Is this REALLY how it is?

"The time has come for a more theologically rigorous Youth Ministry because pizza parties and Play Station won't change the world."

This was a friend of mine's status on facebook yesterday. It sparked some pretty good discussion (at least on his status comments) about the state of Youth Ministry right now. Several comments had to do with the fact that Youth Ministers WANT to make these changes, but they feel that parents and other church leadership would fight them on those changes because it would "rock the boat too much". Another comment from another friend of mine was pleading the case that we know we need to make those changes...we just don't know how! There are 10 books out there right now telling us that what we're doing as Youth Ministers isn't working, but there's not really a lot about how we can make that switch.

And my question was, "Who is doing Youth Ministry with pizza parties and Play Station?!?" I can't remember the last time I ordered pizza for the Youth Group, and I think we play video games once a year (maybe twice) in the UYG. Now I know that my friend was exaggerating just a bit...I'm sure that no one does Youth Ministry using only pizza & video games. And I'm also sure that there are some Youth Ministers out there that use the "fun" things as the main focus of their ministry. But I honestly do not think that describes the majority of Youth Ministries out there today. We do fun things, we do things that entertain the kids, but those are not the reasons that our kids come to activities. Those are not the things that are driving our ministries. The teens are coming because they want to be challenged, and they've bought in to what the group is doing and the direction the group is headed (and trying to follow God's lead in that direction).

Youth Ministry 3.0 is a book that came out recently that I read at the end of the summer. In it, Marko (President of Youth Specialties) talks about where he thinks Youth Ministry needs to be headed. He talks about needing to challenge teens with God's Word, not just entertain them with "feel good" messages. He talks about really getting to know the teens and the issues they are facing, not just putting a "one-size-fits-all bandaid" on each teen and hoping they don't disrupt the group. He talks about giving the teens some room to do things and follow the call that they are hearing from God in their lives, rather than just doing what's on our Youth Ministry agenda and calendar for the year. And he talks about allowing the teens to ask real questions about what they don't understand, not just telling them to believe what we tell them "because we said so." Of course, there are many other things he mentions, but those seemed to be the ones that really stood out to me.

What really worried me when I read the book, was thinking about the Youth Groups with Youth Ministers who aren't already doing those things. I can absolutely do more of those things in my ministry, but none of those things were a brand new idea to me. And I don't see how they could be brand new ideas to anyone who has been spending time with teenagers for the last few years. Of course these teens need challenges...need relationships with mentors and teachers...need to be encouraged to follow God's call...and they need to be allowed to ask questions. I really think its that last one that scares so many parents and church leaders. And this just might be what they're scared of...what if they ask a question that we don't know the answer to? Or what if they don't take our answer as "the" answer? What if while we're challenging our teens to follow God's call in their lives, they come up with different answers than what we've always been told was "the" answer?

So, fellow Youth Ministers...parents...teens...friends who have nothing to do with Youth Ministry...what are your thoughts?

Get Real & Live It!