Friday, January 25, 2008

What is Our Youth Ministry Action Plan

Greg Stier, author of Ministry Mutiny, wrote a very challenging article "Why Mormons Do Better Youth Ministry Than We Do". It points to the level of commitment that the Mormons expect from their young people and the aggressive pursuit of preparation of these young people for ministry. His conclusion is spot on:

"We need to push our teens. We need to turn them into active activists. We need to build consistent opportunities for service, outreach and training. We need to equip them to share their faith and then go with them, leading the way. After all, we are youth leaders.
Somebody may accuse me of looking at this as some sort of competition. It is. We are in a competition with Satan for thesouls of our young people. And we are getting our rears kicked.
My problem is not with Mormons. It's with us. Let's learn from the Mormons and turn our kids into missionaries. Armed with the power of the true gospel (not some aberrant belief system) our teens could mount a comeback and help us win this thing.
Game on."

I want to win the war,
Mike

2 comments:

Todd Paris said...

I want one of my teens to say this: Pastor Mike, I want to say that you have been an unwanted but greatly appreciated prodder in my spiritual life over these past few months. You may not realize it but your stirring questions have kept me up most of the night on more than one occation, and I want to thank you for that =]. Then it willl be worth it all.

Anonymous said...

I agree! Also, too many times we expect too little of teens/preteens, thinking they don't want to participate, lead, learn---but they do....and can!!