Читать книгу B.R.M. (Bathroom Reading Material) for Youth Workers - Jeremy Halstead - Страница 14

I strongly believe the most successful approach to youth ministry is one based upon a relational model. Many years ago I developed the idea of Youth Group to Youth Ministry to Youth Family.

Simply put, a youth group is any group of teenagers that hang out and do things together: sports team, scout troop, band, club . . . There does not have to be any spiritual significance to have a youth group. Sadly, there are churches all across America that have nothing more than a group of students who meet once a week, hang out, go on outings, and have no spiritual significance . . . they are just a youth group.

A youth ministry is a spiritually based group of students where ministry is happening, and teenagers are learning, growing and serving. However, this group of students must learn that church and youth ministry is not what they do, but who they are in order to reach the next level: youth family.

God did not create man to be alone, and He did not create humans to journey through life alone. A youth family is that church based spiritual group of students who do life together; not just on Sundays and Wednesdays, but every day . . . at church, at school, at work and at play.

In our ministry we constantly use words such as “brother” and “sister”. We model and encourage uplifting language, as well as good, positive, appropriate touch and hugs between our adults and students, and between our students and students.

Taking a youth group to a youth ministry and then to a youth family creates a good, safe, inviting place for teenager to belong; but it also takes a continual effort, as the ebb and flow of youth ministry constantly changes the makeup of your students. Honestly, as hard as we strive, on occasion we still find ourselves more as a youth ministry and less of a youth family.

I once had a particular class of students that truly understood the concept of a youth family. They attended school together, played sports together, came to church and youth together and literally grew up together. For their senior prom, the boys from this amazing class decided to ask their sisters from church to be their dates. When asked about this decision, the boys shared that they wanted to make sure that their sisters all had the opportunity to attend prom, and that they wanted to make sure that they would be safe and have fun. This photo of my teenagers attending prom together is one of my most favorite photos in my nineteen years of ministry.