I really resonated with this article on the epidemic of loneliness amongst students today and the need for more intentional relational discipleship.
When youth pastors tell me they are taking an “organic” approach to “relational” youth ministry, I know there’s a problem. These two terms signal to me that the youth pastor simply encourages volunteers to hang out with students, usually without much of an agenda. I routinely see long, contentious online discussions in youth pastor Facebook groups about how to redesign the youth room to provide students with “a space to call their own.” These youth pastors dream that, if students feel comfortable in the youth room, they’ll naturally bring friends, learn about Jesus, and dive into organic relationships with adults who care about them. But that rarely happens. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been brought in to train youth workers serving in a “relational” youth ministry where the adult volunteers admitted they don’t even know their students’ names.
Even if those volunteers were able to make deeper connections, mere relationship doesn’t go far enough. I’ve seen what happens when we prioritize one specific ministry element over robust discipleship, and it isn’t pretty.
Read the rest of the article here.
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