Ministry Allies

Last year, I read Mark Oestreichers ‘manifesto’, Youth Ministry 3.0, and I loved the concept of Youth Ministry 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 as a way to understand the history of youth ministry. It was like this book was an answer to Mark Senter’s book, “The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry” (that’s for all you old youth ministry guys). And I think the book is timely – it seems like many in youth ministry are unsatisfied with where we are and are looking for a way forward.

This week guest blogger Brad Griffin from the Fuller Youth Institute shares a personal anecdote about networking with other youth leaders.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had several conversations with different people about generational differences between Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millenials (Generation Y). The conversations have centered around how these different generations “do church.” As the conversations continued, I realized, very soon, there will be kids from “Generation Z” in our youth groups.

For the past couple of years, I’ve struggled with having a small youth group. I moved to Sunland, CA to work in a church with a group of about 8 kids, 6th through 12th grade, from a church in Fort Worth, TX that had over 60 kids in their middle school program alone. I kept telling myself over and over, “It’s not about numbers, it’s not about numbers.”

Tim Schmoyer has written a great post on his blog about his local youth ministry network. Check it out!

A few weeks ago I mentioned I was trying to start a Christian Club at one of the local middle schools…

What does a transition in vision look like? Here is an example that Nick and I have experienced lately.

“But I want it now!” When I was a kid, this was my response to my parents when they told me I would have to wait until Christmas before they would buy me a large Lego product I longed for. Since then, I have learned little about patience.

While I feel that networking with other churches is biblically based and allows the Church as a whole to better reach the lost, I have to ask myself, is that true?

I’m looking for stories (successes or failures) of networks, networking, and teaming up with other churches. If you have a story, or a few, please drop me a line at nicholas [dot] arnold [at] gmail [dot] com. Or, you can leave a comment.