youth ministry
Why it matters where your youth group meets
Robin Barfield
Over the last few months, I have suggested that we need to rethink a dynamic that is focused on being ‘top-down’, so focused on teaching the Bible that we may have lost sight of the needs and views of the young people.
This shows itself in what we think our role as adults should be. This could also be understood by considering whether we are ministering ‘to’ the young people, or whether we are ministering ‘for’ them or ‘with’ them. Each will suggest radically different approaches.
More Scottish youth reached
Luke Randall
Scripture Union (SU) Scotland have revealed that they connected with about 5% of Scotland’s young people in the year to August 2024 and have seen their reach return to pre-pandemic levels.
The organisation’s 2023/24 annual review revealed that their engagement with more than 35,100 of Scotland’s 702,000 young people ensured that they met a long-term goal set in 2019 to reach 5% of the country’s population, after only reaching about 2% that year.
youth ministry
Walking side by side: the adult's role in youth ministry
Robin Barfield
In my previous articles, I suggested that the dynamic of youth ministry revolves around the encounter between God and your young people in Scripture. I have suggested that young people need a voice in youth ministry to enable them to be able to work through questions, struggles and doubts. But what of you, the adult? What is your role in youth ministry?
Some models of youth ministry elevate the young people so much that the adult must be verbally absent. I am not saying that, although I have suggested it may be that we need to stop and listen more. Other models put the adult in the place of God as His mouthpiece - there is an element of that in preaching as there is external revelation to be communicated. But I would suggest that is not the key dynamic. This can often lead to the adult being the all-knowing guru, the sage on the stage, which can bring dangers of spiritual abuse and hero worship.
Is purity back in fashion?
Each summer, I have the opportunity to serve the next generation of leaders, missionaries and committed church members at youth camps in Wales and Romania. What I have observed recently is a growth in an almost puritanical movement within our youth.
As I teach the Bible and engage with Gen Z and Gen Alpha*, I am encouraged by their deep commitment to Jesus and their desire to live authentic holy lives. They have all grown up in a post-Christian secular society, saturated with sexual ideology and they are seeking refuge. I see a counter-culture that is being refined by secularism, calling a new generation back to holy living.