Trends Facing Youth Ministry

There is a great post over at the Youth Specialties blog about the trends facing youth ministry. Youth leaders were asked to identify the top three trends they felt students and youth ministers were facing as it related to the future of youth ministry. Read it to get a better perspective of what I am writing. Here is my response to some of the questions and my insight to some of the issues affecting youth ministry. Let me know what you think.

These at least for me are not new but put me at ease that I am not the only leader dealing with these problems (tongue in cheek).

#1 square off has, I think, always been a battle, Competing for Time of a student is tough. I remember when I was a teen hearing my YP voice his frustration. OF course we can wrestle it till we are blue or learn to leverage it. I think there are ways to leverage the time we have and the time we don't. Help the student who is on the football team adopt his team as his personal mission field and help him identify himself as the pastor/shepherd to them instead of making him feel guilty over choosing football over a youth event/service. Allowing students their 'spot' to shine can help us with our 'need' of their time. We need to learn how to make the secular and the sacred mesh into harmony and not battle it, I admit it is very tough!

#3, Social Networking for me at home has been a win. In ministry/life learning to leverage what we cannot muscle has been the biggest advantage anyone has with something. Let us not be quick to call this a lack in any proportion, possibly we are seeing a new wave of culture moving across the horizon that many of us leaders are not a tune to. Learning to ride the wave can be your biggest advantage. Marty Burroughs, a District Youth Director for the state of Texas told me a story how a church of a 100 had a youth ministry of about 90, that is insane. Every kid that came in, they got their Facebook and Myspace and added them and their top 10 friends. Then when an event was to happen they would sent invites out to the students and their top 10. They were sending upwards of 5000 invites. I have responded to a post on twitter here, what a TOOL, I would pay for this if it weren't free (Twitter don't get any ideas). There are great ways to harness these tools.

twitter.com/shaunmayfield
twitter.com/eikonlive

#4, Economic Turndown is a killer, parents out of jobs is huge add-on to that one. There is not much to do but be more creative about our events and look and alternatives to costly events, sometimes those cheaper events can be more richer in the end.

#2 & 5 are tough, the Definition of Family and Sexual Confusion. These represent the cultural trend of a cultural agenda. Never before have we seen such an agenda at the forefront of America. The definition of family, at least here in AZ and in California and other states is in a battle to be redefined. This may not seem like a big deal but what it has attached to it's roots can hugely impact the church and pastors.

Secondly, identity issues and sexual confusion, I am so glad this hit the top 5. That sounds horrible of a statement, but I am glad because this will put more focus from a broader audience of YP's to effectively build curriculum and teaching lessons and sermons. For many years the 'church' at large has not been equipped to handle this and has almost feared the subject. We are dealing with it huge. What hurts the most is the agenda from MTV and Hollywood. The agenda is trying to make it a civil issue which then means that anyone who speaks out against it can be charged as a hate crime. It has become so rampant in the school system and what was once considered PDA between a girl and guy is now accepted as normal between two guys or two girls. This agenda has made it very curious for our teens to experiment. That experimentation mixed with just the sexualism of puberty has made so many students confused.

This will be probably one of the biggest topics of discussion amongst church leaders in the next decade, that is my prediction. I believe this is just the beginning of an issue that will hit the church so hard we BETTER begin now or even a year ago on developing strategies on winning this war and #1, helping students learn their identity roles. We need to be teaching masculinity to the men and what marriage is and why the definition should be preserved in our hearts of a 'Holy Matrimony' between one man and one woman. That is why I grouped these together. When the definition of marriage is attacked and the agenda of homosexualism as a trend widens, these two unite as one joint problem. Let us look to God to direct us on how to love and teach and allow the Holy Spirit to convict and change hearts.

Thoughts?

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The American Culture Shift: Thanksgiving

It is amazing to see the cultural shift in America from Thanksgiving Thursday to Greedy Black Friday. Up until midnight we are still celebrating what we are thankful for, midnight plus one minute all has changed! Black Friday references to over 20 different historical events, but is most popular for it being the most popular day of shopping and representing the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. This Christmas shopping season is huge among retailers, this is the day that they will open up as early as 4a (Kohls and Mervyn's) and have loss leaders that many times is an item that is sold at below it's value so that the store loses money in order to get the greedy shopper in their doors to buy more. But "Shaun you are being a bigot, we are saving money and therefore stewarding what God has given us." So right you are, but at least be honest with yourself, our mindset has changed.

Americans narcissistic attitude of greedy indulgence till your stomach is so full is the annual American Culture Shift. We over indulge with food on Thanksgiving Day then overindulge in spending the following day. Sure, Black Friday represents that the stores are no longer in the red and can show a clear upturn in their income... for what? At the risk of the consumers going into the red and piling on the credit card debt. Please let us not overlook the true meaning of Thanksgiving, what a day to celebrate. We spend 364 days a year overindulging then take a brief moment out of our schedule on Thanksgiving to be thankful for those 364 days. Clean water, jeans (multiple pairs), house, clothes, food, fast food, cars, fast cars, iPod, iPhone, cable TV, DVR, Big Screen, Stainless Steel appliances, Macs/PCs, Blackberries, pool tables, bikes, quads, laptops, air conditioning, gaming systems, and of course bling, we are in the land of plenty. Maybe you can sit back for a moment and be thankful. What about the bigger things in life, family, breath, health, free will, safety, compassion, empathy/sympathy, emotions, humor, laughter; you know the things that really count that are not able to be purchased but are part of every human, part of every eikon.

This year I want to be simply... THANKFUL!

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mobilePOST

Grocery shopping with the family. Our daughter is amazingly beautiful. It is quite amazing how much you can love someone or in my case two ppl. God is amazing with giving us the option and free will to love.



Did I mention how talented I am to write this and push the buggy and play with the kid all at one, the champion of multi-tasking.

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Isaiah Michael Grubbs

My newest nephew born at 1218am, 7/7/08. 8lbs 1oz. 21 1/2 inches.

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Our Beautiful Baby Amberlyn Renae

Well we are now one week into being parents. It is a big task. I never realized though how much fun it would be, this is truly the best times of life. I made a Top Ten list for things to learn about babies. Here they are:
10. Diapers are not waterproof, nope not at all.
9. New car smell, new baby smell, diapers are not a new baby smell.
8. Babies, as cute as they are, don’t mind crying when you are sleeping.
7. When they are hungry you feed them, no questions.
6. 3 times in one hour, oh and yes that is diaper changes.
5. They don’t mind spitting-up anywhere anytime, and they are not the best planners of when and where.
4. Its an average of $80-$120 per month on diapers, and they don’t have a job to help support their habit.
3. Did I mention diapers are not waterproof.
2. Despite the diaper mess that you are wearing and being up at night and the spit-up they are very cute.
1. Don’t let their cute looks deceive you.

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God and Our Lack of Worship

Today was a good day. I began to look into some deep philosophies of worship for our youth X/perience:worship: series coming up in March. In one essence I was freaked out, in another I am very excited. God is amazing and as I studied what worship is I learned that worship is initiated with God. Yeah, crazy. He created us in His image to worship him. Him creating us in his image began that worship experience, the initiation process. I think about the students in our youth ministry and see the shallowness, my very own reflection on the shallow pond. Chris Stapley said that it used to be a narrow and a mile deep and now it's a mile wid and an inch deep. I thought about it and thought about it. It came to my mind that our students aren't getting it. They are not getting that God has created them in His image and initiated the worship experience. How/Why/Won't we go after God? What stops us from chasing, pursuing, not stopping until we have caught God and wrap our arms around him and not let go, we say, "God, I'm not letting go until I have X/perienced everything from you."

I imagine it and see it in my mind already. I am not even a father yet. Chez being 3+ months pregnant and already seing me as being a father. I can also picture a father and his young child. The child begins to chase after daddy and he steps back each time as the child is going to grab him. Of course this is an impossible reach for the young child. One step of the father is equal to ten or so steps for the child. The dad also knows that he can run away and hide and the child after a minute will most likely give up, sit down, and quickly be distracted by something and forget all about dad. WOW, is that where our teens are? Could it be that they have lost sight of God, may God have gone too far away and now they have gotten distracted? Well the father knows this and knows not to get out of sight and make the game impossible. Every once in a while the father will stop and allow the child to catch him and the child is exuberant and excited to finally catch his dad. Now I have experienced God in such a real way where he, for what ever reason has allowed me to catch him and I had such an amazing experience with Him. So has God hidden form the teens and they have missed him and found something else? I don't believe so, I believe that the difference between us and toddlers is that as Jesus said, "Suffer not the little children to come to me", then he blessed the child. As adults or even teens we are much more carnal and more self-centered. I truly believe that our reasons for not X/periencing God is because of our self-centered mindset. The psyche of our mind says my needs first before what God wants. Maybe some of us, the teens, have began to focus on themselves and forgot the need and obligation of our being is to worship the One who created us. So maybe I can begin to focus on the reason of my being.

My prayer: How do I convey to a group of teens that God is so worthy of our sacrifices?

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