After reading a blog entry at:
http://raphael.doxos.com/2009/05/16/genx-ministry/comment-page-1/#comment-11241
I wanted to talk about youth ministry. Am I wrong to think that ministry to teens should focus on those who are no longer teens mentoring current teens? I fear that too much "youth ministry" is an attempt by people who are no longer teenagers holding onto a past which is, due to the passage of time, over.
Life is dynamic. Our job as living beings, is to move toward what's next. God's creation is a motion packed work in progress. No do-agains, no looking back...it's a movement toward the next, using the wisdom gained from what happened before to take the next step, to do the next right thing as best we can.
When given the honor of leading young people shouldn't we keep THEIR interests, THEIR goals, THEIR desires in the forefront? Not ours now and not what we wanted when we were teens? To use the teens of today to hold onto our youth is, at worst, abusive and at best, selfish.
BRAVO!
ReplyDeleteJohn Westerhoff has suggested that the role of adults who have come to what he calls "owned faith" is to mentor teens who are on a "searching faith" journey.