AUDIO
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Phillip Jensen speaks on Anger as part of a series on emotions in the Christian life, delivered at the Australia Day Convention 2010
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My last blog post was an attempt to diagnose a problem – that youth ministries are often isolated from the rest of the life of a local church.
There was some agreement, at least among those who commented, that this was often the case, and that this was not a good thing.
Cause of the problem?
So how did we get here?
That’s a question calling for a much more extensive research project than this little blog (and this little blogger) can handle. But how’s this for an observation:
A quick comparison of some of the catechisms from the Reformation seem to suggest a shift in responsibility for instructing (catechising) children in the faith.
Luther’s large Catechism of 1530 contains this explicit instruction to fathers to ensure that their children and servants are learning their catechism:
Therefore it is the duty of every father of a family to question and examine his children and servants at least once a week and to ascertain what they know of it, or are learning and, if they do not know it, to keep them faithfully at it.
Calvin’s Geneva Catechism from 1541 (revised in 1545 and 1560) was to provide “a pattern for what was expected to be taught by Christian fathers and other teachers of children in the Church.” The role of fathers in families was primary; and the church supported them in that responsibility by providing time in the church gathering for catechism by dedicated children’s teachers.
Formal time for the instruction of children by the ministers of the church is stipulated in the Presbyterian First Book of Discipline (1560), which required that “a Sabbath afternoon session be set aside for examination of young children in catechism.”
By the time we come to the Book of Common Prayer in 1662, the responsibility for catechism appears to rest solely with the Curate:
The Curate of every Parish shall diligently upon Sundays and Holy-days, after the second Lesson at Evening Prayer, openly in the Church instruct and examine so many Children of his Parish sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some Part of this Catechism.
Meanwhile parents are simply given the responsibility of making sure their children (and other dependents) get to church at the right time:
And all Fathers, Mothers, Masters, and Dames, shall cause their Children, Servants, and Prentices (which have not learned their Catechism,) to come to the Church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the Curate, until such time as they have learned all that is here appointed for them to learn.
Is this the beginning of the shift in responsibility from family to church? I’m sure there are Sydneyanglicans readers who can add to the history. Is this an example of a social pressure to shift responsibility from individuals to professionals? Is it our sinfulness that inappropriately hands over our responsibilities to others at the same time as inappropriately wresting responsibility from others?
The explanations are no doubt a combination of factors. The widespread experience seems to be though that this is where we are, and where we are is a self-perpetuating cycle: the discipling of young people has been handed over to professionals. Because the professionals are doing the work, parents no longer exercise their responsibility, and as a result they are inexperienced and ill-equipped to fulfill their responsibility. And because they are ill-equipped, parents seek more professionals to take care of the situation for them. And around we go.
It sounds to me like the spiritual equivalent of the ‘eating out’ lifestyle? Where cafés and restaurants are full but our apartments no longer have kitchens? As our society is rediscovering the value of a home-cooked meal perhaps the church needs to rediscover the value of a home-discipled young person?
The family is the first church of which children and young people are members. What is required to give this responsibility back to parents?
And if responsibility for discipling young people belongs at home, is there any place for a dedicated youth ministry in the church? Is there any place for a Bible College dedicated to training and equipping youth ministers? More on that next time.
I didn't get a chance to comment on your last post, but wanted to raise an issue about the desirability of having kids attend church with their parents. As we try to reach more and more people of non-English speaking backgrounds, the kids from these backgrounds often won't be able to attend their parent's church. Not because their parents don't want them there, but because they don't speak their parent's language well enough to follow what's going on. Of the 15 to 20 kids in my youth group, less than 5 would speak Mandarin well enough to follow the service verbally, and even fewer can read the Chinese script. Let's make sure that we don't accidentally throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Graham, have you thought about getting a bunch of parents, pastors, those on liturgical panels and faculty members of Moore/Youthworks together to do some hard thinking about this? I for one would support such a move.
In fact I haven't actually said anything as yet about the patterns of our gatherings - we often jump to the conclusion that recognising the church as a family must mean all gathering together in the one place at one time. That's not a necessary conclusion. I'd like to think more about that in future posts.
The big question that needs to be asked, whether we're meeting with all ages in together, or in separate groups (even at separate times and/or locations) is how we are expressing our common unity as one family of different ages and stages? There are various ways this can be done even in the large churches with a highly programmed ministry.
I think that asking and answering that question would help to strengthen the ministry of the entire church to the young people in the church - benefitting the young people, and the rest of the congregation at the same time.
I have a possibly unfavourable suggestion- why aren't parents more involved in the youth ministry of their churches? I'd love for some of the parents in my church to offer to lead in the youth ministry and I think the kids would enjoy it too... While it may seem that this would make some kids uncomfortable, I think if there were clear expectations on both volunteer parents and their children, this could prove to be a situation that benefits the whole of the church family (Kids being discipled by adults in their churches, parents being effectively trained in working with youth, etc) and while I don't feel this is a complete solution, it does go some of the way to fostering the "whole church" ideal that many youth ministries lack.
In a perfect world we wouldn't need youth ministers- in the perfect world we will all know the Lord from the youngest to the oldest- but for now it does seem like a good system, as long as we remember to maintain the links between the services.