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By: Timmy S
434
Posts
Email: youthworkertim@gmail.com
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| Should churches employ youth workers? |
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01/06/2006 08:08:50 |
Hereīs an interesting post on the subject by andygoodliff
Quote:
"Do we need youthworkers? Do we need youth ministry? Does the development of youth ministry hinder the discipleship of young people in the life of the church? By taking young people out of the church - separate bible groups and social events - encourage them to think church is not for them?"
Some stimulating thoughts here. http://andygoodliff.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/05/should_churches.html |
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By: pete
I am not but I know I Am.
404
Posts
Email: youthworkerpete@hotmail.com
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| Re: Should churches employ youth workers? |
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01/06/2006 23:28:09 |
I certainly agree thereīs potential for that happening, and I believe it is because of that issue Soul Survivor are branching out into īemerging generationī stuff.
However, is that a reason to get dispand a ministry focussed on a particular group of people? I donīt think so, but it is something that needs to be addresed in training, and youth workers/ministers need to have a good working relationship with those who have responsibility for the nurturing of adults. |
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By: Timmy S
434
Posts
Email: youthworkertim@gmail.com
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| Re: Should churches employ youth workers? |
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02/06/2006 07:43:22 |
Pete,
yes and what I find interseting is that we have no concrete evidence yet (at least nothing that I know of) which tells us what young people themselveīs think about the integration segregation issue. The discussion unfortunately seems to always happen within the adult community and our interpretation of whatīs going on! This may not always be very accurate. |
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By: pete
I am not but I know I Am.
404
Posts
Email: youthworkerpete@hotmail.com
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| Re: Re: Should churches employ youth workers? |
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03/06/2006 13:02:55 |
Iīm not sure what other people find, but in my church the issue isnīt with the adult church, thereīs some great nurturing of adult faith (new and old Christians) going on, the trouble is it starts at 35! We have a big gap between the 18 (gone to University) and 30+ (brought their kids back to sunday club).
Maybe instead of questioning youth work, we need to see if we need to emply people with specific evangelsitic and nurturing gifts for that age group.
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By: pete
I am not but I know I Am.
404
Posts
Email: youthworkerpete@hotmail.com
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| Re: Re: Re: Should churches employ youth workers? |
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03/06/2006 13:04:10 |
(PS, Timmy, after the recent post about the myth of the 18 month youth minister burn out, I too wouldnīt take it at face value until someone had done real research, including asking young people themselves.)
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By: andy_goodliff
1
Posts
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| Re: Re: Should churches employ youth workers? |
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04/06/2006 21:41:11 |
_______________________________________________________
pete wrote:
"I certainly agree thereīs potential for that happening, and I believe it is because of that issue Soul Survivor are branching out into īemerging generationī stuff.
However, is that a reason to get dispand a ministry focussed on a particular group of people? I donīt think so, but it is something that needs to be addresed in training, and youth workers/ministers need to have a good working relationship with those who have responsibility for the nurturing of adults."
_______________________________________________________
Iīm disappointed that Soul Survivor are branching out in young adults, it encourages christian identity to be wrapped up in soul survivor. what happens to those who eventually grow out of soul survivor, will they grow out following Jesus? it makes christian identity associated with attending festivals, buying worship cds and books. in short, it sells young people and young adults short.
This is andy goodliff who wrote the original blog post that youthworkertim started this thread with.
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By: robinjsmith
47
Posts
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| Re: Re: Re: Should churches employ youth workers? |
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07/06/2006 13:54:07 |
_______________________________________________________
andy_goodliff wrote:
Iīm disappointed that Soul Survivor are branching out in young adults, it encourages christian identity to be wrapped up in soul survivor. what happens to those who eventually grow out of soul survivor, will they grow out following Jesus? "
_______________________________________________________
I think the (short) history of Soul Survivor shows a different aspect of this debate. The context of the question is about discipleship/nurture etc of our church young people - perhaps thereīs a case for encouraging the all age/family approach there.
Soul Sruvivor show a different mode of ministry - that of a strategic mission congregation: īwhat can we do to reach those that will never come in to the church?ī SS set up to reach the young people who came in out of the church for their relevant teaching/worship etc.
R
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By: Simon H
34
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| Weīve got a long way from Sunday School |
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07/06/2006 14:06:37 |
This sounds a lot like the argument about Youth Congregations, and at the time I suggested that many youth groups act like congregations anyway, but they seem to be acceptable just because they donīt use a particular self-description.
Perhaps another way of looking at this might be ask what we need to do together. It always strikes me as strange that we define membership of the church as being about passive attendance at certain kinds of meetings. Surely we can be a bit more creative about what it means to be part of a united church? |
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By: Ali
88
Posts
Email: ali.campbell@diochi.org.uk
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| The question isnīt what are Soul Survivor doing . . . |
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20/06/2006 11:56:36 |
Just in response to Andyīs comments about young adult stuff at Soul Survivor . . . in some ways I can see his point. This isnīt to do with how we do youth work though, itīs how we do Church with everyone. Regardless of itīs quality (or whether it is saying anything new) there will be those who buy the latest Steve Chalke or John Ortberg or Eugene Peterson, or Brian McLaren book - because of the name of the author, or adults "live" from one Spring Harvest or New Wine to the next - the same issue that Andy says we are afflicting our youth and young adults with - itīs a whole church problem! However, if we have a year long program of stuff going on in our churches and youth groups, if our young people love the church they are part of, if they are engaged with others in a small group, loving, growing, giving etc. Then we can place Soul Survivor Momentum and other things in the right context - here is a celebration with a WOW factor, great teaching, great environment - meeting other young adults from across the world (and, for many who HAVENīT gone to Uni, they may not know many other young adults who will help them continue in their faith - as iron sharpens iron), if our young people or young adults are apathetic about Church and being involved . . . but canīt wait for all that Soul Survivor has to offer, the problem isnīt Soul Survivorīs - itīs ours. |
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By: badge
6
Posts
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| yes, and workers for children, the elderly, parents, singles, community etc... |
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12/08/2006 01:30:08 |
The youth group has many functions
Discipleship has many opportunities with a youth group, when I was a church youth worker we trained up the young people in many skills that they then used for the benefit of the whole church, we also saw older young people growing into leadership within the group and in time then the church.
It is about not setting up in isolation from the church but having times of engagement with the rest of the family. If you use the example of the church being a family then in any family you will find that at times different age, gender, interest groups will occur. That doesnt mean they are not a family but that they are strong enough to not need to be together all the time.
Youth groups provide the opportunity for young people to get the support, teaching, music, fun that they need as they develop.
It is easy to be critical of what others are doing, for me they are reaching the parts that others are not reaching. I am working as a council youth worker with young people who are beyond the reach of the church at the moment. We have some excellent church youth workers but the services they run are not accessible to them. They serve the needs of those who belong and a few others are drawn in but they are not relevant to large parts of the community. Targeted work like soul survivor and some church youth groups serve a purpose and there are those who go to these who are then trained, developed and encouraged to participate in the life of their local churches.
The question is in part, who should the style of church be relevant or accessible to? We have so many different ones, each serving part of the community but not enough as there are large chunks of society that is not served or can access the church. This then goes back to what is the purpose of the church
and how can we be part of meeting that purpose.
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