Ridgell's Originals

 The Pandemic has changed so many things about how we did church.  Now that things are opening back up, we have a chance to re-think what we are doing.  I think one of those areas worth evaluating is Youth Ministry.

This past year has seen a lot of families worship together.  Not worshipping in the same building, but together.  You remember how it was in many churches before the shut-down.  Young people all sitting together.  Or even youth worship.  

But for a year, families worshipped together.  Teens took communion with their parents.  They may have actually talked about life, Scripture, and following Jesus.

There were no youth activities to run to.  

So what do we want the future of youth ministry to look like?

Is it possible to keep some kind of family emphasis?  More resources for family spiritual growth.  

What if parents took over youth ministry?

How about if youth ministers became youth evangelists?

Or what if the job of youth ministers became to minister to the kids without a spiritual home life?  Or they focused on kids from broken homes?  

What if the emphasis shifted away from activities for our healthy young people from strong families?

Do we even need youth ministry?

Is it still a healthy model for church?

Is it better to have family service projects instead of youth service projects?

Do we need to think thru our fundamental convictions about the spiritual welfare of our kids?

Are parents responsible for that growth?  Youth ministers?  Youth programs?  Elders?  The church?

We have been given a great gift to re-think many of the ways we have done church.

I think it will be hard to do.  But I think it will be extremely valuable.

So instead of trying to get back to normal, let's re-think normal.

It may be that we evaluate and come out exactly where we were before.

But maybe not.

Either way, it is worth the effort.

# posted by Steve @ 5:00 AM