From Thoughts on Life, God, and Ministry:
Blogger Jason Huffman worries that youth ministries do more harm than good when they create “an alternate reality” for students — not unlike the fakery seen on reality TV shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette:
“We do the best trips, attend the best camps, have the best outside speakers and worship leaders, and go to the farthest places for missions so our kids can be discipled and strengthened in their faith. Then when they leave the youth group and there are no more expensive camps with famous speakers and going on a $2000 mission trip has been replaced with trying to live on a student loan or a Pell Grant, the student doesn’t know how to live out his faith in the real world. His social network of Christian students has been disbanded and he is on his own in reality, not the reality TV show he once knew. No more limousines, hot tubs, and steak and lobster. This is the real world and he will have to learn to use his faith to function in it or he will abandon his faith …”
Read the whole blog entry here.
Jason serves as director of youth ministries at First United Methodist Church in Palestine, Texas.
