While I’ve always revered the authentic lives of youth ministers, many times we live in duplicity of our application of theology to our practice of youth ministry. When it comes to how we think about the role of youth ministry in the church, we often allow tactics, strategies and models to trump our theological understanding of the church.
Whether consciously and/or deliberately, we all act according to our theological mind—or worse—we claim to believe one way and act another. This is why I believe the apostle Paul encouraged us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” Imagine all the new realities early Christians faced. Believers were under a new covenant in the resurrected Christ, experiencing the filling of the Spirit, and Gentiles coming to faith in considerable numbers. Theology was powerfully coming into conflict with practice. Most of the epistles would not have been written if not for this struggle. It should not surprise us that we still wrestle with theology and practice to this day.
At a forum on the Future of Youth Ministry at Southwestern Seminary, I saw the first real need for theologically informed youth ministry. One presenter that day, a biblical literalist (which is quite different than one who believes in the Bible’s infallibility), was making the case that youth ministry did not appear in Scripture and thus was a manmade creation that threatened the fabric of the family and faith. I almost laughed during the presentation. The theological framework was less based on Scripture and more a reaction to the current mores of culture (a similar trap liberal theology fell to in responding to modernity). What stunned me further was the crowd, many who were graduate students, who clearly were being won over to this presenter’s position.
Was he right? Was youth ministry harming the family and ultimately the faith of young people? I began a theological journey to discover my ecclesiology and understanding of the family in the context of the church. If youth ministry was to survive this reactionary, consumer-driven trend by the church to accommodate and cater to the family, we needed a theological understanding about what youth ministry’s role is in the church to help teenagers find and follow Jesus.
In an age when we are focusing more on family in church, I began to realize that this emphasis could weaken the position of the church in filling the call of Christ in our world. It’s a subtle but insidious drift that weakens the body of Christ and makes the aim of youth ministry harder to discern.
This is a reduction of my work, but a search of Scripture landed on these theological premises:
1. At creation, the family is identified as a basic unit of a larger unified society to live harmoniously, accomplishing God’s purpose on earth. (
2. Sin disrupted family relationships, mission and unity (
3. A nation based on a family of origin was birthed from Abraham to be a people covenanted with God for the benefit of all mankind and through which would be born the Messiah or Savior for all mankind. (
4. Families that were part of this ethnic group/nation were given special instructions. Family is secondary to membership in the nation of Israel, not primary (
5. Jesus said His Gospel would separate family and that alignment with Him was considered greater than allegiance to family.
6. After His resurrection, prior to His ascension, Jesus called His followers to make disciples of all nations. The church community is the primary makers of disciples (
7. Parents and children who are believers first are given special counsel about how to treat each other. Family is secondary to membership in the church, not primary (
8. While family is given high priority throughout Scripture, it is secondary to faith in Christ and membership in the body of Christ (
9. All members of the body, regardless of the part, are essential to the health of the whole. Thus, the church is active, participatory, moving with purpose (
10. Throughout Scripture, we are reminded that young people often are overlooked for their significance but are just as important to the kingdom work
From these theological conclusions, I began discussions with youth workers around the country that forged the following Five Reasons the Church Needs Youth Ministry. They’ve become my compass for evaluating what I am doing in my own church and in my leadership at Youth Specialties.
1. Youth ministry is vital to helping teens integrate with the larger intergenerational community of the church.
2. Youth ministry resists the status quo, helping a church stay relevant in a changing culture.
3. Youth ministry focuses on inviting those who are not already part of the church into the deeper narrative of God’s plan for humankind.
4. Youth ministry reminds the church that teens are not marginalized members of the body, but are co-creators and conspirators in the divine work of the church, restoring life on earth as it is in heaven.
5. Youth ministry helps the church focus on the way of Jesus, which goes beyond tradition, dogma and ritual.
Take a few moments and reflect on these five reasons. Does your youth ministry fully meet the needs the church has?
I am happy to say the trend in youth ministry during the past decade has been a move toward theologically reflective youth ministry. I recall the first time I attended Youth Specialties’ National Youth Workers Convention. I’d often heard that YS was primarily about fun and games, so I was not prepared for the convention to be theologically stimulating. I came across people who loved Jesus and loved teenagers, yet approached Christianity and youth ministry from directions I hadn’t considered. I might not have articulated this truth way at that time, but my theology was being challenged. It didn’t necessarily mean my natural theology was wrong, but it hadn’t been refined, developed and forged into intentional and congruent practice. I felt alive and that my ministry was becoming richer with more meaning. I better understood why I did what I did and realized there were some practices that needed to be abandoned. Everything is theological. I’m pleased youth ministry is going deeper in this way. We will be more effective at finding our places in the church as we help teens find and follow Jesus.
