Robin Barfield writes in Evangelicals Now, asking if we have too much Bible in youth ministry. There are some reasonable questions in the article and it’s worth a read. Specifically, the central point is true, it is too easy for us to be on “transmit” to the point that we don’t listen and we don’t walk alongside people. The caution not to hit people over the head with the Bible is relevant not just to youth leaders but also to any aspect of ministry. What is true for th e bunch of teens remains true for the 80 year olds.
I do have one pushback though and it is the need to be careful about generalisations. First, what Robin describes may be true of some but I’m not sure it is the case in much of evangelicalism. It perhaps best describes some aspects of conservative evangelicalism.
Secondly, yes there is a place for wrestling with faith and issues. Some people do that in their teen years, some at other times. I have personally been through such a period but not in my teens. I also know others who have never been through such a crisis point. In some cases, this is not least because they became Christians in their teens. By the way, from the opposite angle, some Christian families face the challenge of younger children struggling, wrestling, asking questions. So, we need to be careful about generalising regarding the shape of a person’s faith journey. And whilst for some, it is necessary, I don’t think this means it is necessarily healthy. Sadly, we’ve all seen people wrestling and ending up far away from church and the Gospel.
However, let’s return to Robin’s primary point, which I agree with, that we need to give attention to both teaching God’s Word to young people and getting to know them, hear them, walk with them. This is a responsibility that shouldn’t lie with a paid or volunteer youth worker and certainly I’d be cautious of the situation where youth groups become the place where some adults in the church listen, in order to filter and mediate back to the rest of the church and its leaders.
For those reasons, I’m personally sceptical about a heavy emphasise on a youth stream within church life. The best place for young people to hear God’s word taught is part of the whole church, gathered on Sunday. That frees you up to spend other moments engaging, listening, praying and walking with. This might mean creating opportunities that are youth focused and using get together with groups but it may be through natural one to one conversations, especially at home as a family.
What this means is that we can take the pressure off of churches to feel that they must have a successful youth ministry. It means encouraging everyone to see the whole church as a family that crosses the generations. It may be that there might be creative things you can do. I remember that when I was in my early 20s, one of the elders and his wife would regularly get the young singles together for lunch on a Sunday after church. At that stage the church had a thriving, formal youth ministry. However, for various reasons the church went through a period where a youth group wasn’t viable. Guess, what they did? They took on that model from the 20s and planned in a monthly opportunity for the teenagers to head back to the pastor’s house for pizza and to chat.
So, I agree with Robin that we need to listen as well as speak and teach. This is true not just for young people and so should be happening in the whole life of the church.
Faithroots 