Re-Inventando el Exito en el Ministerio Juvenil

Notas del editor

• #2: “Youth ministers have a crucial role as protagonists; and for this reason it is a strategic moment to equip, link with, and inspire the youth leaders from the other America. Latin American youth leaders find themselves at the opportune time for passing from the liturgical revolution that we now see to a spiritual revolution that could change the history of Latin America forever.”1 - Lucas Leys\n
• #3: “Youth ministers have a crucial role as protagonists; and for this reason it is a strategic moment to equip, link with, and inspire the youth leaders from the other America. Latin American youth leaders find themselves at the opportune time for passing from the liturgical revolution that we now see to a spiritual revolution that could change the history of Latin America forever.”1 - Lucas Leys\n
• #4: “Youth ministers have a crucial role as protagonists; and for this reason it is a strategic moment to equip, link with, and inspire the youth leaders from the other America. Latin American youth leaders find themselves at the opportune time for passing from the liturgical revolution that we now see to a spiritual revolution that could change the history of Latin America forever.”1 - Lucas Leys\n
• #5: \n
• #6: evaluating the current condition of youth spirituality, extracting principles and practices that have led to these results in the lives of young people, and examining the usefulness of these principles as they apply to the contextualized discipline of youth ministry in Mexico.\n
• #7: By 1983 youth ministry in the United States had developed into an established academic discipline with one hundred and thirty-one denominations reporting structured youth ministry programs. One hundred and eight denominations reported having a staff person to oversee youth work for the denomination. Youth work in the United States had evolved into a discipline that the local church recognized as important for their mission to share the gospel with and disciple those young people in their communities.2\n\n
• #8: By 1983 youth ministry in the United States had developed into an established academic discipline with one hundred and thirty-one denominations reporting structured youth ministry programs. One hundred and eight denominations reported having a staff person to oversee youth work for the denomination. Youth work in the United States had evolved into a discipline that the local church recognized as important for their mission to share the gospel with and disciple those young people in their communities.2\n\n
• #9: By 1983 youth ministry in the United States had developed into an established academic discipline with one hundred and thirty-one denominations reporting structured youth ministry programs. One hundred and eight denominations reported having a staff person to oversee youth work for the denomination. Youth work in the United States had evolved into a discipline that the local church recognized as important for their mission to share the gospel with and disciple those young people in their communities.2\n\n
• #10: By 1983 youth ministry in the United States had developed into an established academic discipline with one hundred and thirty-one denominations reporting structured youth ministry programs. One hundred and eight denominations reported having a staff person to oversee youth work for the denomination. Youth work in the United States had evolved into a discipline that the local church recognized as important for their mission to share the gospel with and disciple those young people in their communities.2\n\n
• #11: Many questions have begun to permeate current youth ministry literature such as: Has youth ministry failed? If so, why? Are there successful paradigms in youth ministry? If these paradigms exist what are they? Has anything worked? Where would the church be in its mission if youth ministry did not exist? What impact has youth ministry had on the spiritual lives of young people?\n\n
• #12: Mark Oestreicher, veteran youth worker and former president of Youth Specialties, one of the largest youth ministry training and publishing centers in the country, writes, \nI believe we're at a crossroads in youth work. In order to be effective––in order to be true to our calling––we need to change. We need to turn at this crossroad. But I'm afraid we're passing right through it, assuming the way we've always done things will continue to work. The problem is this: the way we're doing things is already not working. We're failing at our calling. And deep down, most of us know it. This is why we need an epochal shift in our assumptions, approaches, models, and methods. It's time for Youth Ministry 3.0.3 \n\n\n
• #13: Mark Oestreicher, veteran youth worker and former president of Youth Specialties, one of the largest youth ministry training and publishing centers in the country, writes, \nI believe we're at a crossroads in youth work. In order to be effective––in order to be true to our calling––we need to change. We need to turn at this crossroad. But I'm afraid we're passing right through it, assuming the way we've always done things will continue to work. The problem is this: the way we're doing things is already not working. We're failing at our calling. And deep down, most of us know it. This is why we need an epochal shift in our assumptions, approaches, models, and methods. It's time for Youth Ministry 3.0.3 \n\n\n
• #14: Mark Oestreicher, veteran youth worker and former president of Youth Specialties, one of the largest youth ministry training and publishing centers in the country, writes, \nI believe we're at a crossroads in youth work. In order to be effective––in order to be true to our calling––we need to change. We need to turn at this crossroad. But I'm afraid we're passing right through it, assuming the way we've always done things will continue to work. The problem is this: the way we're doing things is already not working. We're failing at our calling. And deep down, most of us know it. This is why we need an epochal shift in our assumptions, approaches, models, and methods. It's time for Youth Ministry 3.0.3 \n\n\n
• #15: Mike Yaconelli who said before his death in 2003 that youth ministry was experiencing a crisis.4\n
• #16: Voddie Baucham, citing frequently debated research about dropout rates of young people after high school, says, “Modern American Christianity has a failure rate somewhere around eight (almost nine) out of ten when it comes to raising children who continue in the faith.”\n
• #17: , Mark Devries of Youth Ministry Architects states, “Our work with churches and youth workers has revealed an obvious gap between concept and reality, between theory and results."6\n
• #18: Patricia Lyons, after interviewing hundreds of young people about their spiritual lives, states, "The fact is that whatever we are doing to support and mentor our teenagers in their moral and spiritual lives is not working. The beginning of any rational consideration of the problems and possible solutions requires that we admit this fact."7 \n
• #19: The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) carried out by the University of North Carolina has helped raise yellow flags for youth workers with its findings of youth spirituality. Christian Denton and Melinda Lundquist resume their experiences by saying, “Interviewing teens, one finds little evidence that the agents of religious socialization in this country are being highly effective and successful with the majority of their young people.”8\n
• #20: To use Oestreicher’s metaphor, youth ministry in Mexico is also at a crossroads. Those who work with young people in Mexico find themselves is very different position than that of their neighbors to the north. Youth ministry is coming of age in Latin America. Formal and informal youth ministry training programs are appearing with more frequency, and Mexican youth workers stand in a position either to ignore what history has taught the church in the United States or learn from both the successes and failures of church work with youth. They can and should extract principles and practices that may then be contextualized to the Mexican culture and church life.\n
• #21: What is youth ministry? It is easy to struggle trying to find a good definition for what youth ministry really is. Brandon Shields defines of youth ministry as, “The intentional, purposeful ministry of the church community to emerging adolescents and their families with the goal of seeing them become fully assimilated, mature adult disciples of Christ.”9\n\n
• #22: In order to evaluate the success or failure of any endeavor, one must first understand the stated goals and desired outcomes. What should be measured when evaluating the success or failure of youth ministry? How will those studying and working in ministry to young people know if their efforts have succeeded or failed in the United States?\n
• #23: Setting specific goals for youth ministry is an important task, but it is not an easy one. Research from 1980 by the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development evaluated the goals of youth ministry across six different denominations. After asking hundreds of parents and religious educators about the desired outcomes of youth ministry, they concluded that “Christian denominations differ in their goals and methods of religious education and youth ministry.” The clusters of goals that they developed from their study are: personal conversion, personal religious life, moral maturity, importance of sacraments, loyalty to denomination and parish, Christian fellowship, universalizing faith, reflective understanding of Christian truth, social justice, and charismatic experience. These ten outcomes were what Christian educators and parents desired for the young people in their churches, and the prioritization of the goals varied according to denomination.11 Goals for youth ministry will vary from congregation to congregation, and the religious traditions of each denomination will influence those goals set by each ministry.\n\n
• #24: The goals of youth ministry should relate to the outcomes in the lives of the young people with whom the ministry is being done. Otherwise, youth workers are simply building ministries without concern for those involved in them. In 2003 the Exemplary Youth Ministry study was conducted by researchers Roland Martinson, Wesley Black, and John Roberto to “identify congregations that consistently establish faith as a vital factor in the lives of their youth and young adults, to discover what accounts for their effective approach to ministry, and to make the results widely available for the benefit of other congregations.”12 The first challenge for the study was to define how they would identify congregations as effective in their youth ministry approach. This required them to develop a profile of young people with mature faith. \nUsing information from The Five Cries of Youth and Effective Christian Education, the researchers developed their profile with thirty four qualities of the kind of young person who will be produced by an exemplary youth ministry. These thirty four qualities were then grouped into seven clusters. According to the Exemplary Youth Ministry study, a mature Christian young person will exhibit the following seven qualities: 1) seek spiritual growth, both alone and with others; 2) believe God is present in the world; 3) act out a commitment of faith; 4) actively participate with God’s people; 5) possess a positive, hopeful spirit; 6) live out a life of service; and 7) live a Christian moral life. Using these qualities the researchers could then evaluate the effectiveness of a youth ministry and extract the qualities of those ministries who are successful in producing young people who match their desired outcomes.13\nFrom both the study done by the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development and the Exemplary Youth Ministry Study, one can see that the desired outcomes throughout the profession of youth ministry are varied. Most who work with young people seek to lead them into a deeper relationship with Jesus, and this relationship usually includes spiritual qualities such as a personalized faith, consistent church attendance, participation in Christian service, and living a moral life based on Christian principles, among others.\n\n
• #25: FAILURE?\nWhy are there so many youth ministry authors and practitioners sharing their concerns about the current state of youth ministry in the United States? Has youth ministry, in fact, failed? Current research in the field of youth ministry indicates a few specific reasons for the current conversation about the failure of ministry to young people in the United States.\nEach of the people who raise concerns about the current state of youth ministry certainly have their own reasons for its failure. However, the prevailing concern of most who are questioning the effectiveness of youth ministry stems from the current state of youth spirituality as seen in current studies such as the National Study of Youth and Religion and wide-spread reports of drop out rates among young people after high school. These reasons for failure should be evaluated and discussed in any discussion of the failure or success of youth ministry.\n\n
• #26: The task of attempting to understand the spirituality of young people in the United States had not been attempted on a large scale until recently with The National Study of Youth and Religion. The survey took place from July 2002 to March 2003, in which the researchers surveyed 3,290 U.S. teenagers between the ages of 13-17. They then followed up with 267 face-to-face interviews of a subsample of respondents.14 Their research has given us much-needed information about the spirituality of young people in America, and the results are helpful to a more full understanding of the current task of those involved in youth ministry.\n
• #27: Based on their review of the research, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton believe that one of the most important themes that emerge from the NSYR is that the prevailing religion among American young people is a new way of thinking they call ”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This theological worldview proposed by the authors as the prevailing religious viewpoint of youth in America has basically five beliefs:\n\nA God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.\n\nGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\n\nThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\n\nGod does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\n\nGood people go to heaven when they die.15\n\nIf Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is becoming the dominant religious worldview in the United States among young people, youth ministry must find ways to better influence the young people of the nation. But youth workers should not be surprised by the current state of youth spirituality.\n\n
• #28: Based on their review of the research, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton believe that one of the most important themes that emerge from the NSYR is that the prevailing religion among American young people is a new way of thinking they call ”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This theological worldview proposed by the authors as the prevailing religious viewpoint of youth in America has basically five beliefs:\n\nA God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.\n\nGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\n\nThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\n\nGod does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\n\nGood people go to heaven when they die.15\n\nIf Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is becoming the dominant religious worldview in the United States among young people, youth ministry must find ways to better influence the young people of the nation. But youth workers should not be surprised by the current state of youth spirituality.\n\n
• #29: Based on their review of the research, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton believe that one of the most important themes that emerge from the NSYR is that the prevailing religion among American young people is a new way of thinking they call ”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This theological worldview proposed by the authors as the prevailing religious viewpoint of youth in America has basically five beliefs:\n\nA God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.\n\nGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\n\nThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\n\nGod does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\n\nGood people go to heaven when they die.15\n\nIf Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is becoming the dominant religious worldview in the United States among young people, youth ministry must find ways to better influence the young people of the nation. But youth workers should not be surprised by the current state of youth spirituality.\n\n
• #30: Based on their review of the research, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton believe that one of the most important themes that emerge from the NSYR is that the prevailing religion among American young people is a new way of thinking they call ”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This theological worldview proposed by the authors as the prevailing religious viewpoint of youth in America has basically five beliefs:\n\nA God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.\n\nGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\n\nThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\n\nGod does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\n\nGood people go to heaven when they die.15\n\nIf Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is becoming the dominant religious worldview in the United States among young people, youth ministry must find ways to better influence the young people of the nation. But youth workers should not be surprised by the current state of youth spirituality.\n\n
• #31: Based on their review of the research, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton believe that one of the most important themes that emerge from the NSYR is that the prevailing religion among American young people is a new way of thinking they call ”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This theological worldview proposed by the authors as the prevailing religious viewpoint of youth in America has basically five beliefs:\n\nA God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.\n\nGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\n\nThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\n\nGod does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\n\nGood people go to heaven when they die.15\n\nIf Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is becoming the dominant religious worldview in the United States among young people, youth ministry must find ways to better influence the young people of the nation. But youth workers should not be surprised by the current state of youth spirituality.\n\n
• #32: Based on their review of the research, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton believe that one of the most important themes that emerge from the NSYR is that the prevailing religion among American young people is a new way of thinking they call ”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This theological worldview proposed by the authors as the prevailing religious viewpoint of youth in America has basically five beliefs:\n\nA God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.\n\nGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\n\nThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\n\nGod does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\n\nGood people go to heaven when they die.15\n\nIf Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is becoming the dominant religious worldview in the United States among young people, youth ministry must find ways to better influence the young people of the nation. But youth workers should not be surprised by the current state of youth spirituality.\n\n
• #33: In the study previously mentioned by the Boys Town Center that took place in 1980, the researchers noted that moral maturity was a goal that scored quite highly in their scale of desired outcomes in almost all of the denominations they studied. \n
• #34: In the study previously mentioned by the Boys Town Center that took place in 1980, the researchers noted that moral maturity was a goal that scored quite highly in their scale of desired outcomes in almost all of the denominations they studied. They note that they measured moral maturity on a very broad scale, not necessarily seeking specific morals related to the denomination they were studying. They state, “One often hears that parents are worried about the problems of adolescence in our society––especially sex, drug use, and misbehavior––and look to churches to help their children through these dangerous years. The high priority of the moral maturity scale suggests that this concern is widely felt.”16 If moral maturity was a highly desired outcome of almost all of the denominations surveyed in 1980, it should be no surprise when the NSYR shares that young people believe in and practice moralism in their lives. \n\nTEACHING MORALITY IS NOT ENOUGH.\n
• #35: El Cristianismo de nuestros jovenes se basa en lo que les ayuda en la vida cotidiana. Tienen a Dios para cuando lo necesiten. \n\nPERO ESTE NO ES EL CRISTIANISMO DE LA BIBLIA.\n\nYouth spirituality does not take place in a vacuum. It may be that church work with youth has produced this new thought process in the lives of young people because the church has been teaching this itself to both its young people and adults. Dean argues that the form of Christianity that young people tend to believe is based on what works for them on a day to day basis. This Christianity, however, is far from the gospel of Jesus Christ.17 Youth leaders and the church must take a strong look at the Christianity that is being transmitted to the young people of their churches.\n\n
• #36: Not all young people have been lost by the traditional teachings of the church. There are many who are highly devoted to their particular faith. Those highly devoted teenagers discovered in the NSYR, have specific characteristics. Dean recognizes that highly devoted young people use four cultural tools to help them with their spirituality: “(1) they confess their tradition’s creed, or God-story; (2) they belong to a community that enacts the God-story; (3) they feel called by this story to contribute to a larger purpose; and (4) they have hope for the future promised by this story.”18 These tools help young people hold onto the faith of their local church and the tradition in which they have been socialized, but they only help them become religious. They do not necessarily make them Christian. \n\n
• #37: Not all young people have been lost by the traditional teachings of the church. There are many who are highly devoted to their particular faith. Those highly devoted teenagers discovered in the NSYR, have specific characteristics. Dean recognizes that highly devoted young people use four cultural tools to help them with their spirituality: “(1) they confess their tradition’s creed, or God-story; (2) they belong to a community that enacts the God-story; (3) they feel called by this story to contribute to a larger purpose; and (4) they have hope for the future promised by this story.”18 These tools help young people hold onto the faith of their local church and the tradition in which they have been socialized, but they only help them become religious. They do not necessarily make them Christian. \n\n
• #38: The solution to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a more faithful church, teaching sound doctrine and living it out. Dean believes that a solution to the “problem” of young people not having the kind of faith that the church would like to see them have, is “not in beefing up congregational youth programs or making worship more ‘cool’ and attractive, but in modeling the kind of mature, passionate faith we say we want young people to have.”19 The faith of the church is being reflected in what our young people say they believe. They believe what we have taught them by our actions and then our words.\n\n
• #39: Another frequently debated topic currently in youth ministry is the percentage of young people who, although active in their teenage years, have left the church after they graduate from high school. This, to many, would suggest the failure of youth ministry, and it is these studies that are frequently mentioned when cries for revolution in youth ministry come to the forefront.\nHowever, very little of the common debate about church dropout rates is based on empirical evidence. Research indicates that most of the debates and conversations that revolve around this topic are based on opinions of those who are stating the “alarming statistics.” Shields, after investigating the statistics quoted by Lifeway, Barna, Josh McDowell, and others, indicates that Lifeway Research’s “Church Dropout Study” is the only one that has “attempted to verify or refute the theory that the majority of committed evangelical teenagers are leaving the church after high school.”20\nLifeway Research conducted a study in 2007, surveying young people ages 22-30 who had attended a Protestant church at least twice a month for one year during high school. Of those surveyed, seventy percent stopped attending church regularly for at least one year between the ages of 18-22. Since leaving the church for that year, about 35% of those who once dropped out, return to church and attend at least twice a month again.21\nThere are many variables that must be taken into account when considering these statistics, including how active the young people really were in their church, what were their motives for attending twice a month, and other things beyond the scope of this paper. However, Shields concludes, “The ‘research data’ so widely quoted and used as justification for turning youth ministry on its head is found to be no more than anecdotal speculation by those with a heart for the condition of the modern evangelical family.”22 \nHaving the desire to see the family grow is not wrong, but one must be cautious not to blame youth ministry on the condition of young people and their spirituality, either positively or negatively. As Shields states, “Youth ministry is not the panacea for discipling young people. Youth ministry is not God’s primary mechanism for reaching and discipling young people––God issued that directive to the family (Deut 6:6-9) and the church (Eph 4:11-13). However, youth ministry exists because youth culture exists. Youth ministry can be a culturally acceptable means for the church to evangelize and disciple young people alongside the family and the church body.”23\nThe state of youth ministry is very difficult to describe. There are young people who are highly devoted, young people who are not devoted, and young people who fall somewhere in the middle. There are youth ministries that are exemplary. There are church attending young people who continue be involved in a faith community after high school and there are those who drop out of church after high school. All of these variables make it a difficult task to identify the current state of youth ministry in America.\n\n
• #40: What has happened in the last fifty years in youth ministry that has produced the results we are seeing today?\n\nIt would be impossible to place all of the blame or all of the credit of either the success or failure of young people on youth ministry. Family influences, school life, and even personality, play an important part in the development of young people, both physically and spiritually. In this section, we will look at some of the practices of youth ministry and their effects on young people.\n\n
• #41: \n
• #42: Successful programs as a barometer for successful youth ministry\nOne of the practices that has become fairly common in youth ministry is placing a great emphasis on successful programs. This type of ministry counts attendance as well as the feelings and emotions of the attendees higher than evidence of the spiritual life of those who attend. DeVries says, “"In the last twenty-five years, groups like Youth Specialties have popularized the parachurch style of youth ministry by marketing their ideas to local churches. As a result, the face of youth ministry in the nineties has become increasingly creative, with a plethora of products designed to reach teenagers more effectively. But despite these external improvements, contemporary youth ministry is in crisis."24 \nThe ideas and creativity are not in themselves an incorrect idea of youth ministry. They can become an obstacle for sustained spiritual growth when we depend on their presence to draw us to Jesus. DeVries describes adult Christian maturity, which he says is the desired product of youth ministry, as those who do not require “bells and whistles” as their reasons for following Jesus. He questions, “Could it be that the majority of our efforts in programming and publicity may, in fact, be moving teens away from rather than toward mature Christian adulthood?” 25\n
• #43: The separation of young people from the congregation\nYouth ministry has increasingly separated young people from the church body. This separation has resulted in a group of young people who have little or no contact with the rest of the body of Christ. Dean raises questions about this practice when she says, “To treat adolescents as a separate species instead of as less experienced members of our own was one of the twentieth century’s largest category errors. Teenagers, obviously, are people too, and youth ministry is as much about being the church as it is about working with adolescents.”26 This separation could be one of the problematic practices that have led to a decrease in youth spirituality and an uneasiness among the church body on the part of young people after their time in the youth department is finished.\nYoung people need contact with adults, and the church can and should provide them with good mentors and role models. DeVries argues that in almost every area of life, neighborhoods, schools, social activities, families, and even the church, young people are isolated from adults. This isolation, he believes, is one of the problems that "traditional youth ministry" faces.27 It seems that the lack of involvement in the life of the local church has become a hindrance to accomplishing the goals of youth ministry.\nSeparating young people out for age-appropriate teaching and specific experiences has its benefits, but some are beginning to question if those benefits are worth the long-term consequences. Again, Dean says, “We have known for some time that youth groups do important things for teenagers, providing moral formation, learned competencies, and social organizational ties. But they seem less effective as catalysts for consequential faith, which is far more likely to take root in the rich relational soil of families, congregations, and mentor relationships where young people can see what faithful lives look like and encounter the people who love them enacting a larger story of divine care and hope.28 It seems that in order to accomplish the purposes of youth ministry the local church should look for ways to include both age-appropriate programs and time with the larger faith community.\n
• #44: Incorrect theology in youth ministry\nIt should go without saying that successful youth ministries and successful churches must be grounded in the correct doctrine. If the findings of the NSYR are correct, young people in general have not been taught the basic theology of Christianity. Dean says, \nThe problem does not seem to be that churches are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an exceedingly good job of teaching youth what we really believe: namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people focused primarily on ‘folks like us’––which, of course, begs the question of whether we are really the church at all.29 \n\nIt is important that youth ministries teach the Biblical perspectives of following Jesus and not just a feel-good, moralistic theology that results in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. \n
• #45: Faithless families\nOne of the most obvious, yet overlooked, findings from the NSYR is that young people’s faith closely follows the beliefs of their parents. Dean sums it up with this statement, “Contrary to popular opinion teenagers conform to the religious beliefs and practices of their parents to a very high degree.”30 George Barna interviewed young people who continued in the faith long after leaving their homes and found that the love and example of parents was one of the most important factors in the lives of those he calls “spiritual champions.”31 There is no doubt that “Parents matter most when it comes to the religious formation of their children. While grandparents, other relatives, and youth ministers are also influential, parents are by far the most important predictors of teenagers’ religious lives.”32 The results of the multiple surveys from the NSYR that show that many young people have trouble with their faith are the result of faithless families. Youth ministry and the local church must respond to this crisis. As Dean says, “A more faithful church is the solution to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. That is going to take more than hiring a youth minister, though that is an excellent place to begin.”33 More faithful families will result in more faithful young people.\n\n
• #46: Practices that lead to more successful youth ministry \nDespite all of these reasons to question youth ministry practices in the last few decades, there is evidence that some congregations are effectively leading young people to spiritual maturity. There are some young people who do continue to live out their faith in a personal way and participate in a local church after they graduate from the youth ministry of the church. This result means there are some success stories in youth ministry.\nDr. Merton Strommen’s Content Analysis Report of Exemplary Youth Ministry in Congregations states an important discovery from his research, “There is wide spread agreement with respect to what is essential for an effective youth ministry.”34 This report reviews the feelings of 204 respondents from 134 congregations about their success in nurturing youth to mature Christian faith, distinctive elements of their youth ministries, and essential requirements necessary for their youth ministries to thrive. Their findings conclude that exemplary youth ministries are characterized by a “unique spirit and culture.”\nThe spirit and culture of exemplary youth ministries, while difficult to define, can be grouped loosely into at least three clusters of characteristics which include: (1) theological and strategic dynamics, (2) qualities of ministry, and (3) uniquely integrated practi\n
• #47: There is little doubt that genuine faith of the leadership of a ministry will lead to greater faith for those involvexd. Mike Yaconelli, in an interview about the Youth and Spirituality Project, says, “The lie of our culture is that you have to be cutting edge. With this program we found that young people are not interested in adults or worship services attempting to be trendy and hip; rather they look for adults who are alive in their faith.”36 Successful youth ministries, regardless of the culture, will be ministries that have leaders who are living out a vibrant faith.\n\n
• #48: Application to Mexican Youth Ministry\nEvery strategy has its geographic limits. Not every practice that works in youth ministry in the United States, will work for ministry to young people in Mexico. There are, however, some principles and practices that can and should be translated into the Mexican context. An evaluation of church work with youth in the United States and research of those ministries to young people, have left us with a few principles and practices that can be used in the context of the Mexican local church. First, however, we must turn our attention to some important differences between Mexican culture and American culture.\nMexico’s religious climate is dominated by a Roman Catholic worldview, and 85% of the youth in the country declare themselves to be Roman Catholic, whether they practice the religion or not.37 The evangelical church in Mexico faces unique challenges as it attempts to minister to young people, not the least of these being the predominant Roman Catholic viewpoint. This worldview goes deeper than just surface religion and practice; it often goes to the very heart of cultural tradition and history.\nYouth ministry in Mexico could be in a similar position as youth ministry in the United States was in the ‘70s and ’80, with many churches looking at youth workers as those who one day will grow up and become “real” pastors. During this time church work with youth began to become a ministry of the church and training opportunities began to appear with more frequency.38 Christian youth work began to transition from parachurch ministries to the ministry of the local church. All of these critical changes are currently taking place in Mexico.\nYouth Ministry in Mexico until this point has existed mostly as loosely organized youth fellowships of the local church. The Union Nacional de Jovenes Bautistas is over one hundred years old. Many youth leaders are voted into place for one year and replaced after the term is finished, leaving a void in sustained leadership and long-term vision for the church’s ministry to young people both inside the congregation and outside the walls of the church.\nParachurch organizations that work with young people have been in Mexico for years. Especialidades Juveniles, the Spanish branch of Youth Specialties, opened an office in Mexico in 2010, despite having been involved in training youth workers in the country for many years before. Young Life, Youth with a Mission, Campus Crusade for Christ, and many others currently have ministries in Mexico, but the local church still struggles to capture the attention and hearts of the majority of young people.\nThe Center for Youth Ministry of the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary was one of the first formal youth ministry training programs in the country specifically focusing on training youth workers for local churches. This training program is the result of an alliance between Youth Ministry International and the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary and began in 2004 by offering a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry as one of its academic programs. In 2009 the Seminary began to offer a certificate program as well. The Presbyterian Seminary in Mexico City offers a Youth Ministry certificate program, and an organization called Vision Juvenil will begin to offer a semi-formal certificate program for youth workers in 2011.\n\n
• #49: Youth ministry by nature is nontraditional. Many Mexican local churches are traditional in their mindset and way of doing things, increasing the challenges faced by youth ministry. Oestreicher, speaking of early US youth ministry from post World War II to the 1960s, states, “Churches , in general, were slow to respond to the crisis of youth culture (big shock). Churches and church leaders equated youth culture with sinful activities or––at least––unwholesome activities and rebellious attitudes. So those early youth ministry pioneers who knew they had to be true to their calling found––in large measure––that they had to do youth ministry outside the context of the local church.”39 This has some application to the current situation in Mexico. Some of the best ministry to young people takes place outside of the local church due to the fact that there are too many prohibitions inside the traditional church.\n
• #50: Principles for successful youth ministry in Mexico\nAfter taking into account the cries for reformation and renewal of youth ministry in the United States and attempting to discover some of the principles and practices that have led the church to where it currently finds itself, we now attempt to extract some cautions to be avoided and principles to be practiced as youth ministry in Mexico continues to grow and develop.\nDifferent models of youth ministry will emerge in Mexico, but after seeing what has worked in the United States, we must attempt to contextualize the following principles into our practice of youth ministry in order to be effective at reaching and discipling the Mexican youth population. Successful youth ministry in Mexico will (1) emphasize the family ministry, (2) seek to leverage relationships between young people and adults in their social graphs, (3) count on the support of the senior pastor and the investment of the congregation, (4) be theologically sound, and (5) include trained youth ministry professionals in the strategy to reach and disciple young people.\n
• #51: Emphasis on Family Ministry\nSuccessful youth ministry in Mexico must place great emphasis on ministering to the entire family. Mexican youth workers must heed the call of their colleagues from the north to come alongside families in their God-given responsibility to nurture their young people. As Sean P. Reynolds states, “Parents are who we’ve made them to be when we set up a system of programs that implicitly say to them, ‘Leave this to the professionals; don’t try this at home’.” 40 \nThe family is important when it comes to religious decisions for Mexican young people. In the 2005 National Survey of Young People, as many as twelve percent of the young people surveyed say that the decision to change their religion should be made by the family. The conclusions from the National Survey of Young People are that Mexican young people are strongly tied to their family, even more so to the mother than to the father.41 This affinity of youth for their mothers shows a need for strong women’s ministry and support for Mexican mothers who are often found trying to lead their families in the spiritual realm. The church would do well to provide ministry to them as they lead their children through the dark waters of adolescence and young adulthood.\n
• #52: Relationships with significant adults\nSuccessful youth ministry in Mexico should seek to leverage the relationships that young people have with adults, especially with adults from the congregation of the local church. DeVries argues for the need of local church youth ministry that does not isolate young people from the rest of the church. He compares many youth ministries in the United States with a one eared Mickey Mouse, with the youth separated from the larger congregation.42 He continues by saying, “The most important priority a church can have  in its work with teenagers is providing them with opportunities for significant dialogue and relationships with mature Christian adults. This priority does not require a massive budget or an extensive program. It does require a group of adult leaders in the church who will make the creation of relationships between adults and teenagers the central priority of the youth ministry.” 43\nResearch reveals that young people need good relationships with adults in order to develop fully. The Search Institute, in their list of 40 attributes for the healthy development of young people, include other adults besides family in no less than seven of their list of twenty external foundational elements. It can be argued, then, that young people need positive adult relationships and role models to develop not only physically and emotionally, but also spiritually.44 Youth ministry in the local church is in a perfect position to provide for this need. \n\n
• #53: Sound theology\nSuccessful youth ministry in Mexico will include sound theological teaching to ground young people in the faith. This sound theology will help monitor what is being taught and transmitted to young people. As has been already mentioned, Dean makes a strong case for the reason for the prevalence of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism among young people. Her argument is that the church has gotten these results because that is what it has been teaching to young people (and adults). For youth ministry in Mexico to avoid this result, it must be sure to teach the solid foundation of the gospel with Jesus as the center and His Lordship over every aspect of the Christian’s life. \nThe cultural milieu in which young people in Mexico find themselves is one that is full of syncretism of ancient indigenous practices and more modern Roman Catholic theology. Even those who are products of a more recent evangelical belief system have many theological concepts that must be aligned with Biblical teaching in order for youth ministry to produce the kind of devoted Christians it would like to produce. This complex and often unbiblical worldview will require competent leadership that will be able to help youth navigate the cultural beliefs and model faith with their lives.\n\n
• #54: Designated youth leaders\nSuccessful youth ministry in Mexico will include trained youth ministry professionals who will help guide local churches in their quest to minister to the youth of their communities. The NSYR suggests that full time designated youth leaders play an important role in the development of the faith of young people.45 The Exemplary Youth Ministry Study, when reporting results of Strengths of Youth Ministries in Exemplary Congregations, give the leadership, effectiveness, competence, and positive characteristics of the youth minister as consistent reasons for the strength of the youth ministry. The youth worker is one of the factors for the success of their congregation’s youth ministry, regardless of whether it is the young people, their parents, or adult volunteer youth workers who are sharing their opinions of their church’s youth ministry’s strengths.46 Successful youth ministries in Mexico will do well to designate someone as the leader of this important ministry.\n\n
• #55: Support from the senior pastor\nSuccessful YM in Mexico will include the support of the senior pastor and will need an investment of the entire church to be effective. The support of the senior pastor is key to successful youth ministry. Churches interviewed for the Exemplary Youth Ministry study showed the need of the pastor’s support of the youth ministry in order for it to be successful in producing devoted young people.47 This is part of the youth ministry culture that a church can develop. DeVries writes specifically to senior pastors, “As hard as it may be for you to believe, no one will influence the building of a sustainable youth ministry at your church like you will.”48 If the local church pastor does not believe in the youth ministry, then it will not succeed.\nThe senior pastor is key to the success of any ministry in Mexico. His support of the youth ministry is crucial for local church youth ministry, especially in a church culture where the leadership has traditionally been dependent on one man. As youth ministry evolves in Mexico, the pastors’ support and impulse of youth ministry will be key for the church’s involvement with the youth culture.\n\n
• #56: Those presently involved in youth ministry have the responsibility to learn from the past and continue forward towards what God has for them in their era. Dean reminds us, though, that, “Fortunately, it is not all up to us. Because Christians believe that transformation belongs to God, Christian formation––the patterning of our lives and our communities after Christ’s own self-giving love––requires grace, not determination. The church’s job is to till the soil, prepare the heart, ready the mind, and stay awake so we notice where God is on the move, and follow.”49 May Mexican youth leaders always remember that God is the one who causes the increase. May they depend on Him in their quest to reach and minister to the young people of the world.\n\n