The desire to be accepted is prevalent among youth today. In a world that is currently suffering from a famine of love that is intended to be given to today’s youth, more and more we see students that desire to be accepted, yet feel accepted by no one. Because of this we see them decide to reach out, and as they do they become accepted into a group that is not a good influence on them, or simply is wasting their time. Here we will look at what exactly the bible tells us in the issue of acceptance, and how it would look in the average youth ministry today. We will then look into how we will follow up with students past their fist visit and finally what utilizing the idea of acceptance to its full potential will do for a ministry.
Teens more than anything else feel the desire to belong to a group, this may be with friends, or even clubs. This is why we see things like sports teams, book studies, and pep rally’s. While students may find joy or entertainment from these things, the real reason why they do it is to belong to a group of people that care for one another. In fact the core reason for people to do gang like activities is because of thier desire to belong to a group where they feel accepted. Even people like the jocks and cheerleaders feel this desire and in youth ministry the only thing we can do with this is learn from it and use to it our advantage. In the society that we live in today though, youth groups are towards the bottom of the list often times as cool places to belong to. It’s becoming almost politically incorrect to invite a friend to youth group and sometimes can be seen as offensive to do so. But while these other groups may be easy to become a part of, a healthy a strong youth ministry can provide students wi...
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...tial ideas and theologies that are absolutely the cornerstone to having a healthy ministry. Ideas like community, grace, love, and forgiveness could all have their own paper written for them individually, but acceptance is absolutely essential to any ministry. To accept someone into your family, just like the father in the story of the prodigal son, is to share all of these values listed above. By accepting them we are showing them grace, love, forgiveness and belonging, that each and everyone one of them so desperately desires. If we as youth pastors can embrace acceptance and also use it genuinely and not as a technique for recruiting, then surely our ministry will grow both in numbers and in depth in the knowledge of the word of God. By doing exactly what God does for us, we can show His love, His grace and His mercy by simply accepting others into our family.
I agree with Kitchens, Mead, and Roxburgh who all basically say in their own way that one change in ministry that we need to focus on more is the congregational life of the church. However, I think Mead explains it best when he says that the future church must be more intentional in the spiritual formation of its laity (Mead, location 919). According to Mead, the church is moving towards becoming a more missional institution that cares for the needs of the community. Therefore, oftentimes laity will be the ones on the front lines and will need the capacity to minister to people on their own without the help of clergy. In order to do this they will need more directed and intensive training to deal with...
Although each youth group as a whole is unique, the same types of people can be found within all of them. In most books and movies, there are the three teens that make up the main clique: the leader, the sidekick, and the romantic interest, as well as the uniform groups consisting of the nerds, the jocks, the artists, etc. Many of us might find these movie stereotypes difficult to identify with (though some are immensely accurate), but in my experience, a youth group wouldn’t be a youth group without these few key personalities to hold it together.
Philosophy of Ministry: God's desires come first, I must always live my ministry God's way. I must live as a Christian (1 Corinthians 9:27) I must have a proper relationship of surrender to the Leader. In my personal life or in the Church I must understand that Christ is Head and Chief Shepherd (Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 13:20). The “management” of Church is about relationships with God and Man, not just maintaining a social organization.
Regarding to (Blair, & Jones, 1964) agrees that the peer group is strong and may be imperative in its demands upon its members. But it does serve an important purpose for its adolescent members. It helps them find a role for themselves. It helps them in an insecure period attain the necessary emancipation from the home, and it teaches social skills necessary for living a community life.
The Family Friendly Church by Ben Freudenburg was an interesting book that I was not entirely sure how I would react to it because I had heard mixed reviews on it from different people; in the end, after reading it, I ultimately liked it. The book talked about a lot of truth in family ministry how it is not that important in many churches. Ben talked about how at one of his first church’s, he and his wife, Jennifer, took on the role of parents in the youth group and once they took another call the ministry fell apart because they had made it all about them and not the actual parents (Page 18). I like that Ben admitted this about his past and got me thinking about my home church’s youth ministry which parents were not prioritized to be involved
Teaching young students about the Christian worldview of Creation of the universe versus the secular worldview of evolution
It was a late Friday night, and no one was around. I was sitting in my old recliner texting my church’s Young Adults Pastor, Zach Bardsley, about the future group meeting we were to have that Sat. This Young Adults Ministry is new. Randomly, Zach informs me that he would like to give me the title of Outreach Coordinator.
The year of adolescent is an adventure. I’ve been there , I’ve done that is a dangerous comment to make to the youth. This comment is from the experiencing the youth ministry. As generation changes, people change too, but we ought to stuck in the generation that we lived in. which builds a wall with next generation, believe it or not , even young man like me is experiencing the difference. As a participant, I could ask questions but as a leader , I had to be solid at what I believe as a leader to promote the youth to going to a direction where its right , of course through God. I also felt the weight on my shoulder as a leader. Napoleon once said “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Hope in Christ to lead their
I want to go into the field of ministry, as a youth pastor. To excel in this career I would lead weekly meetings for the youth in my church, plan missions trips, organize fun teen outings, and lead outreach activities in the community. These weekly meetings would consist of, in my opinion; games, food, fellowship and discipleship. The biggest task of these being discipleship, preparing a lesson for each group out of the bible. This task would probably take me one day to prepare a solid lesson for each day that can, and would relate to the kids and their needs as either middle schoolers or high schoolers.
“It takes a certain degree of strangeness to be a youth pastor”. This is a quote from a member of the church I attend which I believe helps define the personality of a youth pastor. Being a youth pastor can definitely cause stress in one’s life, but the ministry itself is very rewarding. As a youth pastor, one is expected to share the gospel openly at the times there is a youth function going on. As you do that, you are also expected to create bonds and build relationships with the teens and children.
They are in a place in their lives that each and every one of the Church’s leaders once were. Thus, they should approach the encouragement and guidance of the Church’s youth from an empathetic standpoint. In terms of following God’s calling to a vocation, no one is more qualified in knowledge than adults in the church. Thus, the adults and head figures of the Church are a valuable resource that young people should take advantage of. This relationship between adults and young people in the church must be understood from both perspectives.
Teens reflect a culture all of their own within American society. The language that they speak, music that they listen to, and many aspects of their lives differ from that of past generations (Linehan 3). Therefore, many people of older generations tend to make judgments and assumptions about teenagers. These assumptions are typically based on the manner in which teenagers speak, dress, and present themselves. Because of these generalizations, faith of many teens is commonly overlooked. In a society where violence seems to be accepted and many teens are lost about who they are, faith can be the one bond interlinking a group of many. Despite occurrences such as the shootings April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School, and other negative aspects surrounding teenagers’ lives, there are still many young people involved and/or seeking a life with faith in Christ.
Money is one of the biggest issues, a lot of people get worried when it comes to getting a good salary in order to provide for a family, or being in debt and not being able to pay it off. Family member’s cam keep us away from fulfilling our call. The fear of the unknown was a big one that we discussed, because we don’t know where He is going to take us. The biggest one for me was questioning one’s abilities. I personally didn’t feel qualified at first to go into youth ministry at first. There are a lot of reasons that would keep someone away from fulfilling the call of God, but we must out complete and full trust in Christ and everything will work out, and He will
Without these four Foundational Realities and Tasks, Christian ministry doesn’t fully exist. These Realities and Tasks are more intrinsically intertwined than most realize; without a complete understanding of these four, Christian ministry leaders will struggle to lead their people well. Christian ministry leaders would do well to make these four Realities/Tasks the focus of their ministry; without these being proclaimed, it would be incredibly hard to lead others to Christ as we are called to
The following questions are based on Chapter 3 in Yount’s The Teaching Ministry of the Church: