Comments on: Is Youth Ministry in the Bible?

By: Brandon O'Shields

Brandon O'Shields — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:01:53 +0000

The only Scripture that I have found that addresses a group of young people and a spiritual leader is in 2 Kings 2:23-24.
2 Kings 2:23-24 23Then he (Elisha) went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and (AB)mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!” 24When he looked behind him and saw them, he (AC)cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.
I think youth ministries are good as long as the students don’t make fun of the youth minister. Also it would probably be better if the student minister was not bald.
That’s about all I have found on youth ministry. I am obviously kidding. I am a student minister and am encouraged by what has been said. I have found Deut. 6:4-9 and Mt. 28:18-20 to be great foundations for ministering to students. Deut. 6 emphasizes the role of the family and Mt. 28 emphasizes the role of the Church. I wish I had time to discuss more but thought you might like the 2 Kings passage.
Blessings!

By: ven

ven — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:51:59 +0000

youth ministry is necessary for a local church to grow. it is wherein the youths can express themselves to the fullest.the strategy is based on what really fits them.it is not necessary to copy one’s practice when not applicable to them

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:11:46 +0000

I feel like one thing that is important is connecting the youth to the whole church, or at least having the youth and the older people in the church get to know each other. I’ve just recently became the youth director at a church. They have always had the youth be in the main service with the adults and then they would all go to their separate Sunday School classes. There would also be a Sunday night “youth group” time, which was more like games/Bible study (traditional youth group things).

One thing I’ve been thinking about is not having a Sunday night thing, but having a separate Sunday morning worship service for the youth. True, it isolates them from the main church service, but do they really feel like a part of that service and a part of the church because they go to that service? There are so few youth and so many more adults that the youth get overlooked and aren’t asked to do many things (since I’ve been here that has increased – in some ways they’ve become the workhorse, which is just as bad in the opposite direction).

That’s why I feel like it would be more successful if there were multi-generational (or multi-aged) Sunday School classes. It would be a smaller group and they would actually get to know eachother’s names… and personalities. I could still see the adults taking over the class when it comes to discussion, but a good discussion leader wouldn’t and shouldn’t let that happen.

I don’t know exactly what needs to change, but I feel like we need to have a combination of something that relates to the youth in which they can be excited about and engaged in (not bored out of their minds and about to fall asleep), but they also need to be connected with the older people in the church.

I’ve thought about having “mentors” so that a youth and an adult can get to know each other, but a lot of the youth are too busy (and the adults) and it just ends up falling apart.

Honestly, I don’t know if there is a “general” solution to this “youth ministry” problem. Each church is going to have it’s own specific needs and will need it’s own specific solution to relate to the youth. Even then, after a few years, new youth will come in and will have different needs. It needs to be always changing.

I really think the key is to get the youth involved in the ministry itself. It’s really hard to do because you need those who are truly dedicated, know how to be critical, and are willing to speak up and have their ideas potentially shut down. It’s hard for teenagers to do that.

Just keep trying new things. If you really care about each youth and get to know each one (if that’s possible due to size of the group), then you will always be working hard to help them and you can’t fault yourself if things don’t go well.

By: kruparao kancharla

kruparao kancharla — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:03:40 +0000

i would like to learn some tools to reach some youth in india thanku

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:37:37 +0000

Jason, Thanks for your response!

I agree with what you are saying and I’m all for youth ministry – I love it – but we definitely got to do some evaluating to make it the most effective as possible and it looks like you can clearly articulate why we have youth ministry today.

There are still many though that make youth ministry a totally separate thing from the church, from helping parents, and in most cases there is this double thing we got going on for example:

Students in many churches have this:

-Sunday School or whatever people call it now
-Church – usually following that sunday school thing
-Youth Group – weekly meeting
-Small Groups
-Outreach events

Now the adults do that too except for a separate youth group or should I say adult group service mid week – they would just call it small groups or something.

But the point is that it’s like the youth have two services: church and youth service. At least this is how I see most churches and youth ministries operating.

I’m currently reading Simple Student Ministry and am liking what is being written.