Current Issues in Your Youth Ministry

Before people say "why complain?", this is not the reason why I started this topic. Moreso, I was curious to see if some of the issues that we are having in our church is the same as other churches or if other church fought the same issues and is slowly seeing work being done. Of course, above all else, we should take it up with the God but I also do believe that we can learn from one another and learn through each others mistakes and successes. So with that being said, what are some of the main issues going on in your church and what are some of the proactive steps that are in sync with God that you are taking.

Our church (medium size: roughly 80 congregation including young adults):
I think our biggest issue is just an apathetic attitude towards their relationship with God and ministry itself. I think that students expect to be partake in a spoonfeeding but I just think that our church needs to be more proactive and willing to just do things and take initiative. It's hard because we can't force this or else it can become borderline legalism (you have to do these things...it's what we do). I think that would be our biggest issue at our church. I think that the only approach here would be just through prayer and reflecting the love that Christ gave for us.

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My beloved man crush!
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yes, i think you would find that most of the issues you have in your church are found in other churches.

but the one and only redeeming factor is God
everything else in youth/church dosent mean anything at all, God is at the centre and thats where your focus should be,

I totally agree, apatheticness (I made up a new word ) is totaly rampant. They think they're not being apathetic, but I'd love to do a study over the book of Acts and Christians of the first few centuries, and then see what we think a Christian should be.

current issues hey ?

our youth group has A LOT of issues , but funny enough - no interpersonal drama .

culture wise our youth are dealing with - relationships , pre marital sex , cutting , suicide , experimentation ; drugs...

now, keep in mind most of my youth attend a 'christian' school, so a lot of them are VERY curious .

I guess our main problem however with all this in mind, is that we're not seeing a lot of kids get transformed...
it just seems like a routine ..

thats definitaely or main problem .

True current Issues!
Youths are in a terrible cross road of confusion on how to tackle the peer force and obey their love for God. its a serious dilemma. But Stop! There is still hope for youths, because the greatest force of victory is in them. It is to channel their potentials to conquering the negative forces around. It is Possible to disarm evil and live godly. Change id great and wonderful if it is godly change for it attracts the best of life to any youth. Give your mind to the maker to renew and great things will follow.

get rid of cell phones, Ipods and video games and facebook everyother device that pulls there minds away from God.......how about a technology fast........I'm sure you would see huge changes,

Hey!
I recently, like within the past six months have taken over a youth group of a small, but growing church. We have about 150 members including children. Our church is just on the outskirts two poor and crime/drug ridden cities.
My youth group has about 25 kids from ages 5-16. One of my major issues is being the only leader and looking for volunteers. It is hard to try and teach a large multi-aged group of students. It is even harder for me to get them to participate in a game where the smaller kids won't get trampled by bigger kids or to do a craft that the bigger students won't complete in five minutes and have to sit around and wait for the small kids to finish.
Also, many of these kids are very impulsive. Alot of them talk non-stop and try their hardest to disrupt the group.
There is alot of city drama being brought to church because they all know each other and each other's personal business. They deal with their problems by fighting and arguing constantly with each other. Alot of them allready know about drugs, weapons, and gangs.

I want them to take what they learn in youth group back to their schools and cities. I think I tend to be a little to hardnosed when it comes to youth group because alot of people told me in the beginning that good youth groups go on retreats, and baseball games, and they just do all these really cool activites; and I just really want the kids to be excited about learning about Jesus.
Another concern I have is that the unorganization that I have so far is driving kids away instead of bringing them in. I want students to be interested in learning and excited about serving Christ, and not to be excited to plow through a Bible lesson to get to a game.

Brother, I think you need to not command, but challenge them to look inside their hearts to who are they following----themselves or Christ, because he was a radical guy! Our experience with youth is they respond to those who expect the best from them from a heart of love and passion. That is not legalism if you are living that kind of example before them that they can follows.

Couldn't agree more. My youth's issues are following:
1. Apatheticness.
2. There's sort of a hipocrisy between the people. It means you will see a different people in church and in daily life. I mean "different" is truly different like in each extreme poles.
3. Unorganized.

__________________
I live for You, Lord
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My complaint would be: How did you get 8 comments our of 1,400 views? lol