Here is the review of “Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church” by Darren Wright that I gave out as a hand out last week.
All of it is thanks to Digital Orthodoxy doing it's thing. Original post here
The PDF handout of it is here. 4 Views of Youth Ministry
Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church
Review by Darren Wright
“Four Views of Youth Ministry and the Church“ presents us, as youth workers with 4 very decent models of youth ministry in which the youth worker is seen as more than someone who organizes programs for one group of people in the church community, This article tries to describe each model as I understand it and refers to mutated versions of the models that I’ve seen in the church over my years of ministry.
What follows is my review of the book and description of each model that is portrayed within the book. When we originally put this workshop together we set four people up, much like the book to debate the issues and merits of each model, this became a great way to allow others to understand the models as discussed in the book.
The Preparatory Approach
The preparatory approach to youth ministry, is (well, I believe that it is) probably the default model for most youth ministries. I wanted to start here to outline a few of the mutations of this model that have been perpetuated by churches either intentionally or unintentionally.
When thinking about this model the phrase “the young people are the future of the church” pops to mind, because in this model young people are prepared for ministry, fellowship and mission. Everything the church does in it’s youth ministry is to prepare young people to be involved in the church (fellowship) and in it’s outreach (mission) of the existing church after they move from adolescence to adulthood.
“A specialized ministry to adolescents preparing them to participate in the life of existing churches as leaders, disciples or evangelists”
The church becomes a laboratory in which young people are invited to experiment, practice, learn and be educated as disciples in training. The youth ministry in these churches revolves around a number of mentors and educators who work with the young people as they develop from apprentice to disciple and also member of the worshiping community. Programs in this model are to develop disciples, and so they may include mission trips, bible studies, courses, prayer groups…
“Youth ministry is a laboratory in which disciples can grow in a culture guided by spiritual coaches…
One purpose of a laboratory is to allow learners to fail in a safe context and discover specific skills in the process. A lab is a hands-on place where involvement is essential to learning.”
I guess the strength of this model is that it’s aimed at the faith and spiritual development of the young people within it’s ministry, it’s reliance on mentoring by other members of the community and providing spaces for the young people to practice their faith and learn makes the model attractive to many congregations.
The drawback for this model seems to be that young people who want to be seen as a part of the community and mission now may begin to feel left behind, another drawback is the model’s reliance on programs. The model also seems to be focused more on those who are already a part of the church and doesn’t focus as much on the evangelization of the community, and as young people are usually separated from the life of the community until they “graduate” from the laboratory, so lacks a community of people who worship together as a whole.
I think that this tends to be the default model of youth ministry for most churches, however I also think that it would be rare for most churches to actually be operating on a mutated version of the model.
I say mutated as these churches rarely move from “the youth are the future” to handing the church over to them, in a mutated model young people are rarely able to graduate from being “young” to being a fully fledged participant in the life and ministry of the church. It might be common to see young people graduate into young adults who are then encouraged to become a part of the youth ministry as leaders of the program that they’ve been a part of for the past number of years…
A mutation of this model could also include a program based model of youth ministry that has long since been focused on the development of leaders and disciples. These kind of ministries seem to be more focused on entertainment than being focused on ministry, and as such rarely produce disciples or leaders who are able to participate in the church as the preparatory approach would have them.
“The activity based approach is built upon a series of youth activities, a programming approach…
A ministry based approach is radically different in key areas. It grows out of the ministry of the church and is consequently related to the purpose of the church…”
In these mutations the phrase “the youth are the future of the church” can be translated to “the church is ours and we’ll give it over when we’re through with it.”
So, to add to the list of drawbacks is the ease at which the model can mutate within a community that doesn’t adopt and own the ideal preparatory model.
In order for a church to really adopt the preparatory approach to youth ministry their:
- Youth ministry must become comprehensive
- Youth ministry must become a shared ministry, the entire church communtiy must adopt it, it’s goals and the young people…
- Youth ministry must begin to bridge the gap between church and home, we need to realise that faith formation is not done apart from the home, but as a part of the home life, we must involve parents and family.
- Youth ministry must become ministry based… It’s easy to mutate into an entertainment based ministry, and while social interaction and entertainment is good it’s important to make sure that it doesn’t take over the youth ministry.
- Youth ministry must begin including the parents, family, minister and the church… as in all ministries with young people “Anything we wish for among our young people must first be true among our adults” our ministry needs to be a part of the larger community.
The Missional Approach
“the church that ministers to young people must embrace the culture in which the adolescents live…The goal is not to simply focus on those who already are involved in a given church’s youth ministry program”
The Missional Approach sits in the mission now / fellowship later section of the scale, so it wouldn’t be hard to see where it’s emphasis sits.
“this approach recognises that there are cultural barriers that separate adolescents from adults. This is not only true of the secular world, but also the world of churched young people”
The missional approach recognizes that the church has long thought that it’s program, music and ethos is enough to convince young people to attend and overtly disagrees with these assumptions. The missional approach understands youth ministry as mission and is focused on going where young people are and working with them in their community, in their culture.
This model is more concerned with those who the church has no contact with rather than those already in the church and sees its ministry as a part of the great commission. It’s strengths are that it’s usually grown out of a strong passionate response to the scripture to go into the world and make disciples. It’s passion tends to attract other young leaders who are equally as passionate about reaching the community and culture around them.
“Missional youth ministry seeks to present the community of the church as the end, not simply another (and often less desirable) community…
A missional ecclesiology must clearly identify and resist all attempts to equip the church merely for its maintenance and security”
Para-Church organizations like Young Life and Scripture Union (at least in Australia) are prime examples of a missional approach, as their mission is to the schools, campsites and community around them. Similarly these organizations seem to attract young leaders from a variety of churches and denominations who are passionate about reaching young people where they are. Other examples would include churches that have intentionally set up programs or mission workers inside schools, skate parks, music venues, shopping malls or other places where young people frequent.
In a perfect world we’d see these approaches linked with a congregation as a “welcoming destination” for those who have been reached by these organizations and missional outreaches, unfortunately this is not normally the case. A mutation of this model might see young people never leaving the missional program, or even leaving the missional community when they grow up and not connecting with another faith community. In these cases the model has mutated in a way as to remove the “fellowship later” from the ministry model.
“we have become convinced that our programs, music and ethos of youth ministry are enough to reach the lost, uninterested and disenfranchised…
Very few churches see youth ministry as their missional mandate…”
One of the drawbacks of this kind of approach is it’s reliance on training leaders in “appropriate” or “incarnation” mod
