Sustainable Youth Ministry

Youth ministry, is it sustainable in these days of the massive technological media network that is influencing the minds of adolescents? According to authors; Dr. Burns, Doug Fields, and Mark DeVries arguably the foremost leaders in the field of Youth Ministry, believe it to be so. Dr. Burns and Doug Fields give clear and deceive plans of how to grow and sustain youth ministries in their books, Uncommon Youth Ministry by Dr. Burns and Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry, Doug Fields even with the ever encroaching monster called social media. That is praying upon the youth culture of today.

In Mr. DeVries book Sustainable Youth Ministry he points out and illustrates many different ways that youth ministry can be maintain and grown. Even in the advent of technology, a youth ministry should not be seen as a lottery ticket and hoping that your numbers will pay off big rewards.

It should be an investment of time, love, patience, and understanding of the adolescents that you are dealing with. One needs to have skin in the game. Meaning you need to have something meaningful invested to make the investment (skin) worthwhile. Jesus, certainly had skin in the game literally and figuratively.

The church needs to make this type of commitment to their youth programs and follow the words of Jesus in Deuteronomy 6:6-7. Furthermore, simple by just reading books like a one by Mr. DeVries and implementing his ideas and concepts.

Which are time tested by the fire of trial and error and proven by time and experience. Moreover, I find in reading this book a lot of it deals with the youth worker and what the church, parent, and the elders are asking of them. They want a superstar, someone right out of collage who can do all things and please ever...

... middle of paper ...

...it gets rolling and we are on the right track just stay out of there way.

Michael Gerber gives a good overview of how this can be achieved in seeking a youth worker on page 102:

1) Not a Master Technician. But a novice. A beginner. An apprentice.

2) Someone for whom questions haven’t become answers

3) Someone who is open to the possibility of learning skills he hasn’t developed yet, skills he wants to learn.

I must say, I was fortunate in my career as a Chief Steward as this is what I usually got from the kids coming out of our Maritime school and just being their careers of going to see. However, to me; I see sustaining a youth ministry is not being that complex on paper, but dealing with people are the issues. Let’s just keep it simple and keep the cookie jar of learning and knowledge on the bottom shelf so everyone can enjoy the written word of God.