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I
recently heard a veteran PCA youth pastor say that only 6% of the
current generation of students claim to be evangelical Christians,
compared to 65% of the Baby Boomer generation. I then read an
online study conducted by LifeWay Research (www.lifeway.com) which
found that two-thirds of adults between the ages of 18-22 who were
involved in church as high school students will stop attending
church for at least a year, with only 35% of those returning to
regular church attendance. Also, researchers such as George Barna,
Walt Mueller, and Christian Smith are finding a disconnect between
what evangelical teens profess to believe and the moral choices
they are making, especially in the area of sexual activity.
It is
hard to know what to make of these statistics, but I am convinced
that they should lead those of us involved in youth ministry to
start asking each other honest, hard questions about student
ministry in the PCA. Jamie Lambert, youth director at Covenant
Presbyterian in Fayetteville, Georgia, pointed out to me that in
order to find the right answer, you have to ask the right
question. I believe this axiom can be rightly applied to the
trends above with the question being: What is the theological
foundation that empowers youth ministry?
My
concern is that without a clearly-developed theological
foundation, we a re building our youth programs on sinking sand.
For example, there was a time when those of us in youth ministry
thought the answers to the spiritual problems facing teenagers
could be found by getting them to attend youth events. So we spent
money on technology and marketing, wore chicken suits at youth
group, and gave away t-shirts at every event. Success was
determined by how many students showed up. We then read that we
needed to be “relational” to be successful. Borrowing ideas from
Young Life, we started “meeting students on their turf.” Then
someone informed us that we needed to be relevant, so we learned
the idioms of the day, grew goatees, listened to popular music,
and added a few profanities to our vocabulary. Doug Fields came
along and told us to have a “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,” so we
all wrote carefully-crafted purpose statements. Now the Emerging
Church folks are pushing us to be missional, authentic, and to
rediscover the ancient (for more on this topic see A New Kind
of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee). So we are burning
candles in our youth rooms, working to build community in our
youth groups, and talking about social injustices around the
world. Yet no matter which of the latest methods we try, the
statistics continue to grow more alarming.
This
is why I believe the first question of youth ministry is one of
theological foundation. I am convinced that the particular model
of ministry that a church uses is secondary to the theological
foundation on which the model is built. I will suggest in the next
issue of Equip that God’s covenant relationship with
humanity is the proper theological foundation for youth ministry.
However, I am afraid that all too often the theological
implications of that relationship have little to do with the
planning of our youth ministry calendars.
Is
youth ministry a lost cause in the PCA? Absolutely not. There are
hundreds of churches doing great work around the country, as well
as a number of quality youth ministry resources within the
Reformed community. For a list of these refer to the youth
ministry section of the CE&P website www.pcacep.org. However, for
many of us it is time to deconstruct much of what we have been
doing in youth ministry in order to build a proper theological
foundation. Somehow the cart (the ministry model) has gotten ahead
of the horse (the theological foundation). Getting those back in
the proper order is, I believe, a process that will begin when we
start asking the right question. What is the theological
foundation that empowers youth ministry?
—
Danny Mitchell, Youth and Family Ministries Coordinator |
Fourth
Quarter 2007
