A netfriend wrote

Allow me to add a few comments regarding youth ministry. First I agree wholeheartedly with the responses so far regarding the various options for successful youth ministry. We need to think diversely, keep the ideas flowing.

I believe that youth of today are not short on entertainment – there is such a large amount of diverse things that are available to them. As churches and youth ministries we are just another option competing for busy young peoples attention. Therefore we need to ‘stand out in the crowd’ and be more than just another form of entertainment. What kids are looking for is just what the church was designed for! Acceptance, encouragement, love, and of course an opportunity to discover Jesus Christ. What stands out in the crowd for young people is genuine relationships of integrity – and that needs to be the basis of any youth ministry. In the future kids will remember the relationships, the times when someone took a genuine interest in them. It’s all about building lasting fruit (Tim Hawkins book ‘Fruit that will last’ is an excellent read that challenges the traditional ways of doing youth ministry).

Our youth will not be the church of the future if they are not the church of today – I think a key to all this is finding opportunities for our young people to belong today, not just be a member of the youth group that leaves the place in a mess and talks during the Sunday sermon…. but to be given opportunities to be involved in ministry, start to develop their leadership now – not when they are older. Youth will rise to such opportunities and challenges – mission trips, beach missions, leading services develops their skills, but gives them ownership.

To try and summarise what I am saying, a successful youth ministry is one that:

1. Puts the priority on relationships – discipleship not just entertainment – equipping them to make a difference where they go to school, where they hang out. 2. Looks for ways to include young people in the overall life and ministry of the church 3. ‘Major events’ such as beach missions, SU camps, mission trips etc will all be pivotal times for young people as well, so we should be encouraging our youth to step out – and for the youth leaders to step out with them. It’s one thing to send your youth, but another to stand with them!.

Numbers of youth attending is not the real issue (although the first question we youth pastors ask when we meet each other is ‘how big is your group’!!) The real issue is the quality of relationships and the opportunities for growth those kids have. Most of that does not happen at programmed youth events… it happens in between them.

May this not be a time of ‘implosion’ but a quality time that the youth you have will remember for ever.