BibleSponge

In the upcoming days, I will begin a series on Youth Ministry.  After a lot of prayer and fasting, I have come to what I believe we must do in order to produce a YM that lines up with the Bible.  Our current model is broken and possibly antithetical to God’s instructions of our responsibility to young people.

I can speak of this almost completely unbiased.  My early years in religion were in the Roman Catholic church (where YM is all but non-existent).  It wasn’t until I was reborn and brought up in a protestant church in the last 5 years, that I discovered this fad called Youth Ministry.  So I am not a product of the last 30+ years of YM indoctrination. 

I say ‘fad’ because it has become precisely that.  When I began this venture into YM, I believed that my purpose was to pour into the youth to disciple them, evangelize them, to fill the spiritual void that parents left.  I was erroneously under the impression that I could offset failed Christian parenting with some ‘cool music’ and a ‘relevant message.’

Although there were times that the spirit could be felt, at the end of the night, I knew there had to be something more.  That something was right under my nose – it was parents.  However, the typical anecdote of adding more parents to the fray would just increase the number of spectators to a failed venue.  If youth ministry was the water and the youth’s spiritual void was the bucket, I was doing nothing more filling up a bucket with holes.

So what was missing?  What dynamic was eluding the YM at my church?  Why was 90% of the YM still without a biblical worldview?  Why were the majority still falling away by their freshman year in college?  The questions raged on and on.

Finally, God opened a door to knowledge that has not only changed my focus in YM, but how I order my family at home.  A man by the name of Voddie Baucham has sounded the alarm on the current failed state of YM.  You can argue it all you like, but it’s hard to argue against the word of God.  His approach only seems radical due to the way culture has conditioned us.  But, when placed along side the Bible, it unequivocally stands up to any modern approach to YM employed by churches throughout.

Here is what is in my arsenal for the upcoming posts on YM:

• Weapon -  the book of Ephesians
• Ammo – verses 5:15 – 6:4
• Aux Ammo – jaw-dropping statistics
• Communications – this blog
• Reinforcements – Deuteronomy 6
• Strategy – a plan that will take courage and genuine love of youth to implement

I don’t profess to know all there is to know about YM.  And I’m sure that there are several that have been in the field a lot longer than I have.  However, just because the parking lots are full, kids are having fun, and the senior pastor is happy because the numbers look good on paper, doesn’t justify our current failure rate of 70%-88%.  Failure rate?

Stay tuned, the battle is about to begin…