The title of this chapter is "It Only Makes Sense." In this chapter, DeVries lays down the importance of why family-based ministry needs to be the foundational characteristic of how youth ministry is done today.
"The secret is not what the program looks like, but what is strategically built beneath that program." (pg 101)
In this chapter, DeVries shares with us the stories of different experiences that he has had within youth ministry, and the results of his attempts at implementing some of these family-based strategies. I particularly enjoyed his breakdown of the different types of ministry models that today's youth ministries fit in, as well as the different types of parents that exist today. After reading this chapter, I believe that I understand and agree with what DeVries is saying here. Research has been done that continually proves that a youth's faith sticks whenever the parents are involved in the maturation process of the youth in his/her faith. It is up to parents to be the primary role models and supporters of a child and his/her journey in discovering who Jesus is and building a faith relationship with Him. It is the church's (not just the youth ministry's) job to provide an extended family role to the family, to supplement and encourage the role/job that the parents are doing. I wonder what would happen if more churches today realized the importance of taking this stance and supporting families, holding them as the primary leaders in faith development of their children. I would venture to say that the next generation that is raised would be a generation that is vastly more mature in their faith than previous generations. It is simply astonishing to me that to reach this dream/goal, the church needs only to discover a way to help parents rediscover their primary role, and also become an active part of the youth ministry within the church.
I felt like some of this really redefined the job of youth ministry. We aren't ministers as much as we think we are. We are equippers that minister to the ministers. We create the climate and culture. I meant to put that in my post, but it didn't come to me before.
ReplyDeleteWe have low expectations for our Churches. Talking about our potential volunteers, I heard this over and over: "If you don't tell them exactly what to do, they won't do anything." We assume or expect that people are idiotically helpless. And so what happens? They become idiotically helpless. How do we change this? How do we make the Church ministers to each other?
As ministers we think we have to do it all, because we're the resident best-at-everything-ers, but we need to work ourselves almost out of a job... Wouldn't that be great!