More on Successfull Youth Ministry

I am finally catching up on this website.

The PDYM components of a youth ministry are accurate and adaptable. However, the question of successful youth ministry is an outcome-based question. While those five components are irreplaceable, we need some kind of evaluative standard.

Bill, a seventy-plus year-old friend of mine, and almost a virgin when it comes to church attendance, told me that he had found an old record book from his father’s greenhouse. Now this greenhouse had been one of the most successful and well-known in the area for decades. In the book was a record of when seeds were planted, the condition of the soil, fertilizer applied, and how the plants performed. There were outcomes which gave the basis for determining success. The greenhouse was long-lasting, well loved, and profitable.

The plants matured and produced the way in which they were intended. That is a measure of success which applies directly to youth ministry.  Are our students maturing? What do we consider signs of maturity? Are they becoming less dependent upon others for their own spiritual growth? Are they beginning to sow seed and nurture others in their spiritual growth? Are they expressing that maturity in the context of a committed, vital, and growing relationship to a local, Christian community?

Once we define maturity, then, we define the components which produce that maturity. The PDYM list  dovetails in that respect. It is a means to success, but is not the definition of that sucess.

What do you think? Anxious for your responses

Healthy Youth Ministry

I’ve been enjoying our discussions on what a healthy youth ministry looks like. It’s a tough discussion, but I think I agree mostly with Field’s in PDYM in that a healthy youth ministry does contain an equal balance between five biblical purposes

Evangelism

Worship

Fellowship

Discipleship

Ministry

I know my ministry is not balanced yet, but I am praying and hoping to strengthen our ministry for the health of our group. I would say our weakest areas would be evangelism and ministry, a good program would be discipleship, and our fellowship and worship are above average. I know this will be the main discussion of the blog (what is a healthy youth ministry), so feel free to post your own thoughts.