A New Way to Do Youth Ministry

I am kinda bummed out today. I was supposed to go to Jackson to meet with a friend and fellow youth pastor for lunch, but the snow was too much for the nearly 2 hour drive. There was school closings and accidents everywhere this morning, and Isaac had a small seizure, so it is a good thing that I did not go, but I was looking forward to talking with Ben.

Ben really started me thinking about doing youth ministry in new ways. He says, "There are still ways to do youth ministry that have not been discovered yet." This gives us permission to try new things and styles of youth ministry. I have been doing some experimental styles of youth ministry, getting away from the educational, lecture, entertainment style of church models, more of BEING church instead of just DOING church. We have seen some really awesome results the past year so far. We have made some really strong connections with students, and seen much life change.

I have been reading the prophets of the Old Testament and asking the question, "What ticked God off?" I am finding the answer is far different than the one we heard in church growing up. We heard a lot of "Don't drink, dance, or chew, or go with any girls that do" style of Christianity that defined the earlier Industrial revolution, and World War II generation. Those generations found that many of those activities usually involved hanging out with the wrong crowd and straying from God. So I hand it to there generation for trying to keep people on track with God.

Things are a bit different now. The church focused too long on this model of "Christianity means you DON'T DO _____________." Fill in the blank yourself, we all know the jargon the church has become known for. Even today, drinking is a huge issue for the Southern Baptists, and many churches and pastors are turning from the SB denomination for there condemnation of drinking.
What really ticked God off was when there were people who were oppressed and God's people either did nothing for them, or took advantage of them. What really cheesed God off in the Old Testament was when his people started to get proud of their own efforts and not give God the credit that he deserved. What really made God mad, was when people worshiped pieces of wood or metal instead of him. And what really really cheesed him off was when God's people assembled together regularly and did nothing but go through motions.

Interesting.