How do we equip churches, yps and the church? That is the million dollar question. I think it will require letting go of old ways of thinking and courage to step into new ways of ministering to youth.

I was caught by this thought in the last (big) paragraph: “It’s time to stop thinking like program directors and start thinking like missionaries. While I believe wholeheartedly that youth ministry is the churches responsibility, I don’t think that most churches are equipped for this task. I believe that one of the crucial tasks for youth pastors in the next few years will be to train church members to reach and disciple emerging generations. I’m not just talking about a few leaders, but many.”

Perhaps it’s a matter of syntax but maybe it’s more important that we (as youth pastors/workers) think missionally, rather than as missionaries, and that churches need to be responsible for ministering to youth rather having youth ministries. Missional thinking leads to starting where the group is at rather than imposing a vision for a group of people that is our own and perhaps not God’s (think about how badly we’ve messed up the role of missionaries in other countries… I think it can turn out the same in our own backyard if we’re not careful. Similarily, if churches could find a way to focus on ministering to youth rather than creating youth ministries, they might find it easier to move away from the programatic scheme youth ministry has been held captive to and move more into a holistic perspective of ministry that brings the whole church alongside young people instead of a few that have been identified as youth workers.

As for the rest of it I completely agree we do need to figure out how to equip the youth pastors, their churches and the church as a whole. So, how do we do that?