What are the key issues and trends for youth ministry workers in church settings? To find out we asked:

Daryl Nuss, Chief Ministries Officer, the National Network of Youth Ministries. Founded in 1979, the NNYM and its staff of 20 reach 73 ministries among its “cooperating organizations,” and nurtures 900 local networks of individual youth workers.

Darryl Lamar Smith, National Director for Student Venture, the high school and junior high ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Student Venture, founded in 1967, has a U.S. staff of 172, and an international staff of 20 Americans and 90 nationals. From June 1, 2006, to May 31, 2007, Student Venture recorded presenting the gospel to 80,173 students with 9,295 young people making a decision for Christ.

Terry Swenson, Vice President Communications for Young Life. Founded in 1941, Young Life has a worldwide staff of 3,180 worldwide, and estimates that during the 2006-2007 school year it ministered to 613,431 middle school and high school kids, a number that does not include Capernaum, a ministry to the disabled, or international outreach.

Dr. Dave Rahn, Vice President, Chief Ministry Officer, Youth for Christ. Founded in 1944, YFC says it has 1,518 staff deployed, about 100 of whom are World Outreach missionaries. In addition, more than 100 nations are chartered with YFC International and 3,932 staff work around the world for a total of 5,450 staff. Last year YFC recorded contact with 331,353 young people, with the number of young people who indicated that they made decisions to become followers of Christ for the first time was 24,542.

Here’s what our four experts told us.

YouthWorker Journal: What do you see as the key opportunities and challenges for youth ministry today?

Daryl Nuss: One challenge is adapting to the changing culture that youth live in, but certain aspects of their culture have shifted from the one that even the youngest youth worker grew up in.

For example, the means of social communication is changing. Five years ago you could connect with youth via email. Today they don’t use it as much; they are more likely to use social networking or text messages. Family structures are not what we grew up with. Kids are disconnected from traditional mooring, but they’re very connected amongst themselves.

Dave Rahn: The interest in spiritual things among youth provides a tremendous opportunity, but the relative disinterest in organized religion is quite a challenge. Honestly, the combination of these conditions makes me tremendously excited. I think it will compel us all to a healthy reform process as it relates to how we follow Jesus together and invite others to join us.

Darryl Smith: The lack of manpower. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. We have many opportunities to minister [in schools, but] a lot of times we have to say—with broken hearts—that right now we just don’t have the people…

YWJ: What unique gifts does your organization brings to the table to address these opportunities and challenges?

Terry Swenson: Fortunately, we continue to find that the core values and competencies of Young Life “translate” well in an ever-changing youth culture and into a wide variety of international cultural settings. Crossing into the world of adolescents, building relationships, earning the right to talk about matters of faith, communicating the gospel in terms kids can understand—those are timeless and cross-cultural ways to reach kids with the gospel.

Regarding the resource challenge, these simple core strategies enable volunteers to easily catch and “do” Young Life. This is so important because so much Young Life is done by volunteers.

Rahn: YFC has been a pretty flexible group over the years. We reinvent our own forms as much as we have to so we can help connect kids we want to know Jesus with those of us who already love Jesus. We’re embedded in local communities and pursue collaborative strategies with lots of churches in those locales, believing that the unity of the body of Christ will contribute to a fertile evangelistic environment. I think we’re in pretty good position to make real contributions to contemporary youth ministry and the Church.

Nuss: NNYM desires to connect youth workers and people who care about kids, and resources—on the local level and as well as nationally. NNYM wants to establish a healthy network within the reach of every youth worker in America. We don’t want anyone to work in isolation.

Nationally, we gather like-minded leaders to work together on initiatives. For instance, the Campus Alliance is an effort to establish some kind of ministry presence on every one of the 63,000 high school and middle school campuses in America. The alliance brings together around 40 organizations to dialogue and share strategy for that goal.

We’re concerned for the individual youth worker as well. We are working to mentor and empower young leaders. We have statistical data that proves that youth workers who network stay in ministry longer.

Smith: I’m not comfortable saying we are unique. I feel that God has called us to be part of the Body. He has called all of us to the Great Commission. I don’t like to set Student Venture apart.… Because the call is so big, it would be crazy for Student Venture to think that we have some sort of inside track to fulfilling the Great Commission…

We have a unique opportunity for a larger manpower pool because we are part of a larger organization, Campus Crusade for Christ.

YWJ: What do you want to achieve in 2008, and what are some of the specific initiatives or programs you are initiating to achieve your goals?

Swenson: More growth internationally. We are experiencing exciting growth, especially as God raises up nationals who quickly catch those simple strategies that we use in Young Life.

In the States, we have relatively new initiatives focused on Latino and Asian communities. We are also moving strategically into college ministry with advent of Young Life College. Young Life has been on college campuses for more than 50 years, primarily doing leadership development and discipleship. With Young Life College, we add a more deliberate outreach.

Finally, continued growth in WyldLife and Young Life camp attendance. With a very successful “Fill the Bus” scholarship initiative in 2007, high school summer camp attendance increased by more than 2,000 (to almost 34,000 total—total summer camp attendance, including middle school, was more than 46,000).

Rahn: We’re concentrating on ministry health, so we can push on toward ministry growth. Our key strategy revolves around local ministry sites (we’ve got around 2,100 of them nationally). These are the program venues through which relationships between adults and teens can be established as the gospel is shared.

Five health indicators—we call them our essentials—will help focus on our outreach mission among young people. They are: 1) widespread prayer, 2) loving relationships, 3) faithful Bible teaching, 4) collaborative community strategy, and 5) adults who empower. Whatever creative programs we might deliver through our ministry sites, we ask everyone to practice the five essentials, and our chief goals are to improve how these get practiced in each site and launch new sites with this same focus.

One more initiative is extremely exciting. Our national City Life team (City Life is one our six national core ministries) has made incredible progress toward implementing a plan for holistic urban youth ministry that has a national scope.

Nuss: We have determined that to get every youth worker connected, we need to build 3,900 local networks. We have 900 now.

Also, we’re developing a youth mentoring program, at mentoryouth.com, to recruit mentors and connect them to organizations who mentor kids.

Another opportunity: to reach volunteers and Christians who work with youth outside the church, such as teachers, judges, probation officers, et cetera. How can we connect with them? We’re working on that.

Smith: I’m not for going out for arbitrary numbers. Those results belong to God. But we do want to see more staff come onboard, and grow more volunteers. That will mean that more kids will come to know Christ and to make Him known. We really believe in spiritual multiplication. We want them to back and multiply their faith, not just experience it.

YWJ: Do you have any other insights about youth ministry in the 21st century? What are you seeing or learning?

Swenson: We are seeing social network sites on the Web change the way adolescents communicate and relate. We are asking questions about what this means for a ministry based on real (as opposed to “virtual”) relationships.

Fortunately, I think that our staff and volunteers who walk, talk, text and post with kids daily are good at navigating (and helping kids navigate) the virtual and the real worlds that kids live in today.

Smith: Young people are open. They’re open to change. They’re not resistant.

I think there’s a lot of maturity out there. I think in youth ministry we have tended to lower the standard a lot and just play games…They want to be spiritually challenged. They need to be challenged. God has called us to be spiritual multipliers. The Bible didn’t say go into the world and wait to make disciples when you’re 22. Kids that are 15 or 14, have a biblical mandate to make disciples.

Rahn: Youth ministry in the future will be shaped in part by the recognition that it gives form to the future of the church. I’m not talking about the old line that so many of us used to cringe over: “Youth are the church of tomorrow.” What I mean is that how we do youth ministry today ends up shaping the way that we do church in 30 years. This ramps up the stakes considerably and ought to create some very stimulating cross-pollenization between ministry disciplines that will really invigorate youth ministry.

And I have one more prediction. Lines that define us—and to some extent divide us—are beginning to be blurred in the experience of teens. Youth ministry will blaze the trail for the rest of the church to recover a form of unity in local communities that is rich, rewarding, and fruitful making God known.

Nuss: Youth work is more challenging than ever. Today assumptions about youth work are changing. You can’t assume your kids have had a traditional family, have not be abused, understand biblical concepts. Dysfunction in our culture is taking a greater toll. Kids are busier than ever, and harder to get in involved in traditional programs.

I think that reaching youth is the most important thing any society can do. And especially as Christians, that should be our top priority.