Youth Ministry and the Church
I've been thinking a bunch lately about how we help our students best understand the Church and its work in the mission of God. I have received several recent emails in which youth workers have expressed a deep concern for their students understanding of the church.
Can the students in your youth ministry describe the nature of the Church? Do your students recognize the role of the Church in the mission of God? Are your students able to identify with the biblical metaphors of the Church? All of these questions are born out of the concerns that I have heard youth workers repeatedly expressing. As we are all aware there has been a great deal of dialogue surrounding the data concluding that students are 'leaving the church' upon the completion of high school with no plans to return. I've heard many reasons as to the cause of this great challenge we face ranging from the increased level of apathy of students (which I don't think is in anyway the primary reason) to the abandonment of today's youth by both culture and the Church to a myriad of other suggested causes that are in some way connected to the inability and desire for local churches to embrace change and new practices.
I'm not an expert on the issue of what is so often thought of as the most daunting challenge facing the church today -- that being the mass exit of emerging adults. For all I know there may be dozens of causes that have led to this challenge. So I don't proclaim my absolute conclusions. I do, however, have a hunch. My hunch is that many of our students, as a result of not knowing the Bible's story, haven't been guided toward an understanding of the work of the church in the mission of God and therefore have no framework for or devotion to the church and its nature and work.
What is your hunch as to the cause of such a challenge? Maybe you have more than a hunch; you have a conclusion? If so, what have you concluded and what might the church do differently to cultivate a passion for the church among emerging adults?
Perhaps a great starting point for our students is to help them see the Church as a people who are about conversion, community and conformity.
> By conversion I mean that the Church is to be a people concerned about evangelism, hospitality, generosity, liberation and formation.
> By community I mean that the Church is to be a people concerned about providing a sense of belonging, responsibility, inspiration, sharing, diversity and inclusivity.
> By conformity I mean that the Church is to be a people concerned about their desire to form spiritually. That is, a community that is consistently seeking to arrange its personal and communal lives around the mission of God, the person and work of Jesus, submission to the gifts and roles of the Holy Spirit in order t become a people full of grace and dedicated to the healing of all people through salvation and justice.
What else might we consider as part of the framework to help students best understand the nature and work of the Church? As far as you are concerned, do you feel like the Church is doing a good job helping emerging adults understand the Church? How might the Church improve in its efforts?
April 30th, 2009 - 20:03
You could probably replace “students” with “leaders” for a lot of this article and it’s no less true (but possibly more confronting and scary).
I’m not sure that many of us have really thought through these questions, and that’s the reasons many students haven’t either (and, to take this a step further, I also think that many who are in leadership over “emerging adults” haven’t really thought it through lots, either. Lots of people have a very narrow understanding of what church is, and (more specifically) what it looks and smells like, and this then filters through – either explicitly (”we don’t do things like that”) or implicitly (that uneasy feeling that, even if people say they’re happy for you to try something, it’s not going to fly).
I’ve been very blessed to be involved in a new faith community (church plant), who have been given Carte Blanche to do whatever we feel we should do, in whatever way we feel we should do it. Sadly, I think we are amongst a very small majority, because I haven’t heard of that situation in many other spaces, and yet in being given that freedom, we have wrestled with and taken very seriously the questions of what church looks like, what faith development looks like, what mission looks like. We don’t have all the answers (sometimes it feels like we don’t have many of the answers!), but at least we’re wrestling with it, together.
I like your 3 elements, and think there are a number of ways that they can be expressed, should those terms not be helpful for some. Regardless, I am firmly of the belief that we need to redeem the word “church” in its fullest expression, and that as we do, we will find that not only are more people engaging with the church, but maybe some of those who we think have “left the church” actually haven’t…
May 2nd, 2009 - 19:48
i think you all make good points.
to me, i think it is not just the youth misunderstanding the church. i think this is true, but there is much more to it.
i think that in the past few decades the church has lost it’s way. it is not about bringing healing, about helping people grow and experience God.
the church is about numbers, attendance, the sunday morning service, and about being a “successful church”.
have you ever noticed how much marketing goes on around the church? for events, for the service, for the webpage, for basically everything.
i think this current generation is very intune with what is genuine and that is not always found in the church.
i think this is a HUGE cause! our youth want what is genuine and real, and often get a program and marketing scheme instead.
any thoughts?