Reforming Youth Ministry

Updates on reforming

Hey yall,

Just some updates on the reformingym blog.
1. We have changed the comments to be allowed only for registered users. Please put your full name and church.
2. We will be seeking some other youth ministers and theologians to help author this blog.
3. If you have any topics or problems you would like to discuss please email them to pcovert@carolinapca.org

Youth Ministry and the Regulative Principle

Here is a question I have struggled with: how does the regulative principle apply to youth ministry? I see so many "reformed" churches using skits, dance, and all the things I normally associated with the seeker sensitive movement. When I entered the reformed camp, I was taken back because it seemed their was nothing different from the contemporary evangelical churches that I was previously involved with. Shouldn't our theological comments suggest that there SHOULD be something different? We know what we do in the context of "youth group" is different than Sabbath worship, but is it wise to "add" all these "elements"? Will these youth not expect such entertaining elements in the context of the church's Sabbath worship also? Are we not practically unchurching the churched by such methods? What are your thoughts and struggles on this subject?

Integrating the Non-churched

I want to piggy back off one of the comments from the last post. We all have heard of or seen the statistics of these youth group kids who never step within the doors of the church after high school. It seems to me that they have been kicked out of the only "church" they ever knew, because they were too old. Think about it, to many of these youth their only glimpses of church and worship were with a bunch of teenagers, and then after they graduate they aren't allowed back. Youth mininstries over the past 30 years have put up big numbers but have largely failed at integrating these students into the life of the church. How do we help them understand and become a part of the local church?

Let's say you are faithfully teaching the Word of God, your students are reaching out to their friends, and their pagan friends are coming to Christ and I guess the question is "now what?" How do we integrate these students in the life of the church, those who only come to "youth group?" They don't have parents forcing them to come, in fact they have to find their own ride (try finding a non-Christian family member to wake up early on their sleep-in day and take you to church and then pick you up 2 hours later), they don't know any of these older people, they have never heard an organ except at funerals, weddings and the occasional scary movie, and most likely they have never even had a conversation with an older person that wasn't a relative or a teacher.

I am guessing we all know that it is important, we have taught about it, we have prayed for it, now how do we see it happen in our churches? How do we formulate our ministries to reflect that commitment? How do we check ourselves to see that we are not unintentionally planning and programming things that hinder it? And how do we get our churches on board? What have you done that has helped?

Balancing the covenant family and outreach

One of the first topics I would like us to discuss is balancing the covenant family and the unchurched kid. How do we seek to build up and minister to covenant families, yet at the same time reach out to the unchurched kids? For example, let's say we strive to develop a small group program based in the home with families or do parent-child studies (covenant family), what do we do for the youth who either has non-Christian parents or disinterested parents? Especially smaller churches who lack leaders and resources? What are some thoughts, what are some ideas that have worked for you?