Youth ministry was not a significant component of my training.
As I commented on the blog where I saw this, basically, student ministers on field appointment were usually assigned to the youth group. This was where they discovered that they were not ‘called’ to minister to youth. The ministers who assigned them to youth group had discovered they were not called when the same thing had happened to them during their training.
One of my fellow students, who has since gone to be with the Lord, told us his philosophy with young people was to treat them like horses.
No, there was no whipping involved.
His point was that if you go after horses and children they both back away. Better to busy yourself and their natural curiosity will draw them over. Don’t push yourself on young people.
That sort of leads to another thought about working with young people.
Roughly there are two types of people who gravitate toward the work.
Those who gravitate toward young people because they want to support them as they grow up and those who gravitate toward young people because they themselves have never actually grown up. The second type should not work with youth.
This YouTube actually makes good points about ministry in general, and young people in particular. It’s fun, but it’s not a spoof.
HT: Mikey Lynch, whose blog, Christian Reflections has just move to The Geneva Push.
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