Over the last few months, I have suggested that we need to rethink a dynamic that is focused on being ‘top-down’, so focused on teaching the Bible that we may have lost sight of the needs and views of the young people.
This shows itself in what we think our role as adults should be. This could also be understood by considering whether we are ministering ‘to’ the young people, or whether we are ministering ‘for’ them or ‘with’ them. Each will suggest radically different approaches.
In this article I want to consider what the environment of our youth ministry says about what is important to us. This is an aspect that we often do not consider; we imagine, ‘so long as I’m opening the Bible with the young people, everything is good.’ When we consider the environment, it is probably only to prevent distractions so that they can listen. Yet the environment speaks loudly and affects critically the ministry which is occurring.
