PHILOSOPHY OF YOUTH MINISTRY

During my year-long pastoral internship at PCPC, I was challenged to think more deeply about many aspects of Christian ministry. One area I studied was youth ministry. What follows is a document I prepared this Spring formulating a philosophy of youth ministry. [Readers note: The Westminster Confession of Faith (here is another good online version) is the doctrinal confession of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)]

PHILOSOPHY OF YOUTH MINISTRY
M. Jay Bennett
Pastoral Intern, Park Cities Presbyterian Church
Last Updated, 3-3-8

Toward a Definition of Youth Ministry

The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) 7.1 states:

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.

The Puritan divines understood that God, by voluntary condescension, chose to enter into a special relationship with his image bearers by way of a covenant. The covenant teaches humanity who God is, who we are, and how we are to relate to him. It is through the covenant that humanity is able to fulfill its chief end of glorifying and enjoying God forever (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.1) or, in other words, having “fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward” (WCF 7.1).

As God’s relationship with the apex of his creation was ordered by means of a covenant of works wherein he promised life on condition of perfect and personal obedience, so all of creation reflected that same covenantal ordering (Genesis 1-2). Marriage, family, and society were ordered by God in covenantal terms, but through the sin of humanity’s primal representative the covenant between God and humanity was breached. Under the judgment of God, the created order was disrupted (Genesis 3). Chaos, decay, and death—the wages of sin—entered the world. But God, in love, promised to redeem his elect from sin along with the rest of his creation through the person and work of his incarnate Son by means of a new covenant, the covenant of grace (Genesis 3:15; 15:18; 17:7). This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I define Christian ministry as loving other sinners by helping them enter into right relationship with the triune God through his covenant and, in humble love and joy (i.e. worship), walk faithfully with him according to the same. Thus, understanding and conforming to the covenantal structure of God’s world, which is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ, is of vital importance to Christian life, worship, and maturity. We should know and consistently be reminded of how we fit into God’s plan for his creation in order to live and worship as Christians. We should be progressively conformed toward relating to our God, one another, and our world rightly in order to mature in the faith.

In keeping with the definition above, I define youth ministry as loving other sinners of youth age by helping them enter into right relationship with the triune God through his covenant and, in humble love and joy (i.e. worship), walk faithfully with him according to the same.

On the Special Opportunities and Challenges of Youth Ministry

Youth age (13-18 yrs.) can be a simultaneously exciting and confusing stage of human growth and development. It is an in-between time of leaving childhood and entering adulthood. Youth are in a sense both children and adults in the rapid process of maturing.

As children, youth are highly dependent upon their parents and elders for encouragement, guidance, and protection (i.e. love, cf. Ephesians 5:29). This is as it should be according to God’s covenantal ordering as revealed in his Word (Ephesians 6:1-4; Colossians 3:20-21). The Puritan divines understood this ordering as a moral imperative according to the fifth commandment of the Decalogue: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12; cf. Deuteronomy 5:16). The Larger Catechism question 126 asks: “What is the general scope of the fifth commandment?” Answer: “The general scope of the fifth commandment is, the performance of those duties which we mutually owe in our several relations, as inferiors, superiors, or equals.”

As adults, youth are, in many respects, expected to live independently of their parents and elders with the level of independence increasing over time (i.e. growth in maturity). Growth in maturity should be one of the most exciting and formative times in a person’s life. New horizons are becoming visible, and, with the loving encouragement, guidance, and protection of one’s elders, they are achievable. But as sinners in a fallen world, this process is wrought with difficulties.

Perhaps one of the most difficult issues youth face is the temptation to dishonor their parents and elders in an attempt to achieve maturity on their own terms, which is sometimes thought of as freedom. Yielding to this temptation can manifest itself in rebellious attitudes, drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, etc. The basic desire for maturity is not bad in itself; it is good. Youth should want to mature. But maturity is not a matter of usurping the authority of one’s elders in order to claim it for ourselves; that is sin (Genesis 3:5-6). It is learning to relate to others according to a proper assessment of one’s position in community (i.e. humility), whether that community is one’s family, church, or society at large.

This time of maturing is a phase of life that involves such a rapid pace of change that it can be extremely confusing and exhausting. Therefore, youth need to be shepherded tenderly, in love, by their parents and elders. Thinking in broader terms than physical parentage, the Larger Catechism question 125 asks with regard to the fifth commandment: “Why are superiors styled father and mother?” Answer: “Superiors are styled father and mother, both to teach them in all duties toward their inferiors, like natural parents, to express love and tenderness to them, according to their several relations; and to work inferiors to a greater willingness and cheerfulness in performing their duties to their superiors, as to their parents.” Youth ministry cannot occur in isolation from the family and wider church ministry. They must go together. Youth simultaneously need to experience meaningful love relationships with one another, their families, the church, and the larger communities of which they are a part, while also receiving tender and loving guidance from their superiors in those communities. This is why I believe truly effective youth ministry must be community based. The church is an organism and, as such, parents and the wider church membership have much to offer and receive from their youth. While there is certainly a place for a youth ministry niche, it should always be a vital part of the overall ministry of the church. Youth should be consistently reminded of how they fit into God’s plan for families, the church, society at large, and all of creation in order to live and worship as Christians.

Concluding Thoughts

Christian ministry begins, is sustained, and ends in the eternal being of the triune God as it is expressed in creation. In other words, it happens according to the loving ordination of the heavenly Father through the mediation of his incarnate Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Since the fall of humanity, the gospel of Jesus Christ (i.e. the covenant of grace in his blood) has been the foundation and framework upon which all of life should be built. It is the lifeblood of the historic Christian church whose visible expression, defined by the proper administration of Word and sacrament, is the context of all Christian ministry. The visible church is “the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (WCF 25.2).

The process of maturing in the Christian life is a redemptive process in which faith and repentance are central. No one is righteous, but we know the One who is righteous, and we should long to be like him (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16). Since he has redeemed us from sin and given us such a wonderful gift, namely himself, we should worship him in love and joy, mortifying indwelling sin and living unto God by Christ every day (Rom. 6:11).