Nick Sorenson's take on Living for Christ and Serving in the Church

Does Youth Group Work? By work, I mean simply, do youth continue on with the church once they are no longer youth. We're so trained to think that if youth are going to remain in church we must have a thriving youth program.  I have a separate post on the family integrated church idea, so this is not going to be about that. This is specifically about youth group or youth aimed church. I can only answer this (for myself) based on my experience. I grew up in the height of the youth group movement, in the 80s and 90s. Youth groups were large, there were lots of events (camps, conferences with excellent speakers, youth trips to the Brownsville revival in Pensacola Florida, retreats, lock-ins, you name it). Youth groups were strongly endorsed by the church as a whole. The role of youth pastor was sort of the entry position into becoming a senior pastor.  So back to the question, did it work (in mine and my wife's experience)? Well, we're still in church... so yes, kind of. But i...

  Family Integrated Church: I will not claim to grasp every factor that contributes to young people leaving the church, since undoubtedly there are several. What I will say for certain is that one major factor I see as a potential cause, is a lack of leadership by husbands and fathers. It’s common for the church, or its staff, to be expected to fill in for this absence. Sometimes the absence is due to a broken family, but just as often it stems from spiritual apathy in men. I’m not sure why this apathy is common (I have some guesses on that in a later paragraph), but it is possible that, at least in part, the man doesn’t lead because he feels that the responsibility is already covered by the church. I feel that there is a place for the church to supply this spiritual leadership, normally supplied by the man as the leader of his house. However, I feel this should be the exception rather than the norm. Sunday school was originally instituted and intended for situation...