How Teenagers Changed the Church

If you are like me, and around my same age, at some point in your life you have been influenced by some form of youth ministry. It may have been a Wednesday night youth meeting, summer camp, 5th quarter, mission trip, scavenger hunt or the notorious "Lock-In,"but needless to say, youth ministry affects the vast majority of teenagers at some point along the adolescent journey. But that hasn't always been the case. There hasn't always been 23 year old extroverted, cool guys with a goatee leading youth groups. Youth Ministry as we know it today hasn't always been around. It wasn't too long ago that most churches either had the Pastor's wife leading the children and youth department or some other older couple in the church trying to put something relevant to eat on the teen's spiritual plate. Recently, within the last 50 years, we have seen the professionalizing of the Youth Worker, and as a result we have seen a dramatic change in teenagers, resulting in a trickle-down or rather trickle-up effect that has ultimately transformed the church. One researcher believes "that the larger church lags youth ministry trends by approximately 15-20 years." So what will the church look like in the future? Well, if the research is correct, all one must do is look at youth ministry today and you'll have a glimpse of church life in the year 2025.

So if you are interested to see how the whole "youth" thing got started, check out these three posts over on Out of Ur that cover everything from the history of youth ministry(Parts 1 and 2), to the future trends we'll see in the church(Part 3).

How Teenagers Transformed the Church (Part 1)
How Teenagers Transformed the Church (Part 2)
How Teenagers Transformed the Church (Part 3)