A Quick Guide to Teenagers... for Churches

youth work

27 Oct

Written By

Here beginneth the rant…Teenagers are not:

Less than fully human, undeveloped proper people or an under race of ‘not-quite-adults’
The Church of tomorrow or the future of your denomination
Unable to handle more than bell pulling or collection taking
Too irresponsible and immature to sit on councils and boards
A convenient scapegoat for all that’s wrong with society
The church janitors or cheep sources of labor
Counted as leaders in Ofsted adult-child ratios in Sunday school
Forgotten about by God until they’re older
Easy to fob off
All the same

Teenagers are:

Fully human, proper people and an integral part of your community
The Church of TODAY
Able to be trained and released in almost any area of ministry
An essential voice in every area of church strategy and planning
Just as bummed with society as you are – and probably more-so
To be trusted with genuine responsibility
Still children and needing compassionate supervision when serving
Used by God significantly in the Bible at every stage of Salvation History – not to mention Church history
Incredibly insightful, creative, socially aware and intelligent
As varied in personality as any other developmental stage of humanity

Here endeth the rant.

The Youth Church Experiment: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly