Author: Ed Trimmer, etrimmer(at)pfeiffer.edu
Head of School of Religion, Pfeiffer University
Date submitted: February 15, 2005
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In youth ministry we can forget John Wesley's understanding that the world is our parish and not just our church members and their families. Thus we focus only on those youth whose parents are members of our church or those youth who attend church. While that focus is a helpful place to start in youth ministry, we must remember those youth who live in our communities often outside of a commitment to Jesus Christ. Many times we are able to expand our church's youth ministry to the friends of the youth who attend or are members. Like the recent focus on FRAN - from the General Board of Discipleship, Division of Evangelism - we can focus our youth ministry on friends, relatives and neighbors of active youth. Unfortunately even this focus may mean that we miss many young people in our communities. In fact, focusing on FRAN may make our ministry even more segregated in terms of economic class or racial background.
In youth ministry we ought to remember those youth that are viewed by our society as "trouble makers, juvenile delinquents or outcasts." Some officials in law enforcement have made the point that over 75% of the juvenile crime in this country is committed by less than 10% of the juvenile delinquent population. Two informal surveys I conducted, one in Ohio another in North Carolina, indicated that these statistics were basically on target. What was disturbing to me was that the vast majority of these youth who committed most of the juvenile crime had never heard the saving message of Jesus Christ. In one county, only one youth of the over 30 identified youth who committed most of the juvenile crime in the county had ever been to a church service. Most churches and youth ministers have never tried to reach this youth population with the saving message of Jesus Christ!
Many churches when they begin to try and reach the "troubled" youth population find members of their congregation resistant. Popular sayings like, "one bad apple spoils the bunch" seem to be the operative theology, as opposed to the Wesleyan tradition of prevenient grace and Jesus died for all - not just the church members kids, which is a limited atonement theory.
Reaching "troubled" youth is not easy. Many a church window will be broken, toilets stopped up and church parlor's trashed however, if we of the local church are unwilling to try and reach ALL the youth of our community with God's saving message who will, (besides the Children's homes but that is an article for another day)? Several resources to start you or your church thinking about reaching troubled youth are: Reclaiming Our Prodigal Sons and Daughters, Scott Larson and Larry Brendtro; At Risk: Bringing Hope to Hurting Teenagers, Scott Larson; The Ongoing Journey: Awakening Spiritual Life in At-Risk Youth, Boys Town Press (various authors); and No Disposable Kids by Larry Brendtro, Arlin Ness & Martin Mitchell.
Dr. Scott Larson is head of Straight Ahead Ministries that is designed to reach juvenile offenders and more information is available through his web site. Dr. Larry Brendtro is head of Reclaiming Youth International, which has more of an educational focus but does have religious undertones. More information is available through his web site. Let's try and reach all of the youth of our community with our church's youth ministry!
http://www.straightahead.org/ and http://www.reclaiming.com/