A couple of weeks ago I watched this documentary on the modern state of youth ministry in America. I recommend taking the time to watch it. I was impressed on a number of levels with the quality of work the young filmmaker Philip Leclerc offered. I was also extremely disappointed with many of the conclusions the film offers. I encourage you to watch the film (its only 55 minutes) and then dialogue with me here.
For those unable to spend an hour watching the movie here is a brief synopsis. There is something wrong with youth ministry. The church has outsourced the discipleship of their young to professionals. What has resulted is an age segregated church, a cultish youth group culture, and thousands of kids walking away from the church. The solution is doing away with this unbiblical form of discipleship and replacing it with a more holistic family oriented ministry whereby the fathers teach their own kids.
I appreciated the initiative Philip showed. He sensed something awry in modern youth ministry and went on a journey to discover the problem and how it can be solved. That takes a lot of courage, determination, and hard work. My hat is off to Philip for putting himself out there. Despite Ken Ham being one of the first individuals on screen, somehow I kept watching. Much of what Philip finds is indeed true about youth ministry. Shallow theology, cultish culture, and lots of students “leaving the church”. However, this is not new research. Church leaders have been freaking out over students leaving the church when they graduate high school for as long as I remember. Putting it bluntly, one man interviewed in the film commented that students are walking away and going to hell. With this kind of perspective, church leaders and youth workers seem to be focusing most of their efforts on getting students to stick around. There is even a modern research cohort at a very popular and well known seminary that is centered around getting students to stay involved in the church community post-highschool. Related to this, there is a lot of language of “abandoning the world and clinging to Christ”. This kind of neo-gnostic language is indicative of the unhealthy “us vs. them” mentality that drove the fundamentalist movement of the 20th century. We don’t need to encourage kids to abandon the world, we need to teach them to be engaged as a faithful reflection of God inthe world. Further, Philip finds that youth ministry has been, for the most part, handed off to young energetic youth professionals. This is also not groundbreaking. Youth workers have sensed this as a problem for years as well. It takes time to make giant shifts in church culture. I am encouraged to see more parents than ever before taking a vested interest in their students spiritual development. The film misses the responsibility for all adults to take interest in the youth in their congregation, though.
Still, with all I appreciated about the film, I have two major problems with the solutions it provides. The first is that its solution is still motivated by fear. Fear that students will leave. Fear that students will be involved in worldliness. Fear that students faith will take a different shape than their own. We cannot construct a theology of youth ministry out of fear that if we don’t recruit them, someone else will. Frankly, I think we might need to wrestle with the idea that maybe kids need to lose their faith in order to find it. If everything we know about the gospel is paradoxical (life out of death, lose in order to find, give up to have) why do we have such a hard time with students losing some of the expressions of faith we have to construct their own? For some of my students, I hope they lose their faith to find it. Why? Because the faith they have is inherited from a structure and community that treats faith like a country club membership rather than a robust trust in God to put all things to rights in Jesus Christ. My second major problem is that its solution is still epistemological. Over and over again those interviewed kept talking about teaching students so that they may know and be a disciple. Following Jesus is not a matter of knowing but a matter of being. The idea that even the most compelling teaching will produce disciples is a myth. We need to replace this modern epistemological trend with a more holistic ontological mission. We need to invite students to experience all of the spiritual rhythms of the church along with us. We need to realize that our very lives and relationship with them is a curriculum of its own, and probably the best one we have. Related to this problem is the solution that fathers need to be teaching their own children. Again, why so much emphasis on propositional instruction? Further, why is the father the only eligible teacher in the family? What if the father is absent? What I suggest is that we go further than this documentary lends and become a church culture where all adults are responsible for inviting students into the rhythms and life of the church. Then, youth ministry becomes more about preparing the adults in congregations to see students and less about being a mercenary business for young professionals.
If you are involved in youth work in any way I still recommend you watch it.
I applaud Philips efforts in his journey to reshape youth ministry. I hope he continues to look for fresh ways to help students construct theological meaning and find their place in Church.
