How to start a ministry for other youth and adolescents in the church?(Part 2 of 2)

2) Ecclesiological perspective

A faithful pastoral care of young people needs a mature ecclesiological vision, is it common to see?Youth ministries? Disconnected from ecclesial life. Well-meaning but misdirected young leaders create a competitive environment within the church itself. Youth pastoral care, instead of serving the Church and its goals of proclaiming the gospel, creates a closed group in itself, full of similar people. it’s a mistake we’ve made for decades and it requires a reassessment. Youth ministry is not a church in a cooler (or cooler) version within the church.

By isolating the group of young people.
We have made the life of the church difficult to live biblically; unity in the midst of diversity suffers a brutal blow; an exclusive group of young people together is unable to show the beauty of the diversity that the gospel has achieved.
A group full of people in the same age group no longer enjoys the benefits of intergenerational ministry.

Therefore, before defining youth ministry a mature and biblical definition of the local church is necessary, the universal Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is known through its local representations, so any church proposal focused and closed on an exclusive group is wrong. to demonstrate the diversity of God’s people. The gospel created unity by breaking the barrier of enmity that existed between the Jews and the Gentiles (Ephesians 2:13, 14). This unity reflects the character of Christ and must therefore be carefully preserved (Ephesians 4:1-6).

The preservation of the unity of the Church begins with the ministry of the Word of God (Ephesians 4. 7-13). The Word of God equips all listeners in the church to perform service and build the body of Christ. When the church experiences this, each party cooperates towards the same goal: to build the church, the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost (Ephesians 2:22).

Consider some signs that the youth ministry is disconnected from the local church and competes with the rest of the church:

? An appreciation of the gathering of young people (cells or small groups of young people) at the expense of public worship when the whole church gathers;

? An attachment to charismatic leaders (leader of the “mad footprint” only) at the expense of proven biblical leaders;

? A focus on entertainment rather than truth;

? Build shallow relationships? Not focused on Christ, but simply because?Are they legal?at the expense of the grace and truth of the relationships that must prevail in Christian relations;

? Circles of relationships limited to young people;

? The mentality of parents that “while they’re at the youth meeting, are they all right?”

Signs that young people are integrated or moving towards integration in the context of the local church as a whole:

? Active participation of young people and adolescents in public worship;

? There is an identification of youth with the entire pastoral team and a diversity of mature biblical leadership with access to the youth and adolescent group;

? This is not to say that there can be no reference among the youth group of the pastoral team, the fact is that there is no artificial exclusivity and that the young man understands recognized leaders as his pastors.

? Interest in biblical truth and growth in discernment;

? There is a will to serve the rest of the church (in terms of age groups);

? There is a desire to build relationships with other groups in the church, learning the elderly and discipeding the younger ones;

? The mood of parents is to see the pastoral care of young people as a support for the biblical responsibility to raise their children, not as outsourcing their roles.

3) Pastoral perspective

The pastoral care of young people and adolescents needs biblical pastoral theology What does it mean to care for/raise sheep?What does it mean to have young sheep and teenagers? These are questions that require biblical answers. It is common to reduce ministry among young people and adolescents to a “nanny” mentality, with a lot of entertainment and full of superficialities that do not promote maturity.

The pastoral objective is to build the Church by promoting individual maturity in the image of Christ (Colossses 1:28, 29). The pastor does this by teaching and counseling. In developing the idea a little, the pastor needs a ministerial vision centered on the Person and the work of Christ, heralded by teaching and counselling, both in the public and in individual prosecutors (Acts 20. 20).

How is this happening in the context of youth and adolescent pastoral care?The Bible emphasizes the responsibility of parents in this task. A biblical pastoral theology will work in biblical ecclesiology. Thus, the practice of the ministry of pastors and youth and adolescent leaders. begins with a desire to equip parents. Obviously, we are talking about a wide range of possibilities because some young people are already trained adults and should be considered as such, but, especially with teenagers, we have to take into account the involvement of parents.

In addition to parental engagement, we should consider the participation of mature adults in the discipleship of youth and adolescents, not all young people and adolescents will have parents interested in fulfilling their responsibilities or will have parents committed to Christ. like these, we see the participation of the local church as a spiritual family of young people and adolescents creating an environment conducive to healthy intergenerational relationships (Titus 2; 1 Peter 5. 5).

Getting to work

Based on the 3 perspectives above, what do you think of youth ministry?You see, this is not just a model to implement, but a culture to develop around the truths of the scriptures. Each perspective helps us build a mindset capable of seeing young people and adolescents in a biblical way. The gospel should be seen in the life of the church, preached to the youth of the church, and used carefully to establish relationships in the context of the church.

In a practical way, consider the following initial steps:

? Pray that God will inspire leaders (among the youth). When the work seemed greater than the capacity of the workers, Jesus called us to pray.

? Training youth group leaders

? Emphasize the study of God’s Word systematically and relevantly.

? Encourage youth and adolescents to live the Word of God by implementing changes in their choices and relationships.

? Teach the importance of the local church

? Consider the differences between ‘youth meeting and church service’. Differences will help you take advantage of opportunities to bring together youth who are not available in local service without creating a competition harmful to church unity.

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