Eric Groezinger writes with the following question:

I’ve been challenged and motivated to consider [implementing the Deep & Wide ministry strategy]. My challenge is discovering how to implement this in practical, weekly meeting formats. I’ve watched how you’ve modified your weekly meetings to be more intensive with study and discussion - did you just jump in and do this, how did you share this burden/passion with your volunteers, adjust their thinking, student thinking, etc.

The short version is that my high school youth group had already started drifting in this direction before I even intentionally did anything with Dare 2 Share and Deep & Wide. The shift from “games and fun with Bible study thrown in” to extended periods of in-depth Bible study took place naturally on its own. Significant theological discussions were going overtime every week, forcing me to shorten fun and games a bit more every week to make more time for study. Sometimes kids hung around afterwards for a half-hour longer just to continue their study together! The results of kids becoming more passionate about their walks with God and inviting friends to hear the Word was an unexpected result of that (embarrassingly so). It wasn’t until after this discovery that Greg Stier again encouraged me to check out Deep & Wide. Although Greg and I both agree that the thesis itself needs to be rewritten (the second revision should be released this fall), the main idea of Deep & Wide put words to what we were already experiencing. So, in other words, Deep & Wide fit what was already happening in our group — we did not change our group to fit Deep & Wide. Starting this fall, however, I will communicate Deep & Wide to the entire youth ministry as the intentional direction our ministry is taking. Right now the discussion is just between me and some of my adult youth workers, but that will change in August.

I realize most youth groups and churches may not “stumble” across this like we did and will instead have to make an effort to make the shift to a Deep & Wide approach to ministry. The danger is that youth leaders will see Deep & Wide as just another philosophy of ministry or an approach to try to coerce God into performing a certain way in your group. Nothing could be more detrimental to your view of ministry! Deep & Wide is partly a ministry strategy, but even moreso it’s a lifestyle. It’s not just something you DO, it’s something you strive to BECOME. That means it has to start with you, the youth leader. Unless you first dig deep into the Word on a personal level, become passionate about your walk with God and sharing it with others, any changes you make to the youth ministry to be “Deep & Wide” will be completely superficial. After your own spiritual appetite is fed with the Word and your personal evangelism is on fire for God, only then can the Deep & Wide passion become contagious to your students. Otherwise it becomes just another program instead of a lifestyle. So, if you’re looking for practical ways to implement Deep & Wide in your youth group, start with yourself. At that point, how to implement it in your ministry will be evident because it’s become an ingrained part of you. Nothing else will sit well with your conscious. That’s where I’m at now.

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Have a youth ministry question you’d like me and other readers to answer? E-mail it to me! Please keep your question brief and to-the-point. Thanks!

We’re all in youth ministry because we want to see teens move from being spiritually apathetic to being spiritually passionate, so when time passes and we see no signs of growth, it gets frustrating. Often we feel like we’re wasting our time, that our investment is pointless or that we should move our focus to a student that might produce more favorable results. It’s important to understand why we become frustrated because maybe then we won’t give up as easily on that “hard to reach” kid.

1. Unrealistic Expectations
What is it exactly that you expect to see in the teenager who’s supposedly not growing? Apparently you feel the student is not where you think they should be, but what is it that place where you think they should be right now? Perhaps your idea is unrealistic, especially since it’s quite possible that there are other factors in that student’s life and thought process that are unknown to you.

2. Remember: growth is a process
The process is longer for some than for others. It also takes a different path for everyone. There’s no such thing as microwavable spiritual fruit — it takes time to grow. Just because the fruit isn’t ripening as fast as you think it should doesn’t mean it won’t ripen eventually, maybe at a time when you’re not around to observe it. Allow the Holy Spirit to work in His timing.

3. We’re watching close-up
Staring at a pot of dirt to watch a seed grow is frustrating. You could stand there for a week and not see any evidence of growth. However, if you come back maybe three weeks after it’s been nurtured, watered and cared for, what was happening all that time beneath the surface is now displayed as a visual sign of growth. But if you stared at the plant the entire time, it would appear as if nothing was changing. Likewise, in our daily interaction with teens, we’re often watching for growth from a constant up-close perspective so we don’t notice the slow, but drastic, changes taking place. Look at your own life: where are you now spiritually compared to five years ago? I see my little brother and sister every couple months and they look more grown-up every time, but to my parents, who live with them, the growth is unnoticeable. Just because you don’t see the growth doesn’t mean it’s not there.

God never gives up on you. Don’t you give up on spiritually apathetic teens!

1. Be passionate about your own personal relationship with Christ.
2. Develop and train volunteers who are also passionate about their relationship with Christ.
3. Hang out with kids and pray like crazy that your passion become contagious.
4. Expect the Holy Spirit do some awesome things to spiritually grow your kids through your influence.

(What, did you think this was about numerical growth? Are you a little disappointed that it’s not?)

The first point is this: it starts with us, the youth leaders. To take our kids to new levels of spiritual maturity means we have to be at that level first. I’m convinced that most Christianity is caught, not taught. We can stand up in front of a group and say a lot of good things about God and, although that’s significant, none of that will leave the impact that the presence of a passionate sold-out-for-God youth worker will who gives students a chance to see a relationship with God lived out in daily life.

The second point is that spiritual growth is ultimately a work of the Holy Spirit. There’s nothing we can do to force a kid to grow. The best we can do is pray like their lives depend on it (because they do) and seek the Lord’s wisdom in creating environments that facilitate spiritual growth. Beyond that, the best we can do is remain open for the Lord to use us however possible in communicating His Truth and let Him be the one that makes the Truth penetrate their hearts and souls.

Here’s a summary list of every issue in youth ministry that’s been mentioned by one of the series contributors. Whew! There certainly are a lot of issues that need to be addressed.

Discuss: Which of these issues apply specifically to your youth ministry? What changes can you make to address them in 2007?

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today?

• Students are under a tremendous amount of stress and pressure.
• It is vital that we remind them constantly that Jesus needs to have first priority in their lives and that He holds their future in His hands. Students are so busy and God and church is not always the #1 priority.
• We need students to be global Christians.
• The idea of godly sexuality for all people needs to be put back on the agenda.
• Mental health.
• The whole question of “church” is becoming more and more of a struggle for youth ministry.
• Professional youth pastors and senior pastors looking for job security.
• This generation is facing identity issues, sexuality issues, authority issues, and vocation/purpose issues, but in a much more intense, aggressive, combative, pluralistic context.
• Discipleship and teaching students to grow on their own.
• Retention after graduation.
• Engaging parents.
• Cultural relevance. The Church is often reluctant to change sufficiently to genuinely include the young people.
• Defining Success.
• Recruiting and training adult volunteers to be effective.
• Presenting God as the right and better choice over pop culture.
• A lack of understanding of youth culture and no desire to learn it.
• We’re spending so much time trying to keep the ones we have that we are not reaching the lost.
• The church leadership believes there are only a couple of kids caught up in major issues and the rest of the kids are great, god fearing and perfect.
• Employed Christian youth workers are only deployed where there are churches with significant financial resources, meaning deployment is based on money not need.
• The “dumbing down” of programs because of the myth that junior high students cannot go “deep.”
• Connections between people and real community.
• We should be focusing more on is inner-city and “fringe” type of neighborhoods and young people.
• The issue of personal holiness, from youth ministers to parents to students. Our calling should be to BE children of God and pant after Him so that teens can see HIS power in our lives.
• Apathy of the “cradle-Christian” student.
• Not enough long term funding or funding in general.
• The church allows the youth to be isolated, and sometimes they want the youth isolated, which is anything but unifying for the church.
• Viewing youth ministry as a stepping-stone to becoming a Sr. Pastor, as if it’s important to practice ministry on “little people” before being qualified to work with “real people.”

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is responding to effectively?

• Loving teens and connecting with them in their world.
• The call to missions.
• Youth ministry is attempting to address the same issues that the adult church may be after, but the amazing thing is that there is more of a willingness to experiment.
• Provides a safe place for hurting students. We are responding to the deep-seated hurts of teenagers in more effective ways than ever.
• Giving students time and space to be in community with each other.
• A desire to do ministry outside of the church and where kids are.
• Youth ministry allows young people to encounter adults (and young people) who seek to live a 24/7 faith and model a life that’s Christ centered and counter cultural.

In what ways does youth ministry need to change?

• We need to make sure we’re taking our young people deeper into their faith. But not just in Bible studies, but in their experience of mission, church, worship and so on.
• Students need to be IN ministry and not just the recipient of it. If students don’t lead they’ll leave. We need to believe in students and their ability to minister effectively to their peers.
• Relational-driven is more work and less to show…at first.
• Do your deal, follow Jesus, create this environment in the student ministry IF YOU CAN. If you can’t - shut up and leave and find a place where you can if it’s that important to you.
• Less reliance on programs.
• Less “next big thing” thinking.
• Less trendy, fad, youth workers.
• Longevity. Finding a way to keep youth pastors and leader in their positions for the long haul.
• Youth ministers need to adopt more of a “Family Ministry” rather than a “Youth Ministry.” Parents need to be central to the process of our teenagers’ spiritual formation and not disengaged bystanders.
• Emotional health.
• We need to have a plan for when the kids arrive in 6th grade they graduate high school knowing the fundamentals of scripture while at the same time encountering God rather than just being taught facts about Him.
• Plug students into the greater body of Christ.
• Church leaders need to understand what youth pastors are facing and stand with them in a major way.
• Giving opportunity to live faith not just hear about it.
• There is a pretty big void when it comes to Junior High Ministry Curriculum.
• Starting where young people are instead of where we want them to be.
• Student ministry needs to change first in the heart of Lead and Senior pastors across America.

[Read previous authors and posts in this series, “Issues in youth ministry.”]

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today?

A solvent and solid theology of youth ministry as family ministry. I’m convinced that our grid is jacked. Parents need to be central to the process of our teenagers’ spiritual formation and not disengaged bystanders. Deuteronomy 6 was written to moms and dads not youth leaders and adult sponsors. We need to get better at engaging parents in the process and giving them the tools they need to bring it up with their teens.

In addition we need to lead the process of helping our teens engage with significant Scriptural truths and wrestle with the most basic questions of God, His Word, Jesus, salvation, etc. If they don’t wrestle now they will wrestle later. But the one lined up against them in this wrestling match will be the Philosophy 101 professor their freshman year of college. He most likely will pin their premises to the mat in less than twenty minutes and full nelson their faith until they cry uncle. The result? More posers. More rebels. Fewer losers (who have lost themselves to follow Jesus longterm.)

I propose a radical new paradigm that’s 2,000 years old. Sorry to be so simplistic, but Scripture is either sufficient, relevant and transformational for every generation (even the tricky postmodern ones) or it is not the Word of God. If we don’t get back to the basics and stop trying to entertain our teens we are going to lose them. After all we are not as cool as we think we are. But the Word of God is every bit as powerful as it claims to be.

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is responding to effectively?

I think youth ministry is responding to the deep-seated hurts of teenagers in more effective ways than ever. Youth leaders are getting better at being aware of the teen world of angst, self doubt and inner pain. Perhaps the growing list of resources that deal in these areas is a big part of the reason youth ministry is responding more effectively in this area.

In addition I am excited that more and more youth ministries are getting technologically engaged. If we can learn to use the internet instead of fighting against it (why try? it’s an unstoppable force and fully integrated into this generation’s psyche) we can find more ways of communicating to them, creating true community and providing resources that will equip them in real and relevant ways to be a Jesus follower at home, school, online, offline, wherever, whenever.

In what ways does youth ministry need to change?

In a ministry world that is constantly on the look out for “the next new thing” I am of the mindset that we need a recalibration back to the core “old things.” Truth, theology, evangelism, relevance, love, servanthood and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Greg Stier is a Jesus-loving raving lunatic and is the President of Dare 2 Share Ministries.

[Read previous authors and posts in this series, “Issues in youth ministry.”]

[tags]Greg Stier, Dare 2 Share[/tags]

I chose to take the whole Junior High route in answering my questions. Being that I primarily work with junior high students I am going to answer each question as it pertains to junior high ministry.

What do you see as some of the main issues junior high youth ministry is struggling with today?

Junior High Ministry is really unique in that it faces its own unique challenges. The first issue is that young adolescents are experiencing life and culture way differently than they did even 10 years ago. We have had to be much more intentional about talking about sexuality, making wise choices, etc over the last five years than we had been in the previous 5.

The next area that I think the church as a whole (not all) still struggles with is not putting middle school ministries as a strategic front to reach young people with the gospel of Christ. Stats show that 85% of believers become Christians before the age of 14. I think much of the church has not understood this point. More churches need to see Junior High Ministry as a huge opportunity to reach people with the gospel and invest more resources towards it.

Often junior high ministry is either delegated to a layperson or given to an inexperienced intern to run. Churches need to be willing to invest in professional youth workers to take on the challenge of making disciples and reaching young teens for Christ. For the rest of this point I will refer to this open letter to the church that was put together by a group of middle school leaders a few years ago.

I also feel that many (not all) junior high ministries in the country are doing one of three things with their programs that could be hurting their programs.

1. Their Junior High program only consists of a Confirmation program, which involves the teaching of only “head” knowledge. This is a huge disservice to our middle school teens as they need to opportunity to process how there faith affects their real life.

2. To maximize time/resources/leaders ministries are putting their junior high and high school programs together. I really think this is a big mistake. Developmental middle school students are at a much different place than high school students. I think putting them together can hurt both ministries. However, I think from occasionally there is an appropriate time to bring them together. I would say when you have the resources to split, it needs to be done. Kurt Johnston had a great post this week about this very topic. He has some great insight at his blog.

3. The “dumbing down” of programs because of the myth that junior high students cannot go “deep”. Junior High ministry needs to be a blast. It needs to exist in the context of fun. However, sometimes I think ministries neglect the content for the fear that students really don’t want to go “deep”. Our small group leaders are constantly having deep conversations with our JH students. We have seen a hunger in our students to know God and a desire to learn how to be a Christian in our current culture.

What do you see as some of the main issues junior high ministry is responding to effectively?

Junior High Ministry is also doing a lot of things right.

1. Allowing Junior High Students to process their faith in small groups settings. Small groups can work in junior high. I believe those ministries that have implemented them have found success in that junior high students are having relational connections to other students and leaders, it has provided a safe place to question and doubt, and it provides a place for students to be supported in these transitional years.

2. More training available for junior high specialists and laypeople. This year I was pleased to see that there were more seminars offered at the National Youth Workers Convention for junior high leaders than ever before. This is very encouraging. It is also encouraging that these seminar rooms were packed with people hungry to be more effective ministers to young teens.

3. It seems like there are more people that are seeing junior high ministry as a life long calling than ever before. I am meeting more “just” junior high workers than I ever had before. The old stat that I have heard before is that there are only 400 “just” junior high pastors in the US. I am thinking that is changing.

In what ways does junior high ministry need to change?

There is a pretty big void when it comes to Junior High Ministry Curriculum. This seems to be an ongoing struggle year after year. At the [Youth Specialties] booth there was a very small table with very few junior high ministry books. In my opinion the best stuff out there right now is Simply Junior High’s Stuff and well as the Junior High Talksheets.

Students are so busy and God and church is not always the #1 priority. This doesn’t just pertain to Junior high Ministry but to all youth ministries. It can be so frustrating for the youth worker to get parents and students to commit to the church over, sports/drama/ or other school activities. What are we telling our students when week after week we spend our Sunday at soccer games?

Joshua is a junior high youth pastor at the Evangelical Covenant church in Mankato, MN where he has been serving for 9 years. Check out his blog here.

[Read previous authors and posts in this series, “Issues in youth ministry.”]

UPDATE: Please read the comments below. This is not a serious post. It’s satirical sarcasm and does not contain a hint of truth. It’s a joke written by the founder of Youth Specialties describing in exact opposite terms what NOT to do. Do NOT run your youth ministry this way! This is written to such an extreme in order to point out the absurdity of running a youth ministry this way. It’s only a joke. Please don’t take this seriously or think that this is my personal philosophy of ministry. It definitely is NOT.

Ten Easy Steps to Guarantee a Successful Youth Ministry!
by [tag]Mike Yaconelli[/tag]

1. Dumb Down the Gospel. Employ attractive phrases such as, “Since I’ve known Jesus I’m happier, getting better grades, and captain of the football team!” Even better, reduce the complexity of the gospel into group cheers (i.e., “Give me a J!”) or simple worship choruses like, “God is so good…blah blah blah.” (Try singing those words in Ethiopia.) Or even better, try out some hip slang (i.e., God is “phat”; Jesus is a “hottie”).

2. Count. Constantly make everyone aware of your group’s attendance figures and the increases in attendance. Make numbers an issue by setting attendance goals for each activity and reward the group for reaching those goals. Spend lots of time throwing pies at the leaders if goals are reached.

3. Put Your Students on Display. As soon as kids become Christians or rededicate their lives or show real growth, put them in front of the group and have them share their testimonies—especially if they’re physically attractive. Let young people talk about their faith as much as possible and don’t worry about the fact that most young people have no clue how complicated and rough the real world is with or without Jesus.

4. Don’t Allow Down Time. Hey, kids today are [tag]MTV[/tag] kids! They can’t sit still for any length of time. Silence, solitude, prayer, meditation, fasting? All totally lame in the eyes of this generation! Nope, keep ‘em busy, active, noisy, and shuttling from one Christian rock concert to another. Fill every moment of your program with something to do—otherwise you’ll lose their attention (which would be disastrous because then they’d have to pay attention to God and their souls).

5. Stay on the Technological Cutting Edge. What would Jesus do? Are you kidding? Jesus would have the best sound system you ever heard, along with a DVD player, the Internet, instant messaging, the coolest Web site, and of course a digital TV. Show your kids that when it comes to the latest technology, Christians are right there! I mean, who needs to read when you can watch?

6. Create Celebrities. Make sure your young people get an earful and eyeful of the latest Christian music stars, video stars, and NFL players who profess their faith in Jesus on national television. Encourage your young people to worship, idolize, and live under the illusion that these people are somehow better, deeper, more Christian, more together, and more dedicated than them. Let them believe that the marketed images of these celebrities are completely representative of them—even though you know it isn’t true.

7. Let Youth Group Take the Place of [tag]Church[/tag]. Oh sure, encourage your kids to attend the contemporary service—even though you know most of them never will because church is “boring,” filled with “dull, old people,” and the music “sucks.” Whatever you do, though, don’t suggest that worshiping with people they don’t like and connecting with people who are older and wiser just might save them when their adolescent view of the world is shattered. Just keep convincing your students that youth group is a good substitute for church.

8. Tow the Parental Line. Whatever you do, don’t cause friction with parents by suggesting to their kids that grades, SAT scores, financial security, college degrees, and athletic scholarships really don’t matter. Just accept the fact that most parents want their children to attend youth group as long as it doesn’t interfere with hockey, football, ice skating, tennis, ballet, or baseball practice. And don’t encourage young people to resist their parents’ attempts to smother the call of God on their lives, either. After all, you could get fired!

9. Ignore the Arts. Never encourage painting, dance, sculpture, writing, poetry, ballet, or trips to the museum, symphony, and opera. Stick with activities that rock! The WWF rules!

10. Live in the Now! Verify the success of your ministry by visible, measurable, observable results you see now. Don’t waste your time worrying about lasting results. Who can wait?! Go for the instant return. Hey, once your kids leave youth group, you aren’t responsible for what happens to them anyway, right?

11. “Us” Versus “Them.” (Yeah, yeah, I know I said “Ten Steps”—sue me.) Convince your kids that the only way Christians can make a difference is through public, physical confrontation with the “world.” Explain that this “world” is “them,” and Christians—the good guys—are “us.” And since it’s us against them, we have to “stand up for our faith.” Encourage them to march in rallies, wear slogan-filled T-shirts, hang banners, and do whatever it takes to get in the world’s face. Convince them that the Devil and his demons are running around, wreaking havoc—and the only way to deal with the Devil is to confront and “bind him.” Don’t let them believe that evil is much more seductive, much more camouflaged and tricky than they could ever imagine. And whatever you do, don’t start getting into Jesus’ strategy of powerlessness.

Now go get ‘em!

(ht jacob)

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today?

In my opinion so often I see that youth ministry is struggling with being relevant. For the past few weeks I have been talking with some of our top leaders about how we can draw in a high school crowd. In time past it was often said that winning teens to Christ by the time they were 18 was the goal cause after that the chances of them coming to God drops dramatically. From my perspective now back in ministry after a 5 year hiatus, it is as if you better win them before 8th grade. But I see so many youth ministries that aren’t relevant to today’s unsaved teens. So many are spending so much time trying to keep the ones they have that they are not reaching the lost. There are 32,000 teens from 6th grade to 12th grade within 30 miles of our church. So for us, even though our [volunteer] team has doubled our youth [group] attendance since April, we are not satisfied cause there are so many teens out there that have not heard the gospel.

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is responding to effectively?

I really have to think about this one [because, since] coming back [to youth ministry], I have such a focus on the unsaved teenager. Sometimes I wonder if youth ministry is responding effectively. Are we making a true difference? If the statistics are true, and some people don’t want to believe them, then we are failing. And one thing I am not ever going to do is say “that as long as I am there for the few that come I feel I am doing my part.” If the statistics say the only 4% of this generation is saved, then we are not responding effectively. And I am not even going to say that our ministry is being effective as well. Until the status quo changes we won’t know. Every week what drives me is whether we have created an environment that teens can bring their unsaved friends to.

Here is the thing: God has charged us with equipping our teens to reach their generation. So often we are equipping them with who “we” are as Christians and not equipping them to truly be effective. Then we send them out to do goofy Christian things and when there is no response or our teens are ridiculed we say things like, “Sometimes we are going to be persecuted for our faith.” Come on, man. God has called us to be more creative and relevant than that. Jesus changed water into “wine” (now I’m all about not drinking) and I believe it totally baffles the church but to the unbelievers of His time it was so on point. Jesus spent so much time being relevant to a lost generation that He wasn’t relevant to the church (Pharisees & Sadducees).

In what ways does youth ministry need to change?

It goes back to the whole relevant thing. If a group of unsaved teens walked in to our youth ministry, would we be speaking their language? Too often we are speaking so much “Christianese” and our “services” are designed for Christians. We are striving hard to change that in our meetings. Even changing the terms that we call everything. Sermons are messages, services are meetings, etc.

Jason Curlee is a youth pastor in Corpus Christi, TX. Check out his blog at Making Difference Makers.

[Read previous authors and posts in this series, “Issues in youth ministry.”]

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today?

Defining Success.

I think one of the biggest problems in youth ministry is how we define success and failure. Two statistics illustrate this point. The first is that the average tenure of a youth worker is about 18 months. The second is that the average youth ministry looses 60 to 95 percent of the youth they have ministered to from the church when they graduate high school. These two statistics show the problem with how we sometimes measure success.

The most common measure I hear for success is the number of bodies in the ministry. If that is the measure for success, then the goal is to make the youth ministry with as much consumer appeal as possible. I don’t know where this started, but it is a great quote – I first heard it from Grant English. It goes like this, “What you save someone with is what you save them to.” If we save teens to games and social comfort, then that is what we save them to.

The second statistic says a lot about the realization of success. There is a German word called spannungsbogen that is a very precise term not recognized in any other language as far as I know. Spannungsbogen describes the time between realizing the desire for a thing and actually getting it. Most youth ministry job descriptions are a mile long and are very idealistic. Yet, given enough time, a youth minister can achieve the job of youth ministry. The one sure way to keep that from happening is to pull support from a ministry at the first sign of trouble. We are not very good in the church in waiting for success, and we are even worse at allowing failure which is usually necessary in achieving anything.

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is responding to effectively?

I think the hope of youth ministry is true discipleship. I say true because I don’t think discipleship is Bible study or small group accountability. The youth ministries that I see having a long term impact in the lives of teens are the ones that do discipleship well. They have people who are mature in their faith who take the time to be deliberate in investing in teens and helping them develop their faith into something that will guide them for the rest of their lives. By faith, I mean trusting God when life doesn’t look like we think it should. There are ministries out there doing this and people’s lives are being changed in droves because it is very attractive to people who have know purpose.

In what ways does youth ministry need to change?

The biggest area I see where youth ministry needs to change is where I think the church needs to change. That area is emotional health. We spend a lot of time teaching the Bible as if correct knowledge means proper living. When I was growing up in youth ministry, people said the new computer speak of the day – garbage in=garbage out. With a perfect processor, then yes that is true. What I see in myself and other leaders, though, is that sometimes “garbage in” becomes “productive out” or “productive in” sometimes becomes “garbage out.” Without accounting for our hearts, then we can’t understand our drive in life and our glory to God. Without learning how to effectively deal with our own hearts we can’t deal with others. Yet there is little to know training in our seminaries in how to deal with anger, hurt, abuse, joy, or conflict and defensiveness. Our churches suffer because we are generally emotionally crippled or unresponsive. Even worse, leaders in the church are often driven by their own emotional needs rather than the needs of the people in their ministry.

Paul Martin is a youth ministry blogger at blog.likeafire.net.

[Read previous authors and posts in this series, “Issues in youth ministry.”]

Seth Barns of Adventures in Missions wrote a good post on all the expectations of youth pastors yesterday and how it relates to the need for discipleship.

(ht to Paul Martin)