Video Transcript: Lesson 1 Section 3
Hopefully you have some clarity on why it's important to minister to youth, and why you specifically feel called to do this work. But let's ask another question. Why is it that you do certain things in youth ministry? To answer that, you need to understand your ministry philosophy. A philosophy is an integration of your beliefs with your perception of reality. That might sound complicated, but it's really not. Here is a simple example of how philosophy influences our decisions in everyday life. Say you come across a chair that has four legs, it seems sturdy, based on what you see, you believe the chair is capable of holding your body weight. So you sit down and trusting that it will hold you up. You have just acted on your philosophy about the chair. In the same way, a philosophy of ministry bring together beliefs, your theology with reality, how you will meet the needs of the youth you serve. For that, you will need to know the spiritual needs of the individuals you are ministering to and be able to rank those in importance. But before you can even get to that, there are two important questions that guide how you will develop your philosophy of youth ministry. Number one, are teenagers primarily the church of today, or the Church of the future. And secondly, is the primary purpose of youth ministry, fellowship, or evangelism. Your answers to these two foundational questions will determine how your youth ministry operates. If you believe teenagers are the church of today, the focus of your programming will be to integrate them into the life of your congregation. If you instead view youth as the Church of the future, you will tend to invest in teens with the intention of raising them up to be the church leaders of tomorrow. If you value fellowship, you will tend to focus on the youth already part of your congregation. While if you fall toward the evangelism side, your primary audience is probably teenagers not yet reached by a church. Before we go any further, it's important to acknowledge that all four of these things are important. It is unlikely that your church or any church would choose one at the expense of the others. Fellowship and evangelism are both important in a robust model of discipleship. Similarly, a healthy theology recognizes the needs of those in our path, while also considering the future needs of the church. Your responses to these questions will place you along a spectrum of possible answers. And these natural leanings will help you understand why you value certain activities in youth ministry and deemphasize others. This is the important beginning to articulating your ministry philosophy. As you refine your philosophy, you will see several benefits. You will be able to understand the theological motivations behind your decisions and explain them to others. You will build trust with your ministry leaders as they understand your plan for the youth in your care. Finally, you can work effectively alongside volunteers and parents who can help build ministry programs and develop young leaders