Today marks my first full week of full-time, vocational, church ministry. I feel so privileged to be serving the body of Christ in this role of Minister of Music and Youth here at Arlington Baptist Church. It is indeed humbling to recognize God’s leading in my life as He has brought me here and made me apart of this ministry.
This morning I came into my office with the intention of putting together an agenda for my youth staff meeting this Sunday. One of the items that I plan to discuss is the role of youth ministry in the function of the church. Seeing that the “youth group” is an extra-Biblical arm of the church, I had hoped to explore the ways that a youth ministry could work within the Biblical confines of church ministry. As I opened my Reader, I found this article from The Gospel Coalition website. It encapsulated many of the thoughts that I was hoping to share but in much better form. For anyone involved in youth ministry in a church, I believe that this article will serve you well as you consider the objectives and framework of your ministry.
In this article, Jon Nielson discusses the following:
1. An argument for family-based and church-based youth ministry.
2. A description of youth ministry done well.
a. Word-centered (Word-Permeated)
b. Church-focused
c. Family-oriented
3. Benefits of a church ministry done well.
a. Young people hear voice.
b. Young people need to learn to minister the gospel to other.
c. Young people need to encourage each other.
d. Young people will grow up.
e. Young people share the gospel.
In addition to this article, Jon Nielson published a previous article presenting more fully a family-based youth ministry. I found both of these articles to be very helpful and have already filed them away for future use.
this is “grace at work”
One area to give thought to is that youth, teens, college age, and adults are not separate groups. That may be a factor for distinguishing classes, but to fellowship and minister one to another they are not.
Dad
August 22nd, 2011
Great thought! Thanks for sharing that. The way that I have expressed it is like this. The Bible doesn’t create a separate category for teens. They are generally under the category of children under their parents. Or they are members of the church body. Those two categories should shape the way that teenagers are taught. However, since modeen society has created this interesting new category, it is kind of hard to ignore. So, I find it useful to think of this “teen” time as an opportunity to equip and prepare teens to be obedient children and useful members of the body. Might as well use what we are given to accomplish what we know to be true. Thanks Daddy.
ricky
August 25th, 2011