Youth Ministry Concerns: Are We Preaching the Gospel or Just Entertaining?

Friday, 14 October 2011

Youth Ministry Concerns: Are We Preaching the Gospel or Just Entertaining?
By The Closet Calvinist

Pyromaniacs blog featured an open letter written by a former teacher at a Christian school in the Chicago area to pastor James MacDonald regarding the fact that the youth he saw from Harvest Bible Church didn’t seem to have heard the Gospel but loved the ice cream socials and silly games. It brought in a lot of comments with quite a bit of disagreement. Phil Johnson weighed in on it today as well.

While the Elephant Room 2 is definitely the motivation for posting the open letter, the letter is still worth looking at for those involved in youth ministry, for those who pastor a church, and for those who have children involved in a youth ministry.

I am reminded of the youth pastor who put peanut butter in his armpits for the students to lick out, the “Chee-toes” video, or of the story of the youth pastor who dressed boys in diapers and had them sit on the girl’s laps so they could feed them baby food and have them drink from a bottle, or maybe the strip Pictionary game to teach kids that they need to have boundaries.
Todd Friel of Wretched Radio had a good take on it, which I’ll include below. Despite being a YouTube video it is only audio. (If anyone wants an article that discusses this more, and it does get worse, here is the link.)

Why has youth ministry turned into this? Wouldn’t the Gospel be better proclaimed to the youth by spending time proclaiming it? What happened to preaching the Gospel to the kids rather than entertaining them?

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Comments (7)

yea, everyone wants to be entertained. I find it hard sometimes to reconcile. I'm in a Christian ministry in college, and although we do okay, and our pastor preaches from the Bible with a worship service, we have a lot of kids who live in Christian houses and throw parties (with popular/secular music, not Christian music - some of which the lyrics may not be so pristine) which aren't bad but just slightly out of place. I always feel like ,should I be here? Is this right? It's hard. People always want to have "fun". One of my close friends is always like we need to go here/there and have fun (she's also in the Christian Ministry) and I just feel like saying, I don't care about fun. I just want good friends and God and life. That is all I want. But it's hard, I'm not the kind of person who constantly seeks fun, but sometimes when you see the life of entertainment others have, you just want that.
- 10/15/2011 12:03 AM
- cabugs@xanga (message)
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Peanut butter....armpits? Diapers? Seriously, what does any of that have to do with Jesus? It's hard to be a youth pastor, especially in a privileged place like the US, but God should be the focus, not entertainment. >_< If they just have fun at church and barely learn anything, they'll probably be like hundreds of others who consider themselves "Christians" yet know very little about God and act nothing like Jesus...
- 10/15/2011 12:04 AM
- cute_sushi@xanga (message)
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I wrote a blog about this once a long time ago on a former xanga account. In my personal experience, I never really heard the gospel while doing youth events. I heard cliche things about how to "be on fire for God" and then we would do some activity corresponding to that message, such as capture the flag. I don't think youth ministry is inherently bad, but it needs reformation.
It's very disheartening to see the facebooks of those who were formerly in my youth group. Many are professing agnostics/nonChristians, most are drunk every weekend or living with a boyfriend/girlfriend, and some are addicted to drugs. I can't think of one at the moment who is living a life consistent with Christian regeneration.
- 10/15/2011 11:15 PM
- apb102088@xanga (message)
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@apb102088@xanga - Your first paragraph is definitely what leads to the second. If the Gospel was being proclaimed with conviction instead of the ridiculous stuff that is youth ministry many of them would be saved. I'd rather have a small group hear the Gospel than a large group that got together to learn how to "follow God" (law keeping out of our own power) and play games.
- 10/16/2011 12:52 PM
- MagisterTom@xanga (message)
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Probably because it is easier to play silly games than to deal with the hard questions that would come with "preaching the gospel". For example, what does that really mean? Not everyone believes in the same way or to the same intensity, so what do those people do? Etc? It's difficult stuff so they just attract kids with fun and games.
Although, licking peanut butter from some guy's armpits? YUCK.
- 10/16/2011 1:01 PM
- lucylwrites@xanga (message)
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@MagisterTom@xanga - I agree. I never really heard the Gospel until I was 18 and wasn't saved until 19, and I remember thinking, "Why did no one tell me this before?", and I was quite upset, considering I had gone my entire life thinking that you say a sinner's prayer to be saved, and that baptism physically washes away your sins. Maybe the gospel had been told to me and I just didn't listen; however, it wasn't told to me on a regular basis. I think youth leaders think that a small lesson at the end of a silly game will stick with us, but it doesn't always. We need to be preached the Gospel daily.
- 10/16/2011 1:40 PM
- apb102088@xanga (message)
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@lucylwrites@xanga - WretchedRadio talked about that… the same "youth pastor" also had them lick it from his toes. It seems to be the guy's fetish that he gets the students to indulge him in. If it was done outside of a church the guy would probably be arrested…

@apb102088@xanga - Agreed, even adults need the Gospel daily!
- 10/16/2011 2:15 PM
- MagisterTom@xanga (message)
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