The Way of the Fathers has a great post on youth ministry in the Patristic-era:
Now, don’t jump to conclusions. I haven’t uncovered any evidence that St. Ambrose led teens on ski trips in the nearby Alps. Nor is there anything to suggest that St. Basil sponsored junior-high dances in Pontus. (There’s not even a hint of a pizza party.) In fact, if you check all the documentary evidence from all the ancient patriarchates of the East and the West, you won’t find a single bulletin announcement for a single parish youth group.
Yet the Fathers had enormous success in youth and young-adult ministry. Many of the early martyrs were teens, as were many of the Christians who took to the desert for the solitary life. There’s ample evidence that a disproportionate number of conversions, too, came from the young and youngish age groups.
How did the Fathers do it?
They made wild promises.
They promised young people great things, like persecution, lower social status, public ridicule, severely limited employment opportunities, frequent fasting, a high risk of jail and torture, and maybe, just maybe, an early, violent death at the hands of their pagan rulers.
You know, that sounds a lot like what I used to offer as a Marine Corps recruiter. Perhaps I could apply the skills I learned on recruiting duty in a ministry setting. Any megachurches out there want to hire me to implement the Patristic-driven youth ministry in their suburban church?
(HT: Disert Paths)
1
That's pretty interesting. Can you give an example of your spiel, so I could see if there were any way for me to impliment it?
posted on 06.09.2006 6:06 PM2
Kyle Can you give an example of your spiel, so I could see if there were any way for me to impliment it?
On recruiting we learned to follow a three-part intro when approaching someone about joining the Corps: What I’d like to do, what this will do for you, how does that sound.
For example, “What I’d like to do is set up an appointment with you on Thursday to talk about what the Marine Corps has to offer. What this will do for you is provide you with information that will help you make a decision about your future. How does that sound?”
Applied to PDYM, the spiel could be:
“What I’d like to do is invite you to visit the youth group of [Insert generic biblical term] Church. What this will do for you is provide you an opportunity to hear how you can suffer social persecution by being associated with religious wackos, severely limit your employment opportunities by entering into low-paying full-time ministry, enjoy the benefits of being thrown up on by the sick, disappointed while helping the needy, accused of being a “bleeding-heart” do-gooder for caring about AIDS victims, Rwandan refuges, and those trapped in the sex slave trade, and maybe, just maybe, if you find that your faith has called you to go to China, Iran, or Saudi Arabia, suffer an early, violent death at the hands of despotic religious or political rulers. How does that sound?”
3
Remember the American punk picked up in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban. He was an interesting by product of super liberal suburbia here in Marin, just north of San Francisco. In the countless follow-up articles written about him, one journallist delved into what attracted this American teen to Islam, and the answer was that he felt that the Muslims were going to change the world; they were going to make the world a much better place (in a rather false, sick way).
What got me about this article is that chainging the world is what Christianity is supposed to be about. We are the ones who are supposed to be out to change the world, we are the only ones who have the truth that saves. We are the only ones who have anything worth suffering and dying for.
My youth group (when I was youth) was large and considered quite good but all we ever got out it was the image that Christians are a rather reclusive group devoted to personal entertainment and self-righteousness.
So along with offering our youth a chance to suffer physically and socially, let us not forget that it is suffering for a great and good purpose.
Steve
4
I've always suspected that the early disciples and Church fathers were countercultural and anti-establishment by nature, just as all youth are. They may have been today's goths, or skateboarders, or whatever kids do these days to make their own mark.
There's a rebellious streak in most youth that naturally attracts them to the underdog.
Once Christianity became too much a part of the 'establishment', there is a natural aversion to it by some youth.
I think that's part of the reason there is a strong 'college Republican' movement on many campuses, because the establishment (most of the profs) are Democrat.
What's the lesson? Christianity should not have conformed and must reform itself not to conform to the establishments of this world, but remain a revolution. Remain anti-establishment. Remain the revolutionary movement that Jesus founded. Don't get comfortable in this world 'cuz we are citizens of another. Die to yourself, love your enemies, truly love one another, consider others more important than yourself. Be a Christian revolutionary.
Maybe the best thing the Marines could do to increase recruitment, is to trick parents into forbidding their kids from joining.
posted on 06.12.2006 2:31 PM5
Joe, man this is deja vu ! Heard some of the same stuff back in '72...lost my track and x-country grants for college. Ended up im the military : "bird-shdoo-doo". The "hook" ? Yea , college tuition, or the draft.
Welp, can you say David Koresh ? How 'bout Nimrod Celery ?...Jim Jones ?...Pat Buchanan ?...Rat Sloberson ?...AND my favorite LIAR : James E. Justice...recruiter. 'Nuff said, k ?
Listen, Mega churches are nothing more than gathering places for easily led sheep (spelled: mentally inept). Thanks for your service sojer
-an old Airborne Stranger.