Great question, and I can’t believe it, but I quick as a flash of exploding gunpowder came up with… of all things… a hunting illustration. Now you must realize that I’m not a hunter. If there was a nuclear winter or a zombie apocalypse or it would be all over for Kenny & Julie (although I could see her grab that Navajo spear we have hanging on our wall and go stalk some game). Basically, as soon the local grocery store ran out of canned food. I’d be … err, toast.

But when I think of it, hunting and Bible study has a number of things in common.

Let me explain.

Some of us have grown up with a bizarre strategy of reading a section of Scripture with a group of youth and then leaving it up to them to figure out what the Bible is saying. Often, we have been taught a strategy built around asking a number of questions like “What do you think verse 12 means? Why do you think Jesus said this? What does the writer mean by righteousness?” etc. etc. Now think of it… this is not a wise (nor Biblical) strategy*.  Most youth that I have met are simply not equipped for serious hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) without a good bit of help beforehand.

Nor is the “ask a bunch of questions and hope for the right answer” a strategy that you would put into practice in almost any other field. Let’s go back to huntin’. Here in Saskatchewan there are tons of animals around and, you guessed it, huntin’ is quite the pastime. You would never hand your son a rifle, a handful of bullets and say “how do you think you load this thing and shoot an animal?” Crazy isn’t it. You would talk him through the parts of the rifle, how to load it, gun safety, how to aim and gently squeeze the trigger etc. The goal is, of course, that later on he can handle it himself and teach others as well.

However, think of what we often do with God’s word. We hand young people this awesome, but let’s face it, sometimes difficult to understand book and say “figure it out”.  In thirty years of youth ministry experience I can assure you that the average young teen is just not equipped to deal with a series of questions based on a Bible text—especially when the feel any degree of discomfort or pressure. No wonder they simply grunt and answer, or stare into space.

The solution is quite simple; we must not be ashamed to teach young people the Bible. I mean open it up and explain it to them. Here is a simple formula:

Step 1. Read the passage

Step 2. If you wish, ask three simple questions:

1. Are there any parts of this passage that impact you straight away?

2. Is there anything that is confusing in this passage of Scripture?

3. Does this passage remind you of any other parts of the Bible?

Step 3. Go through what the text is saying and teach the youth what it says.

Step 4 You may want to discuss any applications from this passage.

Now I must say that there are some excellent ‘inductive’ methods or templates for letting youth unpack the Bible (i.e. give this passage a title, write down the three main points from this passage, write down as many practical applications as you can etc.). This, however, is a much different strategy from simply a barrage of questions. [Btw, for youth leaders out there: young people speaking in Bible study isn’t really the measure of success we are looking for. Sure, it is a good and helpful thing, but in the end, we are looking for things like “do they remember the word and put it into practice?” “Do they store God’s word in their hearts?” And even “Do they keep coming back?!”

In the end the point is simple, don’t be afraid to teach young people what the Bible says. Our success is to be seen in what happens down the road, not whether we have a good short-term discussion.

Hope that helped that dad I was chatting with.

*Remember Priscilla and Aquila in Acts 18:26—they took Apollos aside and explained the Bible to him. Reflect also on Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14-16.

It is crucial that good youth ministry changes this. We must place expectations of godliness on the youth (reading the Bible and putting it into practice, coming to youth group regularly, going to church, loving the newcomer etc.) and strive to see 1 Timothy 4:12 & 2 Timothy 2:22 in action. This has always been my goal. And, as I’ve done this, I’ve seen two different responses. One response is that a number of young people rise to the occasion and actually walk the walk, take Jesus seriously and grow in their faith. However, there is another response from the youth—and opposite reaction to growing in their faith. Many youth don’t actually want to be all that godly. They are content with simply showing up and not taking Jesus with much degree of seriousness. These youth tend to drop out of the group or slowly fade away as time goes by.

Now, please hear me, I’m not saying that their leaving is a good thing. Far from it. However, this doesn’t mean that we simply adopt the “just show up and we’ll all be happy principle”. We must shape our youth ministries to encourage and equip godly behavior. In fact, this must be the expectation placed on those who claim to want to follow Jesus. Think Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler - Jesus places godly demands on him, the young man walks.

The one great thing is, when the godly rise to the challenge, everyone wins and the program begins to hum. Bible study is appreciated, worship is hearty, prayer is expected and desired and evangelism is seen as crucial.

So, in short, here is what I’m saying:

-Placing godly expectations on your youth group is a wise, Biblical thing to do (eg. Colossians 1:28).

-Realize that there will be two different reactions (eg. Luke 18:18-25).

-While one will be sad and somewhat painful, the other will be glorious, and, offsets the negative.

Your thoughts?

But that is not the point of this paper. I want to focus our thoughts on discipleship. Discipleship is at the top of all our lists when it comes to our goals for ministry. It sits right next to its brother, evangelism. We all want to see young people discipled—we want them to be strong, passionate followers of Jesus who are equipped to take on the changes and chances of this fleeting world.

But, do we really do it? As I think through what discipleship is, and how we do it… and even when I chat with experienced youth leaders, it seems that our thinking may be a bit muddled. It is here that I want to give a plug for a great book— it is Bill Hull’s The Complete Book of Discipleship. This is a masterful treatment of the subject (be warned, it is not a book you skim through in an hour or so- it is indeed, meat not milk).

Hull gives a very clear, simple and effective understanding on what discipleship is. He also gives us a real jab, more of a 2x4 upside our collective heads to get discipleship right.

“Simply, discipleship means learning from and following a teacher. However, while we can define discipleship in these simple terms, something about the discipleship movement has never quite made it into the heart of the church. I find it particularly puzzling that we struggle to put disciple-making at the center of ministry even though Jesus left us with the clear imperative to ‘make disciples.’ (p. 24)

Following, however, isn’t short term. Discipleship isn’t a program or an event; it’s a way of life. It’s not for a limited time, but for our whole life . . . . Discipleship isn’t just one of the things the church does; it is what the church does.  (p. 24) 

Hull reminds us that discipleship is simply teaching people to follow Jesus. It is not simply enough to turn to the Christ in one impassioned ‘spiritual moment’ after a fiery sermon. We don’t simply go down the front of church to say a prayer and then move on. We deny ourselves, take up the cross of Christ and follow him to death.

It seems that we are so focused on numerical growth through evangelism that we have dropped the ball when it comes to helping those converts actually follow the one they have converted to.

Discipleship is not about attending a young person’s sporting event or having pizza with someone to ‘hear their story’. Hey, these are awesome, excellent things to do and may assist or flow from discipleship. However, discipleship, at its heart, is teaching someone the scriptures. It is opening up the manual and unpacking it for someone who wants to follow the master who wrote it. We must do this unashamedly, wisely and make it the key plank of our youth program.

More thoughts on this to come… I’ll leave you with some tasty Hull quotes.

Unfortunately non-discipleship ‘Christianity’ dominates much of the thinking of the contemporary church. In addition to sucking the strength from the church, Christianity without discipleship causes the church to assimilate itself into the culture. And sadly, whenever the difference between the church’s and culture’s definition of morality ceases to exist, the church loses its power and authority. (p. 16)

In particular, the church in America has superseded the theoretical for pragmatism, creating a marketplace model of church and society. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who toured America in the 1800s and recorded his impressions, said, ‘Where you expected to find a priest, you found a politician—or a salesperson.’  (p. 27)

However, I think today’s post will still be bleak.

We’ve always had a pool. We could rely on this pool. Whenever, things looked a bit grim, we could rely on this pool to bring us support and refreshment. However, this pool is drying up. The well has run dry.

Translation: I grew up with a culture that supported Christianity. In fact, it was expected that you were a Christian, with the exception of my many Jewish friends. We were all ‘god fearers’. Very few people that I knew had no religion or one of those religions from “over there” (far away). This type of culture meant that we had a large pool of support for church and especially youth ministry. In those days you could put on almost anything and youth would show up.

The well has run dry and the pool is now filled with skaters

With Christianity in the culture there is goodwill (everyone’s parents/grandparents go or went to church). Those days are gone, long gone. This means that this mythical well where we could always count on support is now dry. In fact, in many places the culture is downright hostile to our faith and our pool, which was once cool and refreshing, is dry and filled with skaters (not that I’m knocking skaters, it just made for a good metaphor!).

In Australia, kids used to flock to the children’s programs on a Sunday morning. That, in the most part, is no longer part of society. However, Sydney is in revival mode when you compare it to Vancouver or the other major Canadian centers. Youth aren’t flocking to youth events. You can’t put on any activity and count on the support from parents, grandparents and the surrounding culture. The goodwill we once had is long gone.

But you know what? - that ain’t such a bad thing. I can’t help but wonder if our previous ‘success’ was nothing more than culture merely showing us its hand. It was acceptable to believe in God, go to Christian events and participate in a youth group. However, was our success really all that successful? (Think Christian Smith’s “Moral Therapeutic Deism”- is that what we produced?)

When we look to markings of success, we tend to look to the amount of youth who come to our groups, go on our camps/mission trips, get baptized or confirmed or simply raise their hands or go forward at a youth event.

The real marks of success are longevity. Do our kids go the distance? Do we develop leaders coming from within the group who can carry it on? Do we have youth moving to other places and stay strong and bless their new community while away from home?

With the pool drying up, we now have to rethink the way we do youth ministry. We no longer have the backing we once had. This means we must change. This may/should/could also mean that we become much more effective in what we do.

For just a minute I want to wrestle with the question “in a world of options, how should these various clubs try and keep their movement alive through new converts?”

Let’s take a quick look at one of the most common groups for youth in Canada—the local hockey club. If I am the leader of this club I will probably, at some stage, deal with the question “How do I get new players to join our team?” In other words, if the local hockey team wants (needs) converts, what should it do? It is an important question if you love hockey, isn’t it?

Well, imagine that the Great One (that’s Wayne Gretzky to you non-hockey-ites) were to ask those involved in youth ministry that question – “how should I attract newcomers to hockey?” What answer would he receive? He might be told, by some, “Think about trying to attract them with something other than hockey. Maybe you could have some ‘entry level’ activity that will attract the youth and you can then tell them about hockey at the end of the night.”

Now just try and think about what Gretzky would do with that answer. (“To attract youth to the hockey club, do something other than hockey.”) I really can’t imagine him saying:

“I guess I understand the logic, sort of… I mean, there are different types of youth, not all of them are sporty or into slamming into each other at full speed on blades of steel. To attract those who are not into hockey… maybe I should find out what interests them, run that activity and then slowly introduce them to what it means to play hockey – in other words, I’ll attract kids to hockey with something other than hockey!”

I’m not sure that type of logic would fly err, skate, with the Great One.

I’ve got some hockey players in one of my classes. They sit in the front row—a full row of toughness and muscle. As you would say in Australia, “Tough looking blokes these.” (Great guys though!) If I said to them “Do you love hockey?” They would look at me with their false teeth and say “heck yeah!” If I asked one of them, “Why did you join the hockey team?” He would say, “Because I grew up loving it and it is AWESOME!” Now of course, each hockey player would have his own story but the bottom line is, they were attracted to hockey, because of hockey!

And that is exactly the way it should be.

The point is simply this, if you want to attract someone to something, you don’t hide what you are trying to attract them to. Nor do you masquerade it as something else. We as Christian youth leaders must be very clear on this. Jesus is awesome, God’s message is awesome, God’s people are awesome. Being a Christian is AWESOME! This is what we hold out to this dark and dying world. Nothing more, nothing else.

 1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Things are shifting very rapidly in youth ministry in North America. For the observer with sharp eyes, this change is filled with bittersweet irony.

For many years, youth ministry across the western world has been based on the Attractional School of youth ministry. You know the drill, put on something that is exciting to attract youth to your group. You then hope to see them come to something a little more serious, a little more Christian with a little more Jesus. You want them to move from first to second base in their spirituality so to speak.

The irony here is that the Attractional model of youth ministry, so prevalent, so pervasive, and so passionately argued for in many circles is dead (or certainly dying). And what has slayed this once mighty beast? Better attraction! You see, when we took up the sword of the entertainer and the shield of pleasure, we entered into an arena where the world excels. We thought we could slay the mighty dragon because we believed that in our corner was Jesus right there cheering us on. It seems that not only was he not there, but left us alone in this playing ground. My feeling is he watched us enter through these wide doors with great sadness in his heart. For those who seek to fight on his side, this is not the way of the warrior.

We now find ourselves standing in this ‘attractive arena’ finding that our weapons are dull if not completely useless. How can we compete with the gods of this age when our weaponry is material and not spiritual? This is no David v. Goliath scenario, this is an army of slingshots v. an army of nuclear warheads. Bottom line, when it comes to attraction through entertainment, we just cannot compete. And, we never were supposed to.

What has killed the Attractional Model of youth ministry? We have seen the enemy, and it is more attractive than what we can offer. Attraction has killed the Attractional, pure and simple.

We need to leave this arena posthaste and join our master in the new school of Attractional ministry. We must shine like stars as we hold out the word of life (Phil. 2:15-16). We must be salty and act like that city on a hill (Matt. 5:13-16). We must live good lives, be unified, and show this world that “God is really among us” (1 Pet. 2:12, Ps. 133, 1 Cor. 14:25). We must show this world very clearly the mighty power of the gospel that transforms all who bow the knee.

This is our attraction, this the battlefield on which we can win. This is where we belong and this is where Jesus wants us.

(I want to say a farewell to my friend Eddie Whitchurch. A friend for over 25 years who gave wise “country” counsel to me and stuck with me through good times and bad. A friend to all and a mighty man of God. Eddie, I’m glad your battle is over and you are with the King. Enjoy it.)

You can read this in the new group of youth ministry books coming out of America (i.e. in Mark Ostreicher’s book, “Youth Ministry 3.0” he quotes Kendra Creasy Dean as saying, “The way we’re doing things is already not working. We are failing at our calling. And deep down, most of us know it”). Mark DeVries has blogged that it may be time to “rethink the funnel” as it “could be dead” as a viable strategy for evangelism (http://ymarchitects.com/3251/is-the-funnel-dead/).

Yep, the times are a changing. The trouble is, well there are two issues:

1. The things we want to change (or even remove) are in the very DNA of our youth ministries. Most of us just can’t imagine a youth ministry that is not committed to attraction through entertainment. Nor can we imagine a youth program without games or social activities as integral to the weekly meeting.

2.What do we replace it with? Many of us have not been taught how to reach youth in any way other than to show them a good time with a gospel message thrown in somewhere. Nor do we know how to fill a two-hour program with solid, spiritual content that is also enjoyable to all.

Isn’t the solution to “things just aren’t working anymore” simply to go back to what was working…way back to the early church and what we are told to do in the Scriptures? Let’s take a look at Acts (i.e. 2:42-47) and see if we can create a ‘youth version’.

In addition, we need to learn how to create an environment where we have community, engage in fruitful spiritual disciplines while having an enjoyable time together. We mustn’t hark back to the funnel (or baseball diamond or wedding cake—whatever diagram you use) where we have a split between fun and serious. For example, how can we run a Bible study for grade 7 & 8 boys that is solid in content, highly interactive and enjoyable at the same time? This is the type of question we need to answer.

How about these two ideas:

1. Spend a day or a few nights with your leadership team (if you have one) brainstorming over this question, “How can we make our Christian stuff fun and our fun stuff Christian”?

2. Think through some of the activities that you have been so committed to in the past—is there any way of beefing them up a bit with better content? In other words, can you morph these activities into something slightly more profitable than simply entertainment?

Final words, change is underfoot in youth ministry, you simply can’t avoid this fact. And it is a good thing!

I have run or helped run a number of youth groups. Other than my very first experience (where I was committed to a Friday night of games and mayhem in the name of Jesus), I have tried to get rid of the straw in our program and build with gold (1 Cor. 3:10-17). When I tell people that we have “tried to eliminate purposeless games in our youth group” they seem to hear me say, “and we have made our group boring as well!”

I have had this experience many, many times. No matter how many times I try to explain the simple concept of having Christian fellowship where “the fun stuff was Christian and the Christian stuff was fun”. People just keep hearing me say… “boring is better”. In fact, I’ve even had one parent say to me (a few years back) “We are surprised that our daughter loves youth group so much—even though you don’t believe in having fun!”

Maybe I can take a minute or two and try to bring a touch of clarity to this issue…here’s to hoping.

5 Common misunderstandings of running a “Bible-based, we are trying to be a Christian community that has done away will those old purposeless games program”

 1. Getting rid of ‘fun’ means we can be lazy or boring.

Just the opposite in fact! Running a program that is committed to being a Christian community that is built on spiritual disciplines like Bible study and prayer is not an excuse to be boring. In fact, it must cause us to be super creative and diligent as we craft a creative, enjoyable program. We must always be thoughtful of our target audience—youth! This means we need to get to know our group, and put together a fast-paced, interactive, solid in content program. It also means we need to think think THINK!

2. No sports or games ≠ no fun.

A good thoughtful Christian program can (and should) be more fun than one built with sports and games. There are many young people that want to be involved in a Christian program that don’t enjoy sports or crazy games. We have not spent the time we should in developing enjoyable, interactive, Christian programs. Nor have we learned to think creatively when it comes to building true Christian community.

3.     Following on from that, having a Christian program does not mean that you never have socials or retreats etc.

A healthy program will include four key elements: the main weekly youth gathering, discipleship groups (small groups), regular socials (going out as a group together for a ‘fun’ activity), and retreats/camps. It does mean however, that you will not hold a social EVERY week, as a social program is not your main focus. One social very four to six weeks or so is a good amount. Also, hanging out after youth group or Bible study is a must. If the youth want to shoot some hoop before or after youth group, great. If they want to hang out and eat—fantastic. Just don’t make playing basketball and part of the program that everyone must participate in. There are plenty of youth who just don’t want/need to do that.

4. Do what you like as long as you use the Bible.

This is a common myth with my friends from more conservative circles. The thinking goes like this: “We have a good solid time in the Bible. This frees up the other part of the program to do things that kids like to do like play games or sport.” The Bible is not an insert or appendix to your program. It informs both your message AND your program. Furthermore, the Bible gives us a number of activities that we can do when we meet together (Acts 2:42-47, Eph. 5:19-20, Col. 3:16, Jude 20). Again, we must learn to do these in a youth friendly, enjoyable way.

5. A non-Christian youth ‘outreach’ event must not have too much spiritual content.

This is all too common and simply doesn’t need to be true. Did the early church reflect this? Is this the model of Jesus and the Apostles? Clearly being Christian, and showing this world that Christ informs whom we are and what we do is the best way to reach out. Let’s put on programs that are enjoyable, creative and clearly designed to impact the lost around us.

(P. S. There are two books that may be helpful here. One is Creative Christian Ideas for Youth Groups. Sorry about plugging one of my own but it may be helpful. Another is Craig Steiner’s Moving Forward by Looking Back. While he spends a little too much time, in my opinion, advocating games, it is a solid book on creative programming.)

I’ve been thinking about this as I’m teaching my Foundations of Youth Ministry class (the mighty YM 191!).

In the end, I want to give a brief answer and then a slightly longer one.

The bottom line is that successful youth ministry seeks to...Build disciples of Jesus.

The goal is to fulfill Matthew 28:19 and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Fairly straight-forward and not all that earth shaking.

Here’s my longer definition: 

Successful youth ministry builds disciples who meet together in Christian fellowship and community. These disciples seek to witness to this world through word and action.

This youth ministry is informed by Scripture rather than by culture or successful church models (although these are factors that can and sometimes must be reflected in practice). 

Successful youth ministry is a group of youth who gather together in the name of Jesus and seek to bless each other and grow in their love for each other. Their hope and goal is to bless each other and to bless their part of the world. They do this because this is what Scripture tells them to do…not what “a large church located in another culture that may have discovered some formula for success” tells them to do.

The goal of disciples meeting together for fellowship and blessing puts a number of other goals on the back burner—or even removes them from the kitchen altogether (having fun, gathering a crowd, pleasing parents etc.). It also frees us up to not worry about those activities or goals that aren’t all that important and concentrate on what really is—discipleship.

It seems that the phrase “Bible study group” is a common part of ministry. Many youth ministries have Bible study groups. It is, hopefully, a time to get into the word of God.  However, do they really get into the word?

I know of many groups that call themselves a ‘weekly Bible study’… however, they don’t appear to study the Bible! They study a modern Christian book, followed by topical DVDs, followed by a movie with a theme they discuss etc. Sometimes these can be good things to do, but they are not a replacement for the Bible! This kind of group is not a ‘weekly Bible study’.

This seems to be a pattern for many, many churches and youth groups.

Isn’t a Bible study a group where we … study the Bible? Is it all that difficult to open up one of the great books in the Book of Books and go through it? Sure, it can be tricky. Yes, we have to do a bit of prior preparation. And, it can lead to a difference of interpretation and even get a bit heated sometimes… but Bible study is GREAT. It is living, active, shapes our thinking and what we believe. It keeps us on the narrow road and informs our actions. If we keep this away from the people in our churches and youth ministries, we do so at our peril.

Here’s a suggestion for youth leaders: run a study in the book of 1 Thessalonians. This is the earliest letter that Paul wrote, it was written to a group of recent converts, and is filled with teaching and exhortation that is not all that difficult to understand. When you are done, look at the book of Job. The first two chapters will capture the interest of most young minds. Spend a week or two on the long discussion in chapters 3-37 and then focus on God’s response at the end of the book (ending with the Epilogue in the last chapter). Great stuff and (almost) guaranteed to thrill your small group. You could then move on to a themed study that comes from the word of God: Who is Jesus? or What does the Bible say about suffering?, these would be great topical studies based in God’s word.

After opening the Bible for 6-8 weeks, if you want to ‘take a break’ for a week or two, go and grab a DVD on relationships. But this is the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

If you are not into actually opening the Bible in Bible study maybe you should call your group something else. “Theme Study Group” perhaps? Or, “Topical Response Group”? Or, even “Modern Author’s Opinions Thinking Group Discussion”!

A few years back a number of youth groups realized that the ‘old way of doing things’ just wasn’t working. The entertainment-based youth group meeting, designed to attract youth, wasn’t attracting youth. The pendulum, which had swung too far towards attraction, was now swinging back. In fact, for some groups, it swung to what was seen to be the opposite direction. That is, it went to ‘solid Bible teaching and prayer’. This was said to be a ‘Biblical Youth Ministry’.

Other groups realized that they needed to beef up the content in their time devoted to studying God’s word. Therefore they moved to having longer, more in depth Bible studies—a good thing by the way. However, they then referred to themselves as ‘Biblical’ simply because of Bible studies had been inserted into the existing program. Groups would still keep the “fun stuff” (rowdy games and activities) but then have a good time in the word of God. This for some reason, made them ‘Biblical’. In my experience, this is common in places like the U.K. and Australia.

What is ‘Biblical’?

It is important to realize that a youth ministry that wants to see itself as ‘Biblical’ must be a group that seeks not only to understand the word of God, but to live it out as well. And, do this corporately. (Think, James 1:22, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.) For example, you cannot study Colossians 4:2-6 and then run a youth ministry where there is never any devotion to prayer!

A youth ministry that seeks to be Biblical is a youth ministry that seeks to run on the principles, exhortations and models of practice that are revealed in Scripture. As I have said earlier, we must not only be committed to the message of the Bible, we must be committed to the methods revealed in the Bible.

So, here’s what I am trying to do… and it takes constant effort, I must keep reading my Bible and:

1. Make a note of any exhortation that is given (e.g. Col. 4:2). (Please remember that exhortations are almost always written to a group of people not simply one person.)
2. Make a note of any example of a model that is given (e.g. Acts 2:42-47).
3. Try and figure out how to “youth-ify” this in my setting. In other words, how do I do this in my youth group in a way that is appropriate and helpful. I want to take this exhortation, and/or this model given to me in Scripture, and make it a regular part of my program.

If we can do these three things, we are on the way to becoming ‘Biblical’.

Our goal as youth leaders must be simply to help young people to live out 2 Timothy 2:22 (“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart”). We must strive, with wisdom, diligence and strategic, Biblical thinking, to have youth ministry that equips and encourages young people to flee those aspects of life that are spiritually unhelpful and harmful and,pursue those things that our Lord wants for us. And according to this verse, young people must do this in a pack of other believers.

The question with youth ministry is always…how do we accomplish this in our practice? We will unpack this as we go.

More soon

Ken Moser