I’m currently reading through Tim Hawkins book ‘fruit that will last’ in preparation for a youth leader training/networking afternoon. Tim has some absolutely fantastic incites into ‘youth ministry’ form his 21 years experience and the book is challenging to say the least!
One of my major focus’ this year, in fact in my mind my number 1 focus, is to develop a strong leadership team as a foundation for the future of this ministry. My coach asked me last time we met ‘how would you leaders respond to the question ‘Why do we do youth ministry’. He also challenged me to think about what I’d like my leaders to be like, what character attributes, how they might think about and understand youth ministry. These are all area’s that Tim covers very well.
The key for me is looking at how to encourage my youth leaders to understand youth ministry as being all about one thing, bringing honour and Glory to God. One of the main ‘acts’ that leads to this is producing fruit that will last. Everything we do, in my opinion, should be about producing fruit that will last and therefore bring glory and honour to our God. This is, in a nutshell, the ‘why’ of youth ministry.
What about you, what do you think is the purpose and mission of youth ministry? Why do you think churches have youth ministries? Why are you IN youth ministry, if you are?
