{"id":22081,"date":"2016-01-10T17:18:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T17:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/how-youth-ministry-could-fail-the-church-by-jeff-grenell\/"},"modified":"2016-01-10T17:18:12","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T17:18:12","slug":"how-youth-ministry-could-fail-the-church-by-jeff-grenell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/how-youth-ministry-could-fail-the-church-by-jeff-grenell\/","title":{"rendered":"How Youth Ministry Could Fail The Church, by Jeff Grenell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are\u00a0 five ways that Youth Ministry could fail the Church.<\/p>\n

Unhealthy Youth Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a difference between ‘busyness’ and ‘business’. When Youth Leaders are busy, they burn out. Because they spend more time in programming and gaming than they do in relationships and study. When Youth Leaders are about the business of the Church, they burn on. Because they spend more time in relationships and study than they do in programming and gaming.<\/p>\n

An unhealthy Youth Leader will produce unhealthy students, and ultimately, an unhealthy generation who will lead the Church into an unhealthy future.<\/strong><\/em> <\/div>Before\u00a0a Youth Leader\u00a0teaches or preaches to their\u00a0leaders and students, they must internalize the Word they have been preparing.\u00a0Our\u00a0personal<\/em> spiritual health is elementary to us leading others in their\u00a0corporate<\/em> spiritual growth. One of the missing\u00a0pieces in leadership development is self-leadership. Create\u00a0your own personal disciplines before you\u00a0challenge others to create theirs. Our own ceilings and lids can become detected by those around us when we have expectations for others that we do not live ourselves. Daily reading, weekly fasting, monthly witnessing, annual mentors, and a lifetime of sexual purity must be the kind of commitments we make to our own personal leadership.<\/p>\n

An unhealthy Youth Leader will produce unhealthy students, and ultimately, an unhealthy generation who will lead the Church into an unhealthy future.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mono-Strategy For Reaching A Diverse Student<\/strong><\/p>\n

It takes all kinds of people to reach all kinds of people. And\u00a0it takes all kinds of models to reach all kinds of men.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>There are many models to Youth Ministry. The Youth Service, Discipleship, Outreach, Small Group, Fine Arts, Events, and even Campus based models are all\u00a0popular. To simply emphasize one of these approaches is\u00a0limiting. The diversity in the youth culture demands that we become proficient in multiple models. Look at the tribes present in our society.<\/p>\n
\"\"
Image: Stuart Vivier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most Youth Ministries are able to function in 1 or 2 of these. Maybe a good youth service and a few outreach events. Or, capable small groups and weekly visits to the campus.\u00a0Each Youth Leader will have\u00a0a core competency in one or even two of these strategies, but, the Youth Leader who can become proficient in 2 or 3 or 4 of these models\u00a0can have an opportunity to reach more students.\u00a0And that requires that Youth Leaders have varied skilled and multiple gifted leaders around them.<\/p>\n

It takes all kinds of people to reach all kinds of people. And\u00a0it takes all kinds of models to reach all kinds of men.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Unwillingness To Be Teachable<\/strong><\/p>\n

The young leader<\/em> can often think that the vets are\u00a0stuck in the scriptures\u00a0and don’t understand culture<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>The mentoring relationship between the young Youth Leader and the veteran Youth Leader is vital to a healthy Church. In my travels and conversations with so many leaders across the country I have seen\u00a0an unfortunate relationship between the two emerge. The young leader can often think that the vets are\u00a0stuck in the scriptures\u00a0and don’t understand culture. That they are dinosaurs who preach a gospel that society isn’t interested in and they are living on past successes from 2 or 3 decades ago. On the other hand, the veteran leader can\u00a0think that the rookie is into\u00a0cultural trends and doesn’t understand scripture. That they are hipsters who preach gaming and videos with more gaga ball and charades than biblical content.<\/p>\n

The veteran youth leader can\u00a0think that the rookie is into\u00a0cultural trends and doesn’t understand scripture.<\/em><\/strong> <\/div>Both of these views are unbalanced and extreme.\u00a0What we need are young Youth Leaders who honor the wisdom of the veteran Youth Leaders, and, veteran Youth Leaders who value the resources of the young Youth Leaders. As a veteran of 31 years of Youth Ministry, I will say that I have not attained Youth Ministry\u00a0perfection. I still love\u00a0to have conversations with the rookies and see the passion in their eyes. But, if they will listen,\u00a0I have so many lessons\u00a0learned as I have watched decades of approaches come and go along the way. If they will listen,\u00a0it could help them to do so much more than my generation of Youth Leaders\u00a0ever did.<\/p>\n

My ceiling is their floor. If the younger Youth Leader doesn’t do greater things than I have done in Youth Ministry, I have failed them. Or, they haven’t listened.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Poor Youth Ministry Ecclesiology<\/strong><\/p>\n

Youth Ministry today that is focused upon slick Wednesday night programming and pulling off one exciting\u00a0event each month\u00a0will produce students who will shed the Church as soon as they graduate from High School. Many Youth Leaders fail to think through\u00a0the big picture. It is the responsibility of the youth team to be strategic in the connecting and retention of students and leaders into the church body.\u00a0Youth Leaders who simply build a sub-culture of Youth Ministry separate from the whole church are missing the rewards that could arise from inter-generational\u00a0relationships.<\/p>\n

If the Church is in the hands of the young people that I see across America, the Church is in great hands. The Spirit of God is moving through\u00a0a generation in ways that reflect a bright future for the Church.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>And aside from the inter-generational rewards, an isolated Youth Ministry misses the opportunity to prepare the next leaders of the Church.\u00a0It should be clearly understood\u00a0by all volunteer and paid Youth Leadership in the Church that\u00a0the future pastors, elders, deacons, department leaders, and administrative staff are coming from within the Youth Ministry.\u00a0It is\u00a0detrimental to do Youth Ministry in isolation of the Church.<\/p>\n

If the Church is in the hands of the young people that I see across America, the Church is in great hands. The Spirit of God is moving through\u00a0a generation in ways that reflect a bright future for the Church.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Lack Of Supernatural Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThese who have turned the world upside down have come here too\u201d (Acts 17:6).<\/strong><\/div>It was said of King David that he governed Israel with the integrity of his heart and the skillfulness of his hands. King Josiah was\u00a08 years old when he became king, and by the time he was 16 he had\u00a0removed all of the\u00a0national idols. And Paul the Apostle placed a great emphasis upon natural and spiritual leadership by stating they could not be\u00a0separated.\u00a0The Jews in Thessalonica were enraged at the Apostles and said,\u00a0\u201cThese who have turned the world upside down have come here too\u201d (Acts 17:6 NKJV).\u00a0All of these examples are evidence of the importance of supernatural leadership.<\/p>\n

If there is one enviable trait that our culture would desire in the Church, it is the supernatural.<\/em><\/strong><\/div>There is no doubt that Youth Leaders must have natural communication, administrative, and relational skill-sets. Storytelling is important to reach this youth culture. Creativity is elementary to this generation. Personality is magnetic. But, these are not sufficient enough to build a remarkable and lasting ministry. Especially in the wake of a dynamic movie and special effects industry. There must be a greater emphasis from Youth\u00a0Leaders to walk in Spiritual Leadership by seeking the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help build the Church. The Holy Spirit is not intimidated by Hollywood.<\/p>\n

If there is one enviable trait that our culture would desire in the Church, it is the supernatural. You cannot deny the central theme of the supernatural in American culture. And there is one place we should see the supernatural working: The Church.<\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nIf the future of the Church is in the hands of the young people in our Youth Ministry, we should be placing much more thought and strategic planning in the placement of Youth Leadership in the Church. Because if we are not careful to deal with these five fails, we will continue to place unhealthy Youth Leadership in roles that influence\u00a0a generation of unhealthy students who will then lead an unhealthy Church in years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are\u00a0 five ways that Youth Ministry could fail the Church. Unhealthy Youth Leaders There is a difference between ‘busyness’ and ‘business’. When Youth Leaders are busy, they burn out. Because they spend more time in programming and gaming than they do in relationships and study. When Youth Leaders are about the business of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3057,"featured_media":22082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,6089],"tags":[2680,6155,3280,4967,2734,6109],"ppma_author":[4589],"class_list":["post-22081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry-2","category-winter-2016","tag-church","tag-fail","tag-grenell","tag-jeff","tag-ministry","tag-youth","author-jeffgrenell"],"authors":[{"term_id":4589,"user_id":3057,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jeffgrenell","display_name":"Jeff Grenell","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/JeffGrenell-2011-177x177-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/JeffGrenell-2011-177x177-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22081"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=22081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}