Worship & Wonder. We segregate middle and high school youth out by crafting Youth Ministry programs that are fun, exciting, educational and experiential in the hopes of helping mold them into faithful people, but look almost nothing like the ministries we do with adults. Then, when they are adults, they come to our churches…look around and realize what we have to offer them looks nothing like what they enjoyed while growing up in our churches. They look out at the crowds of people and recognize family members and a few folks who might have taught them growing up or lead them in some parts of YOUTH MINISTRY, but by-and-large, they barely know anyone else in the church.

I continually struggle with our youth to get to know the adults in the church. I continually struggle with the adults to get to know our youth…BOTH are great people!!!

The youth think the adults don’t really care much for them and the adults seem to think they aren’t really relevant or have anything to offer this young generation that is so very different. Both groups are intimidated by the other. Both groups would LIKE to get to know the other. Both groups have immense gifts to offer the other. Both groups are VITAL to the health and well-being of the church.

I propose we learn to do ministry differently…that is if we want to stem the mass exodus of our young people, then we do something new in order to get new results. We, as a church, need to seek ways to integrate our people. We need to find intergenerational ways to do ministry. We need to find ways to help our families model coming together, and how better to do that than to come together, ourselves. I propose that we kill YOUTH MINISTRY, so to speak, and revive FAMILY MINISTRY before YOUTH MINISTRY kills the church.

Raising a hue and cry!
Tracy