A Philosophy of Youth Ministry
I’ve had a number of people ask me about the youth ministry. The biggest question of all has been “who is invited?” They want to know the boundaries of who is allowed and who is not allowed to come to youth group. Particularly, some have asked about young people from other churches, other denominations and even other religions. Are these youth welcome to come to the youth group at Grace United Methodist Church? Its a great question, because it points out a fundamental truth about our church that might be different from other churches. Our youth group, like our Sunday morning worship experience, is open to everyone. There is no bar for who can and cannot come to youth group. If you are a young person in middle school or high school you are welcome to our youth program. If you are older and you would like to volunteer as a leader for the program, we’ll walk you through our process, and, as long as you follow through on the basic steps, you are welcome. Just as Sunday morning worship is open to everyone, without exception, youth group is open to everyone, too.
One person asked me a follow-up question about this. If they are from a different church or different religion, are you going to try and convert them? Will you try and get them saved? This is often a sneaky question that people use as a “litmus test,” so the answer here needs additional information. Some people think that the only legitimate reason to invite other people from outside of your church to the youth group is to convert them from no faith or another faith to faith in Jesus Christ. Though I would never deny that our church is rooted firmly as followers of Jesus Christ, this way of thinking has a pretty big flaw in it. When Jesus was asked, “what is the greatest commandment” (ergo, what is most important?) his answer was to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. He did not answer that the most important thing was to convert all others to the Christian faith. If your only goal in inviting someone to church is to convert them and not love them, you’ve missed the boat.
In the Methodist tradition we see how other faith traditions can have many worthwhile beliefs and practices. We can partner together with people of other denominations and religions to do important work such as feeding the hungry and caring for orphans. We also recognize that all people are on a faith journey, whether they realize it or not. Our youth group might offer some meaningful insight for a person in a particular season in their life, whether they convert to Christianity or not, whether they join our church or not. All people are free to join with us in the journey and see if it is helpful to them or not. Our goal is always to build people up, connect them with one another that they might sense the love that flows from believers in Jesus Christ and help people to love God more, whatever that might mean for a particular person. Our practices are grounded in the ancient Christian religion, informed by Methodist traditions and enlivened when good people gather together to reflect on who God is and what God wants us to learn and do today. Its just the first steps in a philosophy of youth ministry, but hopefully it helps a few folks understand just a bit better about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish with this youth group. Let me know if you have any questions!
— Pastor Brian Neville