One of the key issues facing youth ministry today is discovering more ways to connect youth ministry with the greater church context. For many years we have perfected the art of running an awesome youth ministry, only to discover that, at the end of it, we have created wonderful youth ministry disciples…not necessarily Jesus disciples. This is definitely a generalisation and I myself know of a number of teenagers who have made the transition to what I am calling adult church. However, the stats still show a major drop off between the teenage years and adulthood so somewhere along the line we have to work out how we can still create a ‘space’ for teenagers to interact and be themselves, but still help grow them towards a faith that is less based on how ‘cool’ the program is and more on how committed to following Jesus they are.

This sounds a little more critical than I mean it to be. Really what it boils down to is I myself am committed to growing teenagers who will pursue an adult faith which is about serving Jesus, not pursue a church which provides an almost ‘adult youth ministry’ I want sustainable Christians faith that can revolutionise the generations to come!

I am not of the opinion that Youth Ministry has reached its use by date. I do believe we in the profession of pastoring teens have made errors and face a challenge to stop the tide of youth ‘dropping out of faith’ after their teenage years. I actually think there is a lot of benefit to reaching teenagers in teenage groups. Though I strongly desire to see more adult involvement in teenagers lives, I believe in youth ministry. I see this outgoing tide as a great opportunity to change up what has been the norm and to try new, or just different approaches to keeping teenagers in the faith in the post-teenage years.

So what then are the keys to keeping teenagers involved in the faith? What have been the big errors that have led to teenagers ‘jumping ship’ once they enter college and adulthood? Again, I believe the College Transition Project have come up with some very interesting findings that should help us in this area. Kara Powell, in an article entitled ”
‘When the Pomp and Circumstance Fades: A Profile of Youth Group Kids Post-Youth-Group’ suggests 3 area’s that Youth Ministries need to work on, based on survey evidence, if they wish to help teenagers better transition into an adult faith. They are;

1.       helping teenagers learn how to develope new friendships in new contexts,

2.       teach how to live responsibly when you’re away from home for the first time,

3.       teach how to find a new church or college ministry in which you can be both nurtured and challenged.

This is, once again, influenced by the American culture of college, though I can’t help but see similarities in the challenges we face in Australian Youth ministry.

I think over the years we have been good at building fun ministries that, while you are there, have great friendships, but I don’t know that we’ve been so good at encouraging deep friendships within youth ministry. I also don’t know how well we have done at helping people develop their own, new friendships as opposed to effectively ‘making’ people friends. Perhaps this is an area that can be developed?

If I could, I’d add a fourth area to Kara’s list, which she herself mentions in the article and that is ‘helping teenagers deal with doubt, and in fact thrive when doubts arise’. I’m going to make a bold statement here – Right teaching doesn’t necessarily equal right discipleship. We can fill teenagers heads with the ‘right doctrines’ which will make their parents happy, as long as those doctrines are what the parents believe, but I believe we should be doing more to challenge our teenagers to embrace doubt. To accept that questions will be raised throughout adult life. To be able to live with questions about how things they were taught could be true. This isn’t to say we should stop teaching the truth! Far from it. What we need to do is get our youth engaged in discussing the truth, and coming to their own position on different area’s as opposed to being spoon fed what they ‘should’ believe. I actually believe, in the process, truth will actually win out.

I remember when I was learning how to preach, my lecturer said something along the lines of  ‘if you have done your job right, by the time you give your big idea, your listeners already believe what you have to say. It isn’t so much about proving your point, but taking your listeners on a journey that makes your point for you in their minds, then bringing it home with the big picture’. I think this could also be applied to discipling teenagers. It is less about saying ‘You need to believe X and the reasons for this are 1, 2 & 3 and more about journeying them through the teenage years, helping them experience ‘the truth’ so that, by the time they finish high school and by the time you are possibly doing more intense discipleship, they can already see WHY you believe what you do, because they have seen the truth in action. We need more disciples of Jesus and less disciples of Youth Ministry who jump ship when the first challenge arises.