Coming from a youth ministry background (almost 10 years as a volunteer in some form or another), it is easy for me to say that this post if off base. However, as I thought about it, what is the main complaint in youth ministry, or from youth pastors? Parental/adult involvement in the ministry of the youth/kids. I agree that maybe even my focus on the kids shouldn’t the be primary focus, but discipling the adults to do the youth ministry.

A first reason to focus on adults is that parents have the primary responsibility to disciple their kids. Sure, it’s rare for parents to do that. We’ll teach them to hunt, fish, cook, drive, and other things of life. But do we teach them them to pray? To read and understand the bible? To share their faith with others? To interpret their lives and encounters with the world in terms of the Kingdom of God? Usually not. At least in many UM churches, many of the adults are too spiritually introverted to feel “comfortable” doing these things. Better leave these really important things to the professionals, i.e., the Sunday School teachers and church staff.

I come from a United Methodist background, but in my experience outside of the UM, I see the same thing. Usually, the successfully run youth ministries have a lot of adult help and a lot of parental support.

Read the whole thing here.—>Bandits No More » Success in ministry.

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Cross posted on Big Ticket Festival Ministers’ Connection.