Ministry to Students in the Church

1
Ministry to Students in the Church

• CE 511

2
What Is Youth Ministry?

• Fun Game time?
• Fellowship Time?
• Baby-sitting?
• Entertainment?
• A Diversion for Parents?
• A Mandate from God?

3
Scriptural Mandate

• Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
  one! You shall love the LORD your God with all
  your heart and with all your soul and with all
  your might. These words, which I am commanding
  you today, shall be on your heart. You shall
  teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk
  of them when you sit in your house and when you
  walk by the way and when you lie down and when
  you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on
  your hand and they shall be as frontals on your
  forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts
  of your house and on your gates. (Deut. 64-9
  NASB)

4
Who Is Greatest In Gods Kingdom?

• He (Jesus) called a little child and had him
  stand among them. And He said, 'I tell you the
  truth, unless you change and become like little
  children, you will never enter the kingdom of
  heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like
  this child is the greatest in the kingdom of
  heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like
  this in my name welcomes Me. But if anyone causes
  one of these little ones who believe in Me to
  sin, it would be better for him to have a large
  millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned
  in the depths of the sea.' (Matthew 182-6)

5
What Is Youth Ministry?

• Primarily our task in youth ministry is to
  approach each adolescent as a uniquely designed
  and gifted masterpiece of the Creator (Chap
  Clark 2001, 49).

6
What Is Youth Ministry?

• God especially loves youth (of all ages)
• Because of their humble spirit, they are the
  greatest in His kingdom.
• Adults are encouraged to bring youth to Jesus
• while their hearts are still tender
• before their world has hardened them against
  spiritual realities.

7
What Is Youth Ministry?

• "Effective evangelism in the world starts with a
  vision for reaching kids.
• -Pastor Ryan Frank,
• Sweetser, IN

8
What Is Youth Ministry?

• Engagement of Christian Community
• We need to facilitate partnership among church,
  missions, family, and Christian social agency
  leaders.
• Our world presents huge obstacles to the
  spiritual growth of young people. We need to
  realize the need to work together to help teens
  grow strong in Christ for a lifetime.

9
What Is Youth Ministry?

• Sunday School
• Youth services
• Parachurch youth activities
• Homeschooling
• Private Christian Schools
• What else?

10
What about You-- the Youth Minister?

• The difference between those who thrive in youth
  ministry and those who collapse under its weight
  lies in the substance of our foundations have we
  built a ministry on theological bedrock, or on
  the shifting sand of cultural relevance? (Kenda
  Dean 2001, 15).

11
What about You-- the Youth Minister?

• To fail to name our theological priorities in
  ministryour theological rocks, if you
  willtempts both vocational infidelity and
  professional impotence (Kenda Dean 2001, 17).

12
Who are youth?

• Youth ministry for much of the 20th century
  meant ministry with high school and, more
  recently, with junior high students. Today a
  youth may be any young person between the onset
  of puberty and fully individualized adulthood.
  During this period in the life cycle, adolescents
  must acquire an identity, a coherent sense of
  self that hangs together over time and persists
  throughout multiple social roles (Kenda Dean
  2001, 21-22).

13
Who are youth?

• adolescence begins in biology and ends in
  culture (Clark 2001, 45).

14
Who are youth?

• They are passionate, irascible, and apt to be
  carried away by their impulses. They are slaves,
  too, of their passionIf the young commit a
  fault, it is always on the side of excess and
  exaggeration for they carry everything too far,
  whether it be their love or hatred or anything
  else. They regard themselves as omniscient and
  are positive in their assertions this is, in
  fact, the reason for their carrying everything
  too far-- Aristotle

15
Why youth and theology?

• theological reflection keeps the practice of
  youth ministry focused on God instead of on us
  (Dean 2001, 29).
• Adolescents traffic in theology every single
  day (Dean 2001, 29).

16
Why youth and theology?

• it is important that we not understand
  practical theology as something church
  professionals do. Jesus calls all Christians
  (youth included) into ministry therefore Jesus
  calls all Christians (youth included) to be
  practical theologianspeople who try to better
  understand how God works in Christian section so
  that our practices may cooperate with Gods work
  more fully (Kenda Dean 2001, 33).

17
Why youth and theology?

• If you are involved in ministry, you are called
  to be a practical theologian, for you are making
  divine revelation relevant and coherent to a
  specific cultural setting (Clark 2001, 60).

18
What about our methodolgy?

• Our message must never change, but in seeking to
  care for and reach the coming generations, our
  methods must change (Chap Clark 2001, 43).

19
What about our methodology?

• Our message must never change, but in seeking to
  care for and reach the coming generations, our
  methods must change (Chap Clark 2001, 43).

20
What Is Youth Ministry?

• Sunday School
• Youth services
• Parachurch youth activities
• Homeschooling
• Private Christian Schools
• What else?

21
What Is the churchs role?

• The church is not intended to be a large
  organization with several smaller, more specific
  congregations who happen to gather on a Sunday
  morning. The local church is instead called to be
  a living, connected, caring community of people
  who love Jesus Christ and are committed to loving
  and serving God in their fellowship and in the
  world (Chap Clark 2001, 61).

22
What Is the churchs role?

• Youth ministry, then, is not an appendage of the
  body it is rather an expression of the whole
  body caring for a specific group. Adolescents
  need an adult community who will love them
  appropriately and with great care. This is the
  call of the church. Young adolescents need
  several second families, and middle adolescents
  need a safe place to explore peer relationships
  while knowing that there are many others in the
  wings committed and available to them. Older
  adolescents need to know that they matter to the
  other adults in the community. Youth ministry is
  everybodys job (Clark 2001, 61).

23
What Is the churchs role?

• . . .youth ministry that is void of educational
  componentsboth those that initiate young people
  into the faith and mature those who have grown up
  in the faithshould not be considered genuine
  youth ministry either (Cannister 2001, 77).

24
Discussion Time

• What are some of the avenues of childrens
  ministry that you have been involved in?
• In what capacity?
• What was the effectiveness of this program and
  of your involvement?

25
Assignment

• Read
• Starting right Thinking theologically about
  youth ministry. - Chapters 6-13
• Be prepared to discuss
• Present Practices of Youth Ministry
• Bring notes from your experiences

26
References

• Cannister, Mark W. 2001. Youth ministrys
  historical context The education and evangelism
  of young people. In Starting right Thinking
  theologically about youth ministry, ed. Kenda
  Creasy Dean, Chap Clark, and Dave Rahn, 77-90. El
  Cajon, CA Youth Specialties Academic.
• Clark, Chap. 2001. The changing face of
  adolescence A theological view of human
  development. In Starting right Thinking
  theologically about youth ministry, ed. Kenda
  Creasy Dean, Chap Clark, and Dave Rahn, 41-61. El
  Cajon, CA Youth Specialties Academic.
• Dean, Kenda Creasy, and Ron Foster. 1998. The
  Godbearing life The art of soul tending for
  youth ministry. Nashville, TN Upper Room Books.
• ________. 2001a. Theological rocksFirst things
  first. In Starting right Thinking theologically
  about youth ministry, ed. Kenda Creasy Dean, Chap
  Clark, and Dave Rahn, 15-23. El Cajon, CA Youth
  Specialties Academic.
• ________. 2001b. Fessing up Owning our
  theological commitments. In Starting right
  Thinking theologically about youth ministry, ed.
  Kenda Creasy Dean, Chap Clark, and Dave Rahn,
  27-39. El Cajon, CA Youth Specialties Academic.