I had a conversation with a friend yesterday who is applying for a youth ministry position after not working with students for the last six years. He wanted me to give him advice about the "changes" that we've gone through in Youth Ministry in the last six years and what new things he needed to be know about.
I told him what things we did in my youth ministry: Camps, Small Groups, Discipleship, Missions, Leadership Development, Sunday School, Service projects etc.
His response was "So nothing has changed then. I did all those things"
Later the same day I received a tweet from someone else who said "Nothing has changed in your life in the last 10 years except for the number of kids you have"
I feel like I could just list the changes I see but I want the blogosphere to interact first.
I know much has changed though and we approach things differently. I'd love to see what some of you think have been the biggest changes.
I think youth ministry hasn’t changed, but the way we facilitate it has. If you jump into youth ministry after some time away (six years for example) you’ll need to be aware that there is more facing teens today than six years ago. The culture is changing every six months, where as when I was a teen, the culture changed every 4-10 years (in my opinion).
Great Thoughts. I agree change happens so much faster
L
Lars Rood \\ Working to figure it all out
web: My Blog \\ Stream Youth \\ twitter \\ facebook \\
You could say that nothing has changed. There are teenagers with needs and youth ministry struggles to fill them. That hasn’t changed. Some things have though.
Culture – extended adolescence has evened the field of experience where many teens experience things earlier and hang on to them later. They are more connected and less intimate through social networks. They are more spiritual and less religious while not specifically calling on one person as God.
Methodology – The way many youth ministries relate to youth has changed since their resistance to previous methods have changed. Fifteen years ago I was playing chubby bunny with kids spending a good eighty percent of my time coming up with a better ice breaker. Now I spend most of my time trying to create the best context for them to understand who they are in Christ. Some of that is just my own maturity, but I see lots of ministries moving away from just attractional models.
Size – you mention this in the post. Bigger groups are bigger and smaller groups are smaller. Bigger groups generally a program driven and have bigger events and resources. Smaller groups are generally more relationally driven with smaller events (if any) and less resources.
Gray – with more people staying in youth ministry longer, it is graying youth ministry. That has an impact in how youth workers stay longer in churches and how they relate to staff and parents. More ministries are moving toward family involvement and ministering to parents as well as teens.
So I think it safe to safe some things are different. They don’t have to be in many contexts. Some contexts would require it though.
There is my epistle version of two shiny coppers.
Paul- Great thoughts. Chubby bunny to understanding who they are in Christ. I totally relate to that. More Spiritual and less religious is so true. Im glad I didnt post my thoughts but can highlight yours.
PLEASE post your thoughts!