Continuing the series on Youth Ministry and the Church in the US is the latest piece by Angie Ward.  I liked the reflection on the influence that Youth Ministry has had on challenging the church to be creative, one can also note in this piece the movement from a youth ministry that says “we run a good program and you come to us” towards a youth ministry that is more about “going to where the youth already are and where God already is.”

“In youth ministry, you get permission to break the rules,” explained Doug Pagitt, a former youth worker and now the founding pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. “Youth pastors get to do things that other people don’t get to do. Youth ministry requires that you break the conventions to connect with teenagers. If breaking the rules is permissible in youth ministry, then why is it not permissible in a broader scope of ministry?”

Tic Long agrees. “You experiment and question a lot in your teens and twenties, and a lot of youth workers are in their twenties,” he said. “They don’t have all the vested interests and encumbrances that the larger church or the senior pastor has. They’re not running the budget; they’re not responsible for the whole machine. I think it’s a breeding ground for creativity.”

Read the full article: How Teenagers Transformed the Church (Part 2) 

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