My own practical definition of the purpose and goal of youth ministry is to “integrate young people into the body and mission of Jesus Christ. The idea of “integration” denotes being a part that is in harmony with the whole. In other words, the individual finds his place of meaning and purpose within the whole. To do this within the Body of Christ is to know Jesus Christ, to follow Jesus Christ, and then to live as Jesus Christ has shaped us to live, as part of his mission to reconcile the world to himself.
For me, this is a compelling purpose. Mike Kipp is an associate professor of youth and family ministry at Northwestern Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. The National Study of Youth and Religion concluded that, in general, young people will end up following the same religious path as their parents. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the bad days come and the years of which you will say: “I don't like them; before the sun, the light and the moon and the stars darken and the clouds return after the rain,.
In the classroom, when I ask my students about the goal of youth ministry, they are often stumped, as if they hadn't thought about it before. There are areas of modern youth ministry that concern me a great deal, but this does not make “youth ministry inherently unbiblical in the same way that preaching is not biblical because there are forms of modern preaching that deviate from biblical norms. The interesting thing about this reality is to what extent much of today's youth ministry has deviated from this path. So does this mean that children in youth groups without Christian parents have no hope? How should the Church respond to and value young people within the community of faith? I think these issues are addressed in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
Eliminate vexation from your heart and remove pain from your body, because youth and the dawn of life are vanity. Let no one despise him for his youth, but rather give believers an example in speech, in behavior, in love, in faith, in purity. So flee from youthful passions and seek justice, faith, love and peace, together with those who invoke the Lord with a pure heart. Youth worker and author, Mike McGarry makes an important point in his book, A Biblical Theology of Youth Ministry,.
And when the Lord smelled the pleasant scent, the Lord said in his heart: “I will never curse the earth again because of man, for the intention of man's heart has been bad since his youth. Some are blaming youth work for the much-reported departure of young adults from church after high school.
