We should also speak about how Youth Ministers need to be "Personal and Compassionate" I have seen a lot of youth ministers only occupy a position in the church to hold a title and also seen pastors throw young couples into that ministry without them having a passion for it simply because they are young and those same ministers can't connect with kids because their own life is burdened down with other things. Kids (youth) demand attention and far more then a one day a week visit by another authoritarian individual. Youth need someone open to them and willing to be there. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" YES we need to be Theologians and vitally important to know our stuff and stuff them well BUT we also need to be relational, good listeners and even pay home visits; take them out on a one on one basis, see their surroundings, their parents who don't come to church, their older sibling influence etc...and prove to them we care. Compassion is love in action. This, I believe, is the greater characteristic a youth minister should have. Again thank you for another great post. I have personally grabbed some good material from your guys' talks. Keep them coming. God bless
No offense, but the fact that this title is on this video shows that we don't connect youth ministers (or pastors) as theologians. The bottom line, if they're pastors, Ephesians 4:11-16 gives us a reason God gives us pastors. It is for the maturing of believers, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. They are to equip us to come to the unity of the faith and not be carried away by every wind of doctrine. Because of this any youth minister or pastor should study the Word continually as commanded by 2 Timothy 2:15 and they need to preach the Word no matter the state of the culture according to 2 Timothy 4:2. There are many problems with youth ministries, but I will point out five. 1) Too many fun, games, and trying to be hip. It's as if we're trying to make Jesus "cool" because we're dealing with teens. Many of them go to public school and are on the front lines of ungodly indoctrination and we entertain them with skits, emotionally driven music, and games. You certainly don't need to be stuffy and boring, but when we make all these other things more important than prayer, preaching, and study, don't be shocked the kids are having issues. 2) Not enough catechism type study in the Word. These kids need to know the attributes of God, the depravity of sin, the person and work of Christ, and the reliability, inerrancy, sufficiency, and absolute truth of the Bible. The scriptures can't just be moral solutions to the teens social problems, because that is only a small part of the Christian walk. 3) They need to be taught the gospel Biblically and how to proclaim it. This is missing from many youth groups. You'll get young kids out there in groups proclaiming it wrong or going on missions trips where there's more physical work being done than gospel proclamation. 4) The kids need to be have discipleship from older believers, starting first with their parents. The church needs to equip parents to teach and bring up their own children in the Lord. Many times our youth are being "raised" by the youth leaders and pastors more than there own parents. And many times the family comes to church and they're separated from their own kids most services from an early age right up to college age. This mirrors the world, where the kids go off to school for 6 or 7 hours five days a week and only spend evenings with the parents. We teach our children that the authority of parents come behind public schools as well as Sunday school and youth ministers in the church. 5) The youth pastor should stop trying to be the hippest, most energetic pastor in the church and just teach and preach the Word in an expository manner. Cool stories and analogies have their place, but it is the Word that has power (Romans 10:17, Hebrews 4:12). Any pastor needs to be able to rightly teach and preach to the flock their given the essential and deep doctrines of scripture. I have nothing against youth ministers per se, but in many respects, sometimes they may do harm to the walk of young believers when church becomes less like a holy meeting of saints to worship God and more like a social club for kids in their church cliques. Some of this stuff is unbiblical and really needs to change.
Just want to give you something to consider here, while I agree with a good portion of what you have said and I can tell that you are coming from a place that is genuine, i would just like you to consider that youth groups and the fun activities that take place in youth groups are not meant to replace the corporate gathering of the church for worship. They are designed to be an age appropriate place where teens have fun, are able to organically connect with youth workers who are maturing in their own faith, and make friends where Christ is the common bond. So yes there will be a time and place for teens to be shown Biblical hermeneutics and sound theological exegesis. But youth groups in healthy churches will also at times be about pie eating contests, gaga pit, and roller skating. Its a both/and arrangement.
@@danbraswell4357 I completely understand where you are coming from, and there are times when that is fine. But let's be honest, most youth group activities don't just take place in a vacuum, they usually happen during youth group services which are going on while the main service is happening in the church. This happens on many Sundays and Wednesday nights. So while parents are hearing the Word of God with adults, the youth are hearing the Word of God from the youth pastor or leader (along with fun and games). So in many churches, a family with two or three pre-teens or teenagers are separated as a family, sometimes for years. Think about it, a thirteen year old will spend more hours with the youth minister in the youth service right up til they are eighteen than any time they spend with their parents in the sanctuary. Out of a hundred or more services a year, almost 80% of a youth's time is spent learning the Word of God separate from their parents (and this goes on for several years). 1) This creates a disconnect between parents and youth. Pastors are to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2), but there could be different services for the parents and the youth. This isn't necessarily awful, but there should be a sense of family worship that goes out the window if you're separated from your own kids in the church. It's like two church services where the youth go to the youth minister for a little preaching, games, and fellowship while the service for the parents is much more serious (no games or pie eating contests there). Notice that the main difference between teaching/preaching to the youth is fun. 2) Any church gathering should compliment the parents being the main source of a child's discipleship. This is modeled after Deuteronomy 6:6-9, Proverbs 1:8, 4:1, 22:6, and Ephesians 6:4. Many churches do, but many times the youth group or youth services replaces the parent as the main source and that's not good. Right now me and my family have to watch our services on line due to transportation, but right after the message we spend twenty or more minutes going over the sermon and what was taught/learned. Be honest, how many parents spend time with an open Bible to go over what was preached in the main service or even the youth group? Probably less than we think. 3) While I applaud the fellowship with peers, sometimes the emphasis on the youth ministry can be more fun and games than proper break down of the Word (which we are told to search/study based on Acts 17:11, 2 Timothy 2:15). Don't misunderstand, I am not against fellowship or even fun, but if that takes up a larger percentage than teaching the Word, it becomes a problem. And sometimes we forget there are some kids that feel left out in these groups because they don't belong to a certain clique, they don't play games well, or they have serious issues/doubts that may stay pent up inside because the lack of seriousness (at times) of the youth group doesn't encourage tackling every day problems. These are not manufactured problems; I've seen this first hand for many of the youth. Finally, more money and resources are spent on Youth Pastors and youth ministries than even women's ministries. It is an industry that makes tons of money with all types of youth ministry kits, programs, etc. Youth pastors actually make more money than most pastors. We invest much time and money in our youth (which is fine), but most of it is to entertain or find an entertaining way to present the Word (so they're not bored). Do you know which ministry in churches have the lowest investment? Men's ministries. Their budgets are normally more bare bones. And since men are to lead their homes and wives (Ephesians 5:25-6:4), you would think we would invest more time in training them to be godly men so they can lead their homes. So while I am not against youth groups or ministries, I see a pattern of it being the main source of teaching our youth over the main shepherd of the whole flock, as well as the parents.
“Unbelievably beautiful, worthy of being saved” ??? Ha??? That’s not what my Bible says about the unregenerate. That’s man centered thinking right there.
If they are theologians, then they wouldn’t be youth pastors, now would they? They are taking hold of a ministry that is never one time sanctioned or authorized in scripture. The model that is authorized is families doing church and living life together, not separate from one another. If you want your youth pastors to be theologians, you’ll have to fire them.
