Effective Youth Pastor

There has been a lot of discussion recently on what an effective youth ministry looks like. It is clear that there are some aspects of youth ministry that need to be re-thought and re-tooled. You will find some of my thinking on the subject here and here; two posts I wrote back in September of last year.

Greg Scandrett just wrote a great post entitled, Text messaging, playlists, MySpace, oxy and youth minitry. The post nets out 5 important elements for effectively ministering to students. It's a very good and thought provoking read.

It made me think, while we need to know the Word of God and how to present it, we need to know how to present it in ways that are relevant to todays students. We must know and understand today’s youth culture. In doing so we earn the right to be heard and followed. In knowing and understanding students and their culture we are communicating to them that we care. When we care, they will listen and they will follow.

2 comments:

muzik said...

Great article. It's pretty much how I feel right now.

Anonymous said...

Great points! Couple things...

1. I enjoy your narration of the life of a youth pastor. It's nice to know there are other members of the team who realize the value of living in a glass house while the youth look on. They don't expect us to be perfect, but they do expect us to be real.

2. Glad you mention the golden rule of youth ministry: "They don't care how much you know, unless they know how much care."

3. You mention here one of the things that I admire most about the Apostle Paul, starting with the known and moving to the unknown. Like his conversation with the philosphers on Mars Hill. "Let me tell you about this unknown God you've made an altar to."

Fight the Good fight my friend...
-Deeply Rooted

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