Comments on: The 3 Spheres of Youth Ministry

By: Bryan Jaster

Bryan Jaster — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:55:43 +0000

I love the exemplar stuff. Do you have any connection with FaithInk and utilizing the Faith 5 (share, read, talk, pray & bless) to tap into “the people who would take a bullet for their kids”? The goal is creating systems of families who vitally live that sphere of “church @ home”.

By: Corey

Corey — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:49:32 +0000

Glad to hear about this study, and it definitely reflects something I’ve been thinking/feeling about youth ministry, namely that in order to be truly effective, it has to have support or cooperation in the home and church.

Think about it- even a full-on youth ministry only gets a few hours a week with a student at best. But with strong family support or congregational support (ideally both) of the growth of that youth’s faith, then who knows how far it can go!

I’ll be sharing this study with my volunteers and other church staff for sure. Thanks Matt for sharing.

Peace…

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:08:48 +0000

Joel, I think it might be threatening to some, but a lot of us have realized that youth ministry as it has always been done needs to change already. I think part of the value in this way of thinking is that it might temper us from swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction. There are pieces of our youth ministries that are constructive, but they are not complete without some other components. Maybe thinking about ministry in these three spheres will keep us from throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:07:02 +0000

Glad this will be helpful for you. You might consider having your leadership take part in one of these seminars. They will host one exclusively for your leadership team. Beyond this “3 Spheres” concept there are also 44 “assets” that build faith in young people. And the kicker is that 22 out of the 44 are congregational assets (i.e. not related at all to typical, age-specific youth ministry). It might be helpful for you as you try to make a move in this direction.

By: Mary Beth McCandless

Mary Beth McCandless — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:32:59 +0000

It is SO good to see this. This is what we have been intuitively moving toward for the past two years. I will let you know how it develops. This model and the background information will be incredibly helpful in bringing our leadership more fully on board with this way of thinking. We still have some who think “hire a youth minister and you will have a youth ministry” – argh. This will help explain – in a clear way with a visual tool – what we’ve been doing and are doing.

THANKS!

By: Joel Mayward

Joel Mayward — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:56:59 +0000

I’m thinking of all the examples I’ve seen of students who’ve participate in two or all three and how their faith development is dramatically more mature than those participating in just one circle. For instance, an 8th grade girl at my church has spent much of her time at home and with the congregation but not with the youth group. Yet her maturity and her faith are incredibly deep for an 8th grader. I’ve also seen a difference between students who both attend youth group and the Sunday worship services, how their view of the church has expanded due to interacting with different generations in the greater body.

I imagine that these findings could seem threatening to some, because it suggests that one’s youth group is simply not enough, as you pointed out in #2. But there’s also hope, like you said in #3, that students can have a vibrant faith while growing up in a non-Christian home, especially if they connect to the larger church family.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:23:09 +0000

Brit, if you go to the ExemplarYM website and register, that will give you access to the research study documents, which include some case studies of congregations in the project. That might be the kind of thing you are looking for regarding “examples of ministries doing this well.”

I’m a wee bit confused about your “problem” of this model freeing “the ministry to branch out and do ministry more holistically.” That sounds like a good thing to me.

By: Brit Windel

Brit Windel — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:13:25 +0000

i think it is a great study… sadly though (still needing to be done) healthy churches and healthy youth ministries have known this and been doing this for years. my problem with the model…well not really problem is that the model is more of a release factor. meaning that it frees the ministry to branch out and do ministry more holistically.

what i would like to see is examples of ministries doing this well. Stories of how churches are using this ‘model’ successfully! that is the one piece i have not heard coming from the seminars and conferences i have attended where this model is discussed

I have NO arguments of what the data says, or the three points (even though it looks like an upside mickey mouse)! most data i have seen on mentoring and spirituality does not have age specific ministry, but peers…but what ever!

I really like your comments of 2 & 3. i think both are pivotal in ministry to growing true discipleship and freeing the student and ministry to truly live out and teach Christ!

By: Adam Lehman

Adam Lehman — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:00:38 +0000

interesting stuff.

In my mind (and probably in my context) it means: “yes, we need to change things, but yes, some things are going well and need to continue.”