A Key Principle for Youth Ministry

So, we’re having a bunch of people over to our house on Sunday night.  We’re going to burn stuff, sing, reflect on Scripture, and eat.  Those things in reverse order.

I have many reasons for doing this.  But, teens are high on my list.  Not just mine, but those of our overall church.  It is essential that young people are connected in fellowship, worship, and friendship with adults in the church, as well as young people.

If you are a parent of a teen, how closely is your child connected to the adults in your church?  Youth ministry must not be isolated from the overall local church.  I agree with Mark DeVries who argues that we cannot treat teens as an isolated organ but must rather remember their organic connection to the church.

"Because teenagers are an integral part of the body of Christ, we need to understand this problem as a physician would. When an organ is removed from a living body, that organ dies, and sometimes the body dies along with it. The same principle is true in the body of Christ. Whatever new models for youth ministry we develop must take seriously the fact that teenagers grow toward mature Christian adulthood as they are connected to the total body of Christ, not isolated from it. (DeVries, Family Based Youth Ministry, 43).

"It is now ten years since I left Waco.  Almost without exception, those young people who are growing in their faith as adults were teenagers who fit into one of two categories: either (1) they came from families where Christian growth was modeled in at least one of their parents, or (2) they had developed such significant connections with adults within the church that it had become an extended family for them (DeVries, Family Based Youth Ministry, 63)."

This book has been around for quite some time. I still recommend it.