Youth Ministry

Today we held our Youth Alpha Holy Spirit day - with members of our confimation group plus other youth. The way we do confimation, and the way we conduct youth ministry needs to undergo change. It is screamingly obvious how the youngsters lack both knowledge and any level of maturity that one would expect from those 16 years and older. Before we looked up any scriptures, it was necessary to start from scratch - showing the list of contents (books) divided into Old and New testaments; showing the chapter and verse notations and how to find the places we would be referring to. One comment was: 'the numbers are so small'. Another comment, or rather question, was: 'why don't we see miracles happening anymore'.

I see the lack in the youth as being a natural consequence of what has been happening over the last four decades. When I began teaching in high schools, the trend was growing to place more and more responsibility on the schools for what should have been taught in the home - sex education being the then much talked about concern, followed by religious instruction. Sex education has become a teaching of the biological mechanics of reproduction, with little - if any - attention to moral and relationship values, and with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS, its spread, and how people should accept and care for sufferers. Not even the consequence of what to do with the millions of orphans has been addressed in any meaningful manner.

There was a time when ministers were invited into the schools to to RI with the pupils from their denomination. Parents played a lesser role, and directed their efforts towards earning more to ostensibly provide more materially and in the way of opportunities for their children. And the parent-child relationships took a dive as the 'latch-key' kids became a normal phenomenon in society. The 'buck' has been passed to such an extent that, in our secular society where there is no longer Religious Instruction in schools, the youngsters are not learning about faith. A large majority of parents have abdicated both faith-practice and instruction. The youngsters do not know about miracles happening because the parents do not recognise miracles or God's work in their lives and therefore are unable to bring these to the attention of their children or point out the works of God in their children's lives. A sad situation, but where does that leave us as the Church? What is our role and how do we carry it out?

Of course, it is to evangelise and encourage people to become disciples and to teach etc. But as far as the Youth is concerned, we need to 'do church' in new creative ways. We will have to take 'church' out into their world rather than insist that they come to the premises where the church buildings are. We need to meet them on their turf and give them a vision of God's presence and action in their hyperactively changing world where so much seems to become obsolete so quickly, and where stability and things eternal are unknown and totally foreign concepts. I believe that we need to take a long hard look at what we have done youth-wise and to whom we have delegated the task of youth ministry. It is not enough to expect a young person or a young married couple to take on the responsibility any more. There needs, I believe, to be more intentional equipping of those who experience a call to this area of ministry. And they need to be properly remunerated for it as well. Gone are the days when it was expected that youth ministry would be a temporary occupation that one would 'grow out of' on the way to becoming ordained. That attitude is, to my mind, downright derogatory and both blind and deaf to the needs and the worth of young people, as well as to those called to this ministry. If you pay peanuts, you cannot expect to get more than monkeys - so the saying goes. Perhaps we should be sending our Youth Pastors on teacher training courses to better equip them towards dealing with and coming alongside the youth.

And then, it's not just the Youth that we need to address more creatively - the parents obviously need something different too - something that would spur them on to active committed faith and the desire to invest in their children's eternal lives. And I wonder whether we as ministers are not in need of radical transformation ourselves. Is it the Wonder and Otherness of God that motivates us to worship? Do we worship in spirit and in truth ourselves? Or are we just trying to keep up to date with the tasks that come our way and the sermons that need to be preached on a Sunday? Are we in living relationships with our Lord and Saviour - or just 'winging it'? I know that it is an ongoing struggle for me to keep on making the time to just be quiet in the Lord's presence - and to keep interruptions at bay from those (family, friends and 'sheep') who believe that I am to be there for them at the drop of whatever.

Where do we go from here?