Is Modern Youth Ministry Biblically Valid or is That Even the Right Question?

Something has been bothering me as of late and I'm not exactly sure what to think or do about it. The thing that has really gotten under my skin is what some people are calling "age-segregated worship," how it has affected our churches, and specifically how it relates to youth ministry(even more specifically my involvement with our churches youth ministry).

Now let me start by saying that I have the privilege and honor of being married to a woman who is always challenging me to become a better man, not because she tells me I need to be but because she has near genius-level intelligence and a keen eye for discerning certain issues. In this instance it was her insatiable appetite for research and her own struggles and frustrations with church that led her to stumble across this issue. So I credit my own internal distress to her. Thanks, Jenn! Anyway, I should get to the rub.

The problem is this: evolutionary thought has so enslaved our culture and invaded our minds that it now affects the way that we do church, and more specifically how the church leans towards ministering to the varying age groups individually. Some, probably most, would not even see this as a problem because it is what we are used to doing. However, more than a few people have highlighted the fact that much of American Christianity is weak and ineffectual and they claim that it is partially due to the fact that we no longer have a biblical paradigm for the way we do community in church.

Now before I go off on some "family worship" tangent let me focus in on an area in particular. I was given a copy of this in pamphlet form for Christmas this year. The gist of the article is that fathers have abdicated their roles as the primary teachers in the home. The article takes the view that Scripture lays out the father as the primary teacher in the home with regard to all things both practical and spiritual. This means that he is tasked with both teaching doctrine to his children alongside teaching them how to live Christ-centered God-glorifying lives. The author of the article contrasts this biblical vision of fatherhood and family over against what we see in our churches today, especially in modern youth ministry.

As I've mentioned I have vested interest in the answer to this question because I am involved with the youth ministry at my church. I taught Sunday School for over two years and am currently co-leading another aspect of the youth ministry, so the conclusions I come to on this will affect how I proceed in those endeavors.

Upon reading the article I noticed how similar my concerns were to the concerns of the author. I tend to ask myself quite often during youth functions, "Where are the parents? Why are they not here?" On another occasion I was involved in a meeting that was specifically for the parents. I can tell you that I was severly disappointed with the lack of interest shown by the parents.

Now, I'm not going to get into this futher but I need to highlight my main concern with modern youth ministry; lack of parental involvment. This is paramount because the pattern we discern from Scripture is one where the father is the physical/spiritual head of the household. He is charged with the education and preparation of his children to make a difference for Christ in the world. In modern youth ministry their responsibility is abdicated so that the youth can be taught and mentored by people hardly older than they are.

I see this pattern in my own church, with young, relatively immature college students tasked with being "leaders" to students in junior high and high school. Often I find myself wondering what kind of wisdom these college students can provide to the youth. On what level have they experienced life? Have they even grown up yet? For the most part I think they haven't grown up. One encouraging note about my own situation, however, is the fact that those who hold positions with teaching responsibility are people who have families of their own. Although, even in those instances I'm sure there are parents of these youth who could offer much more wisdom on both a practical and spiritual level.

I guess what it comes down to is what we are teaching our youth to be. In many instances it seems we are teaching them an only slightly varied message to what the world is teaching them. "Hold on to youth as long as you can." "Stay young, stay immature, except love Jesus while doing it." I think the real goal of so-called "youth ministry" should be training our young people towards adulthood. We should be training them to be godly husbands and wives. We should be training them to perpetuate the mission of the church in their own families.

It is my prayer that God will use me in my own situation and circumstances to affect change so that the ministry of my church is biblically sound. I pray that God will use me in the context of my own family to bring my children to the knowledge of the truth, but also in the context of the church that these families can know the joy of having teenagers that glory in their adoptions as sons and daughters into the family of God.

But who knows, I may not even be asking the right question.....