Cool Youth Ministry

On 12.01.06, In Thoughts, by Brandon Gross

I just ran across an interesting article over at www.churchrelevance.com about some recent stats that came out pointing to the decline of the "MTV cool Youth Ministry" genre. You can read the article yourself by going here. I have served in youth ministry nearing 8 years now. During this time I have seen all kinds [...]

I just ran across an interesting article over at www.churchrelevance.com about some recent stats that came out pointing to the decline of the "MTV cool Youth Ministry" genre. You can read the article yourself by going here. I have served in youth ministry nearing 8 years now. During this time I have seen all kinds of things done to draw kids in and keep them. We have done everything from throwing the biggest parties in the town to taking the kids halfway across the country on trips.

What have I learned through all this?

Coolness will not keep the kids but relationships and sustanence will. I was reading one of Josh McDowell’s books about a year ago that had a really good point in it. He said that youth ministry can be looked at like a scale. If you put all your weight on coolness, games, and atmosphere and relationships… withouth any weight on sound Bible teaching, then it will not keep the kids and the scale will tip. On the other hand if you put all your weight on strict Bible teaching with no relationship then you will not keep the kids and the scale will tip. It’s a 50 – 50 scale. Youth groups need to have sound biblical teaching, Barna stats have shown this is an area youth ministry has been failing in. On the other side youth groups need to have a relationship level with games and atmosphere that will encourage them to talk with one another and, well just enjoy themselves.

If you have both sides of the scale working, then you will have a youth ministry that is growing spiritually. Think about it this way… how do you learn?? How did you learn when you were young?? What were your favorite teachers that you learned the most from?? The best teachers were the ones who were able to make their lesson come to life and usually they had good relationships and atmosphere in their classrooms. Youth ministry doesn’t need more coolness to be effective, just more life and balance. We need to re-evaluate how we teach and become better so we can be more effective. No one likes to be hammered with Bible for hours where the teacher resembles a Scrooge more than Jesus. Jesus brought life to his teaching with parables and stories. Jesus also was good at relationships since he could be found many times eating with people and laughing. Jesus taught more depth than anyone ever and he also put focus on relationships. Not so much on coolness.

What are your thoughts???

Brandon Gross

Brandon is the Dir. of Marketing and Administration here at Nspire. He is the voice behind your daily morning cup of Nspire training videos found in your FullAccess Support Website. Apart from training the world in the ways of Nspire, Brandon spends his time around the office thinking of cool stuff and using his kung fu to knock out administrative challenges. Brandon has served in ministry for over 10 years as a youth minister and considers himself a teacher at heart and enjoys sharing unique perspectives of the Christian life with his students.

Visit Authors Website | All Articles From This Author