I wrote this article for our January church newsletter. Throughout this year, I am trying to get our church to reimagine what it means and looks like to “do” youth ministry. This article is the first step in that process.

Matt’s Musings: The State of the (Youth Ministry) Union

Sometime near the end of this month, President Bush will give his annual State of the Union Address. These addresses usually look back on the previous year’s trials and accomplishments, evaluate the current condition of the country, and provide an outline for a way forward into the future. As I am now transitioning into my first full calendar year of ministry here at Hope and as I look ahead I have found it beneficial to reflect upon the current state of youth ministry. As an institution, where has youth ministry been, where are we now, and where should we go?

Where have we been? Fifty years ago, “youth ministry” did not exist, at least not in the way we know it today. Today, youth ministry is a viable career option for those who wish to serve the church in full-time ministry. Most Christian colleges and universities offer undergraduate degrees in youth ministry. Many seminaries offer graduate degrees in Youth Ministry. Youth ministers now have a plethora of organizations they can belong to and conferences they can attend. There are scholarly and academic institutions dedicated to furthering and enhancing the practice of youth ministry. Most churches today hire a dedicated youth minister as soon as the church grows large enough to sustain the extra payroll. It has been said that the last fifty years has brought the church the “professionalization” of youth ministry.

Where are we now? Currently, with so many churches that have staff with undergraduate or graduate degrees specifically for youth ministry, we should be witnessing the thriving of faith in teenagers like we have never seen before, right? Unfortunately, the consensus is anything but.

At the National Youth Workers Convention in Austin in October last year, I noticed a prevailing attitude that I have caught in the books, periodicals, and blogs I have been reading over the past few years: youth ministry is not “working”. While there are many success stories of youth ministries with hundreds of active teenagers, the statistics tell us that when teenagers receive their high school diploma, they leave behind not only high school, but also their
faith. Depending on which statistics you read, anywhere between fifty and eighty percent of teenagers who were active members of a youth group in high school will not be regular church attendees by the time they are in their mid-twenties.

The hypotheses for why this occurs are too complex and intricate to adequately express in a few sentences. But the general consensus is that youth ministry as we know it, while it may be fun and exciting and seemingly beneficial during the junior high and high school years, does not produce lifelong faith in the lives of adolescents.

Where should we go? That is a question that remains unanswered. Without question, youth ministry needs a new direction. We need to re-imagine what youth ministry should look like and how it should function. Over the next few months, I will be addressing this issue of re-imagining youth ministry in this column. I hope that every member of our church will read this column on a monthly basis and take it to heart. Youth ministry is not a department
within the church for only a few certain dedicated individuals; youth ministry is the job of the entire church. As we travel this journey of rethinking what it means to “do” youth ministry, I hope you would consider your personal role within that process.

Blessings,
Matt