The real goal

Paul Carter, Associate pastor of youth and family at Lorne Park Baptist Church in Mississauga, as quoted in the June 22, 2004 issue of Christian Week:

"Youth ministry is still reeling from some of the cancers that were in the church in the '80s," he says. "In the '80s, the church was obsessed with being popular. We forgot that Jesus said, 'Narrow is the road and few will find it.' We also forget that He said Christianity is not necessarily about broad-based cultural acceptance." Carter says that at some point, the goal of many youth ministries became "getting the most kids in a room." That is a goal he rejects... "The goal of youth ministry is not 50 kids in a room," Carter repeats. "The goal of youth ministry is 25-year olds who love Jesus."

Comments

[George]

He is bang on.

[Peter]

He may be right, but I think 25yr. old is no longer considered a youth. lol.

[Matt]

Peter I think he means that five or so years after they are through the youth group and out in the world they still love jesus and have him a Lord. I think that this should be the heart of youth ministry. This ensures the spiritual integrity of a church for the next generations

[don]

YUP ... been there, done that. Darryl posted a great YS/YW article a few days back that I printed, copied, and will be leading a discussion on at a staff meeting soon ... we are still recovering from a numbers mentality 1998-2002 ... check it out ... http://www.dashhouse.com/darryl/001621.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dashhouse.com/darryl/001621.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dashhouse.com/darryl/001621.html ... if you haven't already. We lost part of a generation ( to numbers and popularity, go karts and hot tubs ) and will have few(er) 25 years olds in about 5 years time as a result.

[Jacob]

Good thoughts but I think with every group you're gonna have succeses and failures. I think even if you get "25" committed Christians, you're gonna have a few that went through the youth program and are not following the Lord now - to no fault of the youth program.

[Brian]

We try to provide ministry for a lifetime. We recognized a gap in our ministry after kids graduated from youth group. They had no where to go. So we created a community for them and they thrive, continuing to build on what they learned in youth group (and Awana before that). I guess I'm on of the lucky ones that grew up through youth groups in the 80s, in 3 different churches, where numbers and "wowing" the kids was never an issue. I think we're still reeling from the loss of 25-25 years olds in church who didn't want their parents "religion". Now that would be an interesting study...