Spencer Clark
Recently I was invited to speak in Southeast Institute’s chapel on “Why I Love Youth Ministry.” By request, here is an adapted version of that same chapel talk.
First, I love youth ministry because you get to spend time with young people. Young people are going through an exciting time in their lives as they are learning, growing, and trying to figure out life. Ministering can be an exciting experience and is certainly never boring! It requires lots of adaptation and changes to meet ever-changing needs. But spending time with them is not just for the fun of it, but so that we can develop relationships to help them grow in the Lord.
Second, youth are some of the most evangelistic members of the church. This year a majority of our baptisms were youth-related (as is often the case). Several of these occurred simply because a young person invited their friend to come to church, a camp, or on a retreat with us. Young people have a heart for the lost that is often lost in many adult Christians, perhaps another reason why Jesus urged us to be like children (Matt. 18.3-4).
Third, youth have hard questions. One of the challenging, but enjoyable aspects of youth ministry is all the great questions you will get. At some point, every church should have a question and answer class with the young people. Invite ministers, elders, or others to answer questions. As the church, we must be addressing pressing concerns our young people have because otherwise they will go to the world (friends and internet) for answers. Hearing and answering their questions not only helps them grow, but also gives us an opportunity to learn about new topics that are important to teenagers today.
Fourth, you get to shape the future of the church. While youth are certainly an important part of the church now, it’s essential to remember that today’s young Christians are tomorrow’s leaders, preachers, elders, deacons, evangelists, teachers, missionaries, encouragers, givers, servants, and mentors. What if we raised an evangelistic generation of young people who know how to evangelize and never knew any differently? What if we raised young people who aren’t so caught up with building maintenance and are more focused on actual ministry? What if we raised young people who are doctrinally sound, can identify false teaching, and can engage secular culture from a biblical worldview. What if we train young people to raise Christian children who are not distracted by sports, school, and entertainment, but who build a family serving the Lord. So many of these things start very early, even before they hit the youth group. The habits and priorities cultivated at home in families are just as important as what goes on in the youth program.
While there is an incredible opportunity to shape the future for good, there is also considerable danger. When youth ministry is done very badly, it can train a generation of Christians who expect the wrong things out of church, have an incorrect view of God, and even hold beliefs contrary to Scripture. For this reason, youth ministry should be under greater scrutiny than other ministry areas: not only to protect them emotionally and physically, but also to spiritually preserve the future of the church. If we constantly provide them with Christian entertainment without teaching them the essentials of faith and practice, they will come to expect the same when they become adults. Another danger is
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that sometimes churches will liberalize starting with the youth ministry. Deviant worship practices and doctrines may begin at camps or devotionals, away from the congregation, but slowly become accepted back home. As these youth grow up and become adult members, they will bring these things with them. We must be careful that as we seek to shape the future of the church, we don’t cause one of these little ones to sin. These are just a few of the reasons of why I love youth ministry. Youth ministry is an important part of the work of the church. There are many different methods, approaches, and ways of doing it — but the key is that we are raising and training families and their children how follow the Lord. Ultimately the responsibility of raising young people falls upon parents (Deut. 6:4-9). You don’t have to have a big program, staff, or budget to do effective youth ministry, but we do need to be intentional about getting involved in the lives of young people through traditional youth ministry or other methods. In the end, souls are at stake above all and the responsibility of leading these little ones to love Jesus falls upon us.
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