(Don't) Break It Up!

"Mr. and Mrs. Jones, it's so nice to have you in our church. We hope you'll come again. Perhaps you'd be interested in the many programs we have available for families!"

"Well..."

"Mr. Jones, I'm sure you'd be interested in our special Bible study for married men. It meets on Thursdays at seven o'clock at Mr. Dinklemeyer's house."

"Oh, I..."

"And Mrs. Jones, we have a study going on for married women that I know you'll love. It's at six on Tuesdays at Mrs. Feedleburg's house."

"Ah..."

"Oh, and your daughter's around seventeen, isn't she? Well, we have a wonderful study for teen girls on Wednesdays at Mrs. Venderstoop's home at eight o'clock. Her eighteen-year-old daughter leads it."

"Er..."

"And I'm sure that fifteen-year-old son of yours would enjoy our study for teenage boys at Mr. Duckplatz's house at five-thirty on Mondays. Oh, and one more thing, you needn't worry about keeping little Harold with you in the pew during the service. Our nursery is wonderful - I'm sure Harold and Mrs. Pappaklookavitch will get along wonderfully. Well, have a wonderful week!"

This scenario is fictional (as you have probably already guessed as a result of those kooky names I put in), but it actually happens all the time. Whenever a new family enters a church, the various family members are "shunted" into different Bible study groups according to their respective ages and genders. This is done, apparently, because Christians feel that each person needs spiritual help specific to his or her needs, depending on what "group" he or she is in.

But what is the end result of this practice? It certainly cannot foster unity in the family, something our society is in dire need of. Should the church's goal really be to separate the family? I should think it would be more in line with Biblical teachings for the church to unite the family through its activites, not break it up.

One of the most difficult problems youth ministers face is bad relationships between young people and their parents. A barrier often seems to be up between adults and their children, one that keeps them from having true, meaningful relationships. Don't encourage or foster this situation in any way. As a youth minister, you should make sure that you're helping to unite parents and their kids in every way possible. Think of ways to involve parents in the spiritual instruction of their youth by the church. Make sure they're up to date on what their kids are learning, so that they can discuss it with them. Never underestimate the importance of this!

There's more to ministry than just youth. It involves the relationships the youth are forming with their friends and family as well. Make sure you keep this in mind as you seek to bring young people closer to the throne of Jesus Christ.

Church vs. Christ

"I've been so worried about him. He's gotten into the wrong crowd, and he doesn't seem to care about God or salvation at all."

"If I could just get him to church..."

Heard this before? Said this before? Most likely, your answer to one or both of these questions will be yes. Or maybe you've been in or heard of a similar situation. What I'm talking about here is the preoccupation many Christians have with getting unsaved youth to go to church.

So, what's wrong with bringing young people to church? In and of itself, nothing at all. The important thing is how high you have it on your list of evangelistic priorities. If it's a good way down, you're all right. If it's near the top, take a closer look at what's under it. If it's at the top, there's definitely a problem with your approach.

Mind you, I'm not saying anything against churches themselves. But if the first thing you tell an unsaved young person is "you have to go to church", you may lose a lot of ground. Maybe they have a bad relationship with their Christian parents and stubbornly refuse to go to church as a result of it. If so, they'll immediately identify you as being "on their parents' side" and not listen to another word you say. Maybe they've had bad experiences in churches. Maybe they just don't want to go!

In any case, the Bible does not say that the first thing we need to do with unbelievers is make them go to church. Jesus said in Matthew, "For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I AM in the midst of them." I'm a Christian teen, and I don't "go to" a church building on Sunday - I have church services at home with my mother. We listen to sermons, sing praise songs, pray - in other words, we celebrate the Lord's day by worshipping Him and fellowshipping together as Christians, as the Bible commands.

I don't believe that going to a specific building every Sunday is necessary in order to be a Christian. If you disagree, I understand and do not intend to try to change your mind. But please keep in mind that the first thing you need to do when you approach an unbelieving young person - or adult, for that matter - with the gospel is to show them Jesus Christ in your words, your actions, and your love. If you want to invite them to your church, do so, but don't present it as a prerequisite to becoming a Christian.

Welcome to the Fishers of Youth Blog!

My name is Kyle Shultz, and I would like to thank you for visiting The Fishers of Youth Blog. As this is my first post, I would like to define here exactly what the purpose and mission of this blog is.

First of all, let me explain the “Fishers of Youth” part. I started Fishers of Youth in 2006. Fishers of Youth is a web-based ministry dedicated to offering help and guidance to people involved in youth ministry. (You can visit our main web site at www.fishersofyouth.com.)

I intend for this blog to be an important extension of the ministry, through which I hope to offer advice and encouragement on the topic of youth ministry as often as I can.

Why I started Fishers of Youth (and this blog) is the important part. Over the past several years, I have grown concerned with the approach most Christians seem to have adopted in evangelizing today’s youth.

In a nutshell, this approach is to make the church look more like the world in order to appeal to youth. I was talking with a friend of mine about this idea once. He was telling me about how his church has developed Christian music groups specifically for the teenagers in his chuch, groups that perform all the kinds of music they like, only Christianized (i.e. Christian rock, Christian rap, etc.) He said that that was “the only way to get young people in”.

The only way? So teenagers are just basically robots with sensors that hone in on contemporary music? I try to base my approach to the problem on the assumption that this is not the case. How do I know it isn’t? Because I am a teen (sixteen, to be precise).

For that reason, I feel very strongly about the way kids my age are treated by churches. Although I’m sure Christian adults probably mean well, I know if I were subjected to the popular approach used on youth by churches, I would feel as if they thought I was stupid, a “typical” 21^st century teen, my mind reprogrammed by rap music, my philosophy of life undeveloped, my desires and longings shallow and worldly. I hope I don’t appear that way to people at first glance, but I know a lot of kids my age probably do.

But in my opinion, it’s damaging to the body of Christ to make that assumption. In short, I feel that if you try to lead youth into the kingdom of God by making them think it’s not too different from the world, they won’t really ever understand that the kingdom of God is anything but similar to the world. And if they think this, they’ll either steer away from Christianity because they’re looking for something deeper than simplistic, worldly answers, or they’ll enter the church without ever truly devoting their lives to Christ. Is that what we want?

It’s clear that as Christians, we need to rethink our ideas about what youth need and don’t need. I think we ought to start by presenting Christianity as it really is, a lifelong commitment to Jesus Christ which is radically different in every way from the “do what feels right” philosophy our culture is pushing on young people.

That is the main message I intend for this blog to have, and it’s also the foundation of Fishers of Youth in general.

Hope you enjoy future posts! And don’t forget to check out www.fishersofyouth.com.

Note: Fishers of Youth is NOT just concerned with teen ministry, but with ministry targeting ALL youth, including adolescents and younger children. We include not only trained, certified youth ministers in our outreach, but also anyone with the desire to reach out to young people with the gospel.