Youth Ministry 3.0
ByMy initial reaction after reading Youth Ministry 3.0
Yes, that’s the truth because Marko (Mark Oestreicher, President of Youth Specialties) crystallized a general unrest that I had been feeling with my youth ministry over the past couple years.
Mark takes some time before getting into the guts of youth ministry 3.0 because it is important for us to get a broader understanding of where youth ministry has come from, where it has been, and where we stand today. It is crucial for youth workers to understand where youth culture and the culture in general stand today before venturing into the deep waters of attempting a complete revolution or reformation of youth ministry.
In the chapters on youth ministry 1.0 & 2.0 Mark attemps a fair and accurate portrayal of what was driving these ministries, what was good about them, and where they were lacking. As a person that has spent a large ammount of time in both a para-church ministry (former Young Life staff) and in the church I could completely connect with the descriptions of both the 1.0 and 2.0 models that Mark lays out.
Although I am not quite sure if I fully agree with all that Mark brings up in the chapter on youth ministry 3.0 & the chapter on getting to that goal of 3.0, I do have to say that there is something very attractive and freeing about this model of paradigm for youth ministry. My struggle with the model that Mark sets up is that it is ultra dependant on quality adults. Now, that in itself is not a negative, please don’t read it that way. My struggle with the model is in the decimal points, the space between youth ministry 2.0 & 3.0.
When a church is living in the youth ministry 2.0 land and the leadership of the youth ministry is consistantly being wooed toward 3.0, how does the youth ministry team find the number of Jesus-loving, teenager-caring adults that it needs to make this thing work?
If you have felt the uneasiness that comes with the feeling that your church’s youth ministry just isn’t cutting it, that there is something that is broken, or if you just want to get an overview of where youth ministry has been and where it is going, you need to get this book! Youth Ministry 3.0 should be required reading for every person that is responsible for a youth ministry. Not everyone will be called to make a jump to 3.0 right away but you do need to read this so you know about the groundswell that is coming.
