Youth Groups

[Psalm 51:17]

This wiki link info is somewhat short, but nonetheless...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_ministry

Youth ministry, also commonly referred to as youth group, is an age-specific religious ministry and is the way in which a faith group, or other religious organization involves and engages with the young people who attend its place of worship, or live in its community. Youth ministry will usually encompass one or more of the following:

• Encouraging young people who profess a faith to learn more about it and become more involved in spiritual life.
  
• Providing open youth clubs or other activities for the common good of the young people, sometimes without an overtly religious agenda.

As well as organizing events and activities, youth ministry will usually include some form of religious education and a pastoral oversight of the young people.

Protestantism[edit]

In Protestant churches, the term "ministry" often implies the service of an ordained minister or pastor. In youth ministry, however, this is not always the case — a youth ministry leader may be an ordained member of the clergy, an employed lay person, or a volunteer. Titles applied to youth ministry leaders vary widely as well, even within denominations, using terms such as "Youth Minister", "Youth Pastor", or simply "Youth Worker".

Catholicism[edit]

Catholic youth work covers a world wide range of activities carried out with young people, usually in the name of the Catholic Church and with the intention of imparting the Catholic faith to them and inviting them to practice and live out the faith in their lives. Activities in the field range from small scale youth groups attached to parishes or Catholic schools, to large international gatherings, such as World Youth Day. It is a field which has evolved much over recent decades, especially in comparison to more formal methods of education or catechesis within the church. Nearly all dioceses and a great deal of parishes have some form of youth provision running, although a great deal of areas particularly in the developed world are finding youth work both more difficult and rare as the numbers of young people regularly practicing the Catholic faith continue to decline. In contrast, though, the new and exciting developments of recent decades and particularly the influence of the new movements within the church are ensuring that youth work continues to be an active and fruitful field.

Catholic young people[edit]

Unlike the case in some Protestant churches, a youth minister in the Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the clergy. Ministry, including youth ministry, is considered one of the functions within the Church because most believe that people should start learning about God at a young age so they have more time to grow spiritually through adulthood. Therefore, it is more likely for a Catholic youth minister or youth ministry leader to be a lay person, rather than an ordained priest.

Unitarian Universalism[edit]

There are organizations within the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (the primary organization of Unitarian Universalist congregations in the United States), as well as within the Canadian Unitarian Council (the national body for Unitarian Universalists in Canada), which minister to and with youth, of which Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU) is the largest and most apparent. YRUU strongly emphasizes youth empowerment, along with youth-adult partnership. There are also specific youth-oriented programs, such as Coming of Age, and Our Whole Lives, a lifespan sexuality education program with a youth age group.

Education and career path[edit]

Youth ministers may be trained in an education specifically to work with youth. Many Bible and Christian universities and colleges now offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in youth ministry. While youth ministry used to be considered a stepping stone on the way to becoming priests, nuns and other important vocations, the trend is currently moving toward treating it as its own vocation.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_ministry_(Evangelical)
Protestant youth ministry

A Protestant/Evangelical Youth ministry is a Christian ministry intended to instruct and disciple youths in what it means to be a Christian, how to mature as a Christian, and how to encourage others to claim Jesus as their Savior. This is accomplished through teaching, relationship building and/or mentoring. Youth ministries may vary widely depending on their denomination, size, liberal or conservative outlook and geographic location. The ministries themselves are almost always built on relationships between the youth minister and the student and their shared perception of their relationship to God. Because of the evolving nature of Youth Ministries it is difficult to pinpoint a specific starting point, however a modest estimate would date the profession to approximately 150 years old. Youth have become an integral part of nearly every church’s ministry programming, and youth ministries continue to have a profound impact on the societies in which they exist.

History of youth ministry[edit]

While youth organizations, exist worldwide, the history section of this article will put a special focus on the development of youth ministry in America.

The beginnings of youth ministry took place in the mid-19th century, in the wake of the industrial revolution. Churches took note of all the young men who moved into central urban areas to work in factories. Laypersons who noticed that these young adults working six days a week and gallivanting about town on Sundays aspired to educate them. And so, early youth ministry began when churches brought older children and teenagers into classrooms to teach them how to read the Bible. Early ministry was designed for unchurched children with no formal education; while the primary goal of early youth ministry was education, a desirable secondary effect was that students would realize through biblical passages that they are sinners in need of forgiveness.

Eventually, churches opened up Sunday school to church members and unchurched children and teens alike. Teachers encouraged the students to bring their friends along, and the movement gained momentum. Laypersons would often work independently, neither subjecting themselves to congregational scrutiny nor receiving church funding. This fostered the development of interdenominational teaching programs and, eventually, faith-based organizations devoted to youth such as the YMCA and YWCA, whose American branches were founded in the 1850s.

The most recognizable first effort to offer periodic Bible studies, social networking and outreach opportunities for youth was spearheaded by Dr. Francis Edward Clark. He began the Christian Endeavor Society in 1881. Dr. Clark wanted to change the view of young people in churches from “pitchers waiting to be filled” to young adults “responsible for larger service in the church of Christ.” The Christian Endeavor Society revolutionized youth ministry and became extremely popular in its first few years of operation. Dr. Clark set the limit for each society at 80 members. As more young adults came to members, more societies were formed. By 1887, there were 700 societies with over 50,000 members spread out across 33 states.

One common speculation is that churches in the 1880s became fearful that they would lose all of their young members to these societies. In response, many mainstream denominations began their own youth organizations modeled after the Christian Endeavor Society. Some examples are the Methodist church’s Epworth League, or the Lutheran’s Luther League. These new church-based organizations as well as interdenominational ones already in existence flourished, increasing in attendance and international outreach involvement as a part of faith-based foreign aid.

After World War I, the focus of many youth ministries began to shift from efforts to outreach and convert to efforts to educate students and increase their understanding of their faith. It was during this time that the teenagers began to think theologically as well as gain a social awareness of the world around them. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the churches emphasized fellowship and theological understanding.

Before 1940 it was the pastor’s job to do everything in the church, including youth fellowships. During the late 1940s there was some introduction of church youth committees - youth were returning from the war with great life-experience and they could not be kept out of leadership in the church just because they were in their twenties.

The 1940s was also the beginning of parachurch ministries. Young Life was founded by Jim Rayburn in 1941. The Young Life parachurch model proved to be effective at reaching young people for Christ, and by the early 1950s, parachurch youth ministries with full-time staff flourished. Billy Graham was the first full-time parachurch worker for Youth for Christ (YfC) in the USA. This movement spread quickly around the world. During the 1950s, parachurch ministries grew rapidly in most Christianized countries, and the focus of activity was on large events, known as Rallies, and stadium events, known as "Crusades". The emphasis was on promoting inter-church activities (between local denominational churches) – mainly in the format of youth rallies – the type of “stadium” events made popular by YfC.

The 1960s were characterized by campus ministries. Many college-aged students did not have their theological needs met by these fellowship groups; soon thereafter, even younger adolescents began to see their organizations as institutionalized and irrelevant. Denominations stopped publishing youth group (Sunday School) resources and large group gatherings dwindled down into small meetings and then into nothing. Then specific church-based activities for youth emerged, as Friday night youth groups began.

During the 1970s, many denominations implemented strategies for modernizing existing youth ministry in the hopes of reviving it. This is the point where differences in youth ministry started to emerge on a denominational basis instead of organization to organization. Youth ministries operate in different ways today, but most of them have the same set of goals, which will be discussed in the Goals of Youth Ministry subsection of this article.

During the early 1980s the counselling revolution hit the church with its emphasis on honesty and openness. Professional counselors began to be employed in churches. This influenced youth groups and the Bible study meetings became "fellowship groups" or "home groups" with an emphasis on caring and meeting people. It was also during the 1980s that a large number of local church youth pastors began expressing the desire to stay in youth ministry as a lifelong career.

The 1990s saw the start an emerging church movement, and many of the youth leaders from the 1970s and 1980s were pioneers in this approach.

During the 1990s there was also a move to create international interaction between different youth structures. Pioneers in this approach are the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry (IASYM).

More recently, despite Dr. Francis Edward Clark's original intent for youth ministry to raise young adults “responsible for larger service in the church of Christ,” studies indicate significant numbers of young people are not transitioning into the adult church from youth ministry after graduation from high school. As a result, more churches are scrutinizing their traditional youth ministry programming and working to engage parents and the adult church more fully with the young people and involve young people more deeply in the work of the Church.

Doug Fields[edit]

Also of note is Doug Fields, who formerly served as the Pastor of Student Ministries at Rick Warren's famed Saddleback Church from 1992–2006, and today, is arguably the premier youth ministry expert in the world. His innovative church growth methods at Saddleback led to unprecedented growth, with over 1,000 students attending his high school ministry alone, believed to be the largest youth ministry in the United States at the time. This growth was accomplished without the use of a dedicated student ministry facility. In 1998, Fields' groundbreaking Gold Medallion-winning book, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry was published, revolutionizing youth ministries around the world, and led to Fields' unofficial title as the "most famous youth pastor in the world." The book is still considered required reading in many evangelical college and seminary youth ministry courses.[1][citation needed]

From 2006-2009, Fields served as the Pastor of Life Development at Saddleback. In 2009, Fields resigned from Saddleback to pursue other ministry opportunities. His Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Student Leadership Conference attracts over 1,000 student leaders every year. Fields is also the founder of Simply Youth Ministry [1] and hosts an annual conference for youth workers (youthministry.com/symc) in collaboration with Group Publishing. He is the author of more than 50 books. Fields still remains informally connected to Saddleback's student ministries and occasionally preaches in Warren's absence.[2][citation needed]

In 2008, Fields saw his dream of over 15 years come to fruition with the completion of the Refinery, Saddleback's first dedicated student ministry facility. Costing $20 million, the state-of-the-art facility is considered the premier student ministry facility in the world. The Refinery houses Saddleback's middle school ministry (Wildside), high school ministry (HSM), college ministry (Crave), and young adults ministry, (Fuel). Since moving into the Refinery, all the student ministries have seen tremendous growth, with more than 2,500 young people attending services in the facility each week. HSM has doubled its attendance to 1,500 students attending per week since moving into the new facility, and is currently under the leadership of high school pastor, Josh Griffin.[3][citation needed]

Youth Ministry Institute[edit]

Many faithful organization like the Youth Ministry Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary and the Schaeffer Institute of Church leadership and Into Thy Word ministries have been wholeheartedly committed to and involved in youth ministry research for over for 30 years!

In 1978, Francis Schaeffer said: Youth Ministry is perhaps the most important ministry of the church and it is essential that we are willing and committed to reach students for the Christian faith before they enter College! Richard Krejcir an avid researcher and youth pastor states, “After a student leaves the safe and fun youth culture of a caring church, even a great one, there is a 70%+ chance they will never come back to any church? Why is that? There are a multitude of reasons, but from our research and experience during over 30 years of doing Youth Ministry, we have found the number one reason to be that most churches and youth pastors spend very little time in mentoring and teaching their youth.” The Schaeffer Institute states, “Many youth are not being taught to read and study the Bible or how to pray or understand Christian basics, and thus they tend not to develop a firm foundation of faith. So, when they are occupied in college life and in the world, they get clobbered and lose what little faith they have built up!”

Composition of youth ministry in America[edit]

Youth ministry today is a large part of American Christian culture. In New York City alone there are over 3,500 youth organizations operating today. Despite denominational difference, there are basic practices and goals that most youth groups have in common.

Basics of youth ministry[edit]

Most youth groups tend to follow a similar organizational model. The church that supports them will provide an allocation of funds to use for the activities of the group. It also will employ a paid staff member or volunteer to lead the group, known as the Youth pastor, youth minister, pastor of student ministries, youth leader, or other similar terms. This person can be either a lay person, hold a religious degree, or be a member of the ordained clergy, depending on the needs and resources of the church. His or her duties may include orchestrating the activities of the group (in particular, the content of the regular meetings below), providing pastoral care for the members of the youth group, managing a budget for the youth group, and serving as a liaison between the youth and adult bodies of the congregation.

Today's youth ministries hold regular meetings, often at the same time as adult functions at the church. Youth group meetings generally feature the same types of activities as a Sunday morning church service, modified to reflect the culture of the age groups involved. Services may include a time for worship, drama, games or other activities, fellowship through conversation and/or food, and prayer. Many youth ministers also present a sermon or devotional. It's common for youth groups to attend Christian summer camps each year.

Most denominations arrange their youth ministry programs according to related educational levels. American churches tend to separate youth by grade level, creating smaller sub-groups within a youth ministry program. These distinctions usually fall between middle school and high school. Traditionally, elementary age children and below have separate programs altogether, though this, too, may be managed by the same youth pastor. Some youth groups even extend up through college students, creating an additional sub-group often referred to as "college and career".

Goals of youth ministry[edit]

The primary goal of most modern-day youth ministries is to teach youth the biblical doctrines of Christ and salvation. This is different from the original education/literacy-centered programs of Sunday schools of the 19th century. Churches provide money for youth groups in order for their purposes to be furthered, and the stated purpose of many churches is to share the content of the Bible with the world. This is why the structure of many youth ministry services are centered around a sermon, the biblical teaching presented at these meetings.

Before the turn of the 21st century, many denominations placed less emphasis on the role of youth in the church. It is more important now than ever before that young people should “serve in churchwide responsibilities.” Churches now encourage teenagers to evangelize at their age, rather than waiting until adulthood to spread the gospel.

In addition, many sermons are delivered with the intent for youth to come to know Christ personally if they have not done so already. Once they do, emphasis is often placed on spiritual growth. Many youth groups, like the churches they may be associated with, vie to embark on mission trips. These acts of faith-based foreign aid often involve service projects alongside sharing the gospel.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://galatiansfour.blogspot.com/2013/12/kidnapped-for-christ.html
Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Kidnapped For Christ



This is a trailer for a new documentary: "Kidnapped for Christ"

"This film addresses an issue that very few Americans are aware of, but that has impacted the lives of millions of adolescents and families for nearly half a century – the rise of inappropriate and abusive treatment in the troubled teen industry. All over the US and abroad, so-called therapeutic boarding schools, boot camps, and wilderness rehabilitation programs take in teenagers with a wide range of issues and use unsafe and often harmful tactics to reform them. Using political connections, religious affiliations, and substantial amounts of money, many such camps and schools have committed inappropriate and abusive acts behind their guarded walls for decades with impunity."

Remember this article? Oppression of Youth and Dominionism

In it, I talk a little bit about the oppressive Christian "schools and camps" they send "troubled" youth to and use abusive methods to break a youth's will for control. From that article I wrote:


"See here

The school has a current enrollment of 63 children, placed in the school by parents in an effort to remedy behavior problems. New Horizon uses a boot-camp atmosphere to place children onto what school officials believe to be the right road for life.

A handful of protesters showed at a Founder's Day celebration this month at the Marion campus.

"We want people to ask us about our experiences in the program, educate those who didn't know about the program and let students see that we are rooting for them," said Lisa Brown Wilbur of New Castle as she held a sign reading "Stop the Abuse."

The protesters painted a picture of complete dictation, a life completely monitored by counselors.

And yes in those places their lives are totally controlled and monitored. Many of these schools including secular ones, are full of human rights violations, extreme punishments, like withholding food and sleep and hours of hard labor, and oppressive behavior modification methods.

This is just one of the many examples among many. Some young people have lost their lives in the worse places. These schools grew numerous in the 80s but kept expanding in the 90s. Many parents were told this was the best way to deal with their troubled teens. In some circles, harsh punishment was promoted for every problem a young person was to face, strip their room clean of every item except the mattress, send them off to "wilderness camps" or "bootcamps" where intense physical exercise and brutality ruled. Young adults who encountered health problems or could not take the strain, have died at these places. "

The more of these places that are exposed the better. These schools have nothing to do with true Christianity but false Dominionism and the police state married together. This is about breaking people down and using false religion to do it.

[Psalm 51:17]

Personally, I get tired of people telling me - "It was GOD who put them in these positions, so He brought them down for their sin". In the first place - these agendas were NOT ordained of God!(but on the contrary the god of this world, satan)

Youth For Christ Life Director Pleads Guilty To Sexual Exploitation Of A Minor

Updated April 24, 2014 12:22 PM | Filed under: Crime

(FORT WAYNE) - Nathan Hasty set up phony Facebook pages to solicit **** photos from children, including kids in his own youth group, according to a federal investigation.

A judge accepted Hasty's guilty plea on one charge of sexual exploitation of a minor on Wednesday and sentenced him to 15 years.

He had been a campus life director for Youth for Christ for about nine years, according to court documents.

In an affidavit detailing the investigation which dates back to 2012, an FBI agent who investigated the case said Hasty used Facebook under three different fake identities in order to start sexual conversations with several minors and eventually solicit naked photos of them.

Facebook contacted law enforcement about the fake accounts in January to February 2012.

The affidavit states that he had two accounts under which he pretended to be a sixteen-year-old girl. He used these accounts to message dozens of boys, most between the ages of 12 and 14, in order to flirt with these boys and start sexual conversations. He then asked for pictures of the boys, including naked pictures. Documents state he also asked the boys for webcams sessions, claiming he didn't have a camera and could only watch.

Hasty posed as a nineteen year old boy in his third Facebook account and contacted girls and boys. According to documents, he used this account to engage in similar behavior and ask similar questions.

The FBI affidavit states that a Facebook report linked these accounts by IP addresses and browser cookies, which means Hasty used the same computer (or other devices) to access these accounts and his other personal accounts.

Hasty was confronted by law enforcement at his home on Sept. 21, 2012. He admitted to the FBI agent and the Task Force Officer that he had posed as a girl using a fake Facebook account to speak with boys in his youth group. He said he might have said some things "he shouldn't have said" and that the conversation may have become "sexual."

Hasty was suspended from Youth for Christ as soon as the organization learned of the FBI's investigation. His employment was terminated on Sept. 24, 2012.

[Psalm 51:17]