Currently, there are various (traditional) ways of providing ministry to the young people in our church viz. Friday Night Youth Club/Fellowship, Servers Guild, Happenings, Sunday School, Lads/Girls Brigade, Choir, Youth Alpha, participating in worship services, etc.
Whilst these organisations are providing good opportunities for young people to participate in the church, do they holistically provide sufficient spiritual development for a young person to "mature" as a Christian and to become actively involved in the Church and beyond as a life long vocation (and that does not only mean in full time ordained ministry)?
OR, must we provide additional or different activities/events/environments for greater maturity in Christ to take place? If so, what would you suggest? We are looking for ways to develop young people so that they will remain involved in the life of the church.
What would you suggest?
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6 comments:
for a long time this question has done the rounds and we end up doing the same things such as camps, praise & worship evenings, coffee bars, and youth services! why have we not started committing these young people by practicing conversion in our services, alter calls!! and then establish a bible study and spiritual nursery growing them to understand Christianity in the true sense!
Thank you, Anonymous. That is why I have posted the question again. Let's think out of the box - no, let's think NO BOX. Obviously, the old methods are not effective anymore - we have to do things differently, or we will just "get what we have always got". You have made a great suggestion - I like the spiritual nursery concept (although some may have to spend some time in an incubator first . . . . ). I have a 15 point list of fairly radical things we can do (you can email me if you want to get a sneak preview of this).
But for now, let's hear what everyone else has to say.
Conversion is just conservative as any other traditional practice. Our youth often view this as another bible bashing and intimidation session. We should start cultivating morals and values in our own homes. Ensure we have stable, divorce free and united families. From there we build.
i adree with one of the comments about the family thing, i think we need to start programmes like regenerating families. to many youth members get the wrong impression of christianity because of whats happenning in thier families. we have parents that come to church sundays and for the rest of the week youd never beable to tell that they christian. we need to teach families how to seek God together or else how can the youth learn how to help others seek Him. our parents and the elder people in the church need to realize that they are the only bibles that some of our youth are willing to read. this needs to start with the parents before we can minister to the youth.
Thank you, Ashton. You are absolutely right. Therefore, Youth Ministry must include the full involvement of everybody at our churches, especially, our parents and elders. I like your idea of a Family Regeneration programme. Be blessed.
How about treating Young People as who they are - People? We tend to talk down to Young People and push down Programme after Programme down their throats. Let Young People know that they have a lot to contribute and allow them the space to develop.
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