For nearly a decade, I was an itinerant evangelist that preached primarily at youth events.
As a person that didn’t grow up in the church, I didn’t understand why preteens and teenagers were segregated from the adults. It just made sense to me that preteens and teens needed to believe that the church was their church, too. And that by worshiping with adults, serving with adults, doing life with adults, they would mature in the faith.
So when we planted Transformation Church two years ago, we were committed to begin a multi-generational church. A community where teenagers would worship with adults, serve with adults, and do life with adults.
God has blessed us. Forty percent of the volunteers, which we call servant-leaders, are teenagers at Transformation church. We even have two teenagers on full time staff!
Many of our teenagers participate in small groups with adults.
On Sunday nights, teenagers meet in small groups with adult mentors.
Traditional youth ministry is in trouble.
Currently, 50% of teens who participate in traditional youth groups abandon their faith in college. My friends and youth experts, Chap Clark & Kara Powell, give these insightful reasons for why this is happening:
“Churches and families commonly assume that involving teenagers in various youth group and peer activities is the key to vibrant spirituality. Testing this premise, FYI assessed the relationship between teenagers’ faith maturity and their participation in a number of church and youth group activities, including small groups, short-term missions, and Sunday school. Contrary to what is widely assumed, more than any other participation variable measured in the Sticky Faith study, students’ participation in all-church worship during high school was consistently linked with developing a mature faith in both high school and college.”
“Rather than only attending their own Sunday School classes, worship services, small groups, and service activities, young people appear to benefit from intergenerational activities and venues that remove the walls (whether literal or metaphorical) separating the generations. Churches and families wanting to instill deep faith in youth should help them build a web of relationships with committed and caring adults, some of whom may serve as intentional mentors.”
Traditional youth ministry, where teens are segregated from adults, is not working. I recommend reading Chap Clark & Kara Powell’s book, Sticky Faith. Click here to learn more.
Marinate on that,
Pastor Derwin
