I have been attending the same church since 4th grade (early 1980s). One of the strengths of this church and of the denomination were a series of events and programs provided by the regional or national church around which youth programs could be built. Every other summer there was a National Youth Conference. Periodically, large churches in the area would set up big events (concerts, superbowls, etc.) which other local churches would embrace. Youth pastors built their programs around these major events and everyone benefitted.
Since I have become a youth leader in 1996, however, I have seen a growing trend away from these large events. It is not that they are not being organized or offered. But youth pastors and leaders are more and more treating them with something ranging from cynicism to outright disdain. Various reasons are given for the trend (uninterested youth, post-modern parents, etc.), but none have stood up under my scrutiny.
"Not Invented Here" syndrome - rejecting new ideas out-of-hand if they originated from an outsider. It is typically a sign of a sick company which has institutionalized itself to a point where the culture and not the customer or the product become the #1 priority. I am beginning to think this is exactly what we are seeing in many local churches. Youth leaders are not interested in embracing a wider Christianity or program structure, but want to focus their programs solely on what happens in the local body of believers. Mixing with other churches is seen as unnecessary. And supporting a regional or national initiative is Irrelevant. If it ain't invented in the local church, it has little to no place in the local church.
I started this off to be a criticism of this mindset, but the more I think about it the less certain I am. What do our Mod-Blog readers think? Where is the balance point between local independence and shared regional or national experience in the Church? (Or am I just wrong that this is a trend larger than my own corner of the universe?)
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Not Invented Here (In the Church)
Posted by Nomad at 1:15 PM
Labels: church, ministry, not-invented-here, youth
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4 comments:
I've been out of the youth ministry game for about a year now, so my opinions on this are definitely dated. I can see the point Nomad is making and to some degree I accept it. Though I think that there's an equally strong movement in the other direction as well. Non-denominational conferences are still going strong and bringing in large numbers of teens and youth leaders.
In my last church I definitely didn't take part in any of the denominational youth ministry activities. That was largely a result of being a fairly conservative Christian working in a quite liberal conference of the UMC. So, I chose to bring my kids to the non-denominational conferences and camps, because I knew that what the kids were going to hear was going to be biblically based rather than the liberal agenda that got spewed at the denominational conferences. (Some day I need to tell you how the DaVinci Code became the fifth gospel at one of these conferences). So, I know in my case it was better for the kids to go to the non-denominational conferences.
As for other youth leaders I'm not sure the reasoning. Big churches tend to do their own thing because they have the resources, while some small churches revel in the fact that they're small and don't actively seek out greater connection. The reasoning itself is somewhat irrelevant, but there is a definite trend towards what Nomad is seeing.
My experience is that this goes far beyond Youth Ministry and is an issue within the church in general. Many churches accept the trendy and hot items of the day such as the Purpose Driven Live and the Prayer of Jabez but are very hesitient to work with the church down the street. There is precious little vision of the unity of the Body of Christ in our modern American churches.
It's a shame that churches, and youth groups, can become isolationist. Because I have attended non denominational churches for a couple years now, including small churches without an established building, I have seen youth participate with local area church events.
Although Acts 1:8 refers to evangelism, I would argue that our church participation too needs to spread from the local community on outward. After all, God encourages relationships with other Christians - why should that be constrained to the local church?
Unfortunatey, I think this trend also has to do with the trend that few people I know seem to end up in the denomination that they grew up in. So they do not have a personal history to see the value in many of the traditions of their new church. This goes both for attenders and pastors. We have definitely seen this in our denomination as the event that as the focal point of the whole year for may church youth groups has since been basically abolished.
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