Where in the Bible is youth ministry?

So here is my point....when targeting a specific age group, there are good ways, and not so good ways of explaining the Scriptures.

Which kind of relates to my response to the OP...part of the reason we have youth ministries is because teaching should be handled differently. They are a different age group that learns in specific ways. They learn best when the methods are intentionally aiming at them. A handout will not do it 99.9% of the time. I would even say that a brilliant method of teaching won't do it most of the time. Your method of teaching will only be as effective as your relationship with the students, which is why having a youth pastor and other leaders specifically connecting with teenagers is a good idea.

 

First off, that's a good point - except for the plumbing!:laugh: I think we all know why we use it! However, I will say that simply because pagans invented things like chairs (Egypt) or carpets (India) does not mean that using them is "wrong".

But things like the other questions above AND the initial question about youth ministry are different because they can have an effect on the spritiual growth God intended for His church. (Although some may say that indoor plumbing would have this effect- however, I'm not talking about growth in numbers, just internal spiritual growth.:thumbs: )

Here's an answer for you:
Just as you asked -

- I can see how much this issue concerns you about the spiritual growth of the church.

Where did the youth pastor come from?
The youth pastor appeared in the twentieth century to cater to the needs of society. The concept of "adolescent" as being distinct from young adult and older child was popularized by G. Stanley Hall in 1905.{1} In the 1940s, the term teenager was created.

With the new idea of the "teenager" having emerged, a need for someone to work with them was created. So you see the "youth pastor" starting to appear in large urban churches in the 1930s and 40s. {2} However, these early youth directors mainly worked with para-church organizations that did youth rallies and the such. But by the early 50s, the Christian church had segregated teens from everyone else and thousands of professional youth ministers were employed.

"By the end of the 1980s, the youth ministry's shift from the parachurch organizations to institutional churches was pretty well complete."{3}

So there you go! That's where the Youth Minister came from. I would honestly like to even answer the question where all the others came from - because it isn't from the Bible - but it would make this an incredibly LOOONG post! Perhaps I will later...

We have the "office of youth ministry" to meet the needs of the structure of the organized church in today's society. We have him because of the needs of the institution.

But you are correct that parents are supposed to be the ones to train up their child - esp. the father! "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." {4} But like I said, the institution created the youth pastor to meet up with modern society.

Hope this gives you some form of enlightenment!
- Dave

{1} Mark Senter III, The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry, 1987, p. 66.
{2} Ibid., p142.
{3} Frank Viola; George Barna, Pagan Christianity?, 2008, p.215
{4} Ephesians 6:1-4 (KJV)

 

Isn't the different age group ministries the church's primary way of ministering to the family?

I think history disagrees with you.

Who said the youth pastor is not one of the elders? I definitely agree with you that the parents remain the primary spiritual leaders/teachers for families; but that doesn't discount the usefulness of a youth pastor.

I don't doubt it. Still, it doesn't take the fact that youth pastors are important pieces of church leadership. In the scenarios I've been in, parents look to youth pastors to help them learn how to lead their children. So really, I guess the term "youth pastor" doesn't even begin to define the actual job description. They are more of a family pastor.

Again, who said that a youth pastor is not at the same time one of the elders of the church?

I think that is awesome.

 

So your main beef is against a church government that is other than elder led?

Gotcha.

 

Don't take that question as an argument....I was just asking. I was wondering if you were questioning the actual position of someone specifically shepherding teenagers, or churches that are not elder led.

I wasn't trying to push you....that was just the thought in my head with your last comment. No arguing here.

 

I look at the story in the Gospels where Andrew brought a lad with 5 barley loaves and two fishes to Jesus as being a good reason to have youth ministry.

Are we not to point the lost to Christ? Does the command to 'suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me' not cause us to see there should be a youth ministry?

 

There are two issues, imo: First, we have youth groups and youth pastors to maintain relevancy in American Christianity. Second, the separation of the youth from the adults.

I don't think either of these are biblical. I am not talking about a Sunday school class either. American consumerism, that is, its all about me, and I want my needs satisfied, lead us to the overall problem, why anybody would go to church to begin with.

It seems most go to be FED.

Thus we need pastors who will teach us to get the focus off ME, and onto Christ. You can't be focused on Christ w/o focusing on His Body.

 

All pastors are elders whether they are labeled as such.

 

Because the Bible says it?

Elder, bishop, shepherd, pastor are all the same office of leadership in the church.

 

Good day brother :wavey:

You keep saying these children should be learning from the their moms and dads and in a total Christian and Christ devoted world you are correct, but sadly that world does not exist (yet :thumbs: )

You are forgetting that many of the youth in these youth groups do not have parents that are christians or for that matter even attend church services. In my experience as being a youth pastor before becoming the pastor of a church, all of the youth programs I came into were made up of (in the majority) kids with no parents in church. What do you propose is to be done with them who have no such ability to be taught at home?? How will they know without a preacher?

In most places parents are shoving their kids to church as their own personal babysitting place but in one state (AR) we literally had to go out each week a beg the parents on the childrens behalf to allow them to come to church service/youth group.

There is nothing in the scriptures that states specifically what the ministry of each elder/pastor is to be as that is the function of the Holy Spirit. We are gifted by the Holy Spirit for ministry and to minister but scripture does not give a list of ministries that are and are not to be in the church. We find guidelines for some, and qualifications for certain positions but we find no where in scripture that details specifically what ministries are allowed to be and not.

It 'seems' like you are trying to apply the Regulative Principle here, am I correct?

 

WHAT??! :BangHead:

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST....just kidding.

I hope you don't think I was being argumentative, or not calm. :thumbs:

 

I was quite calm, too. Just felt my pulse