The title of this chapter is "Historical Contexts for Family Ministry". In this chapter, Jones wadded through and touched on the biggest developments throughout history within ministry, that have brought us all to where we are in ministry today. It was very interesting to see how our modern ministry model of the one-eared Mickey Mouse came about from a well-intentioned move to address a generation that was moving away and differentiating itself from the traditional model of ministry of the day.
"... It's a Nickelodeon approach to youth ministry that seeks to appeal to kids' propensity for fun and recreation... Like parents who pop in a video to entertain the kids when relatives arrive, the idea is to keep the young people from running out, to keep them in the general vicinity of the church, to keep them happy until they're mature enough to joint he congregation." (Pg 34)
Today's model of youth ministry is a "glorified nursery". I find it interesting, that the last part of this quote states that their intentions were to keep them around until they became more mature and could handle the 'real' ministry. My response to those who thought of this would be something like, "OK, it's a good THOUGHT, but have you considered the fact that if there isn't any effort to help disciple and develop these youth, then they may never BE mature?" I believe that the church should never use this excuse or reasoning, and instead be proactive about reaching and training students to become disciples instead of 'sitting the bench' of their faith.
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