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Monthly youth leaders column

Recessional?

The world of economics is a depressing one at the moment.

Turn on your TV and you will almost certainly get a gloomy forecast of impending doom somewhere in the money markets. Greece, Turkey or Ireland may not exist by the end of the year!! Without question the effects of this downturn have been felt in church budgets and in reduced amounts of giving coming from God’s people.

If churches have to make economies, it seems that youth staff and youth ministry can often be the victim. It seems that the only ‘wise’ action is caution. We must cut back. In one church recently, a leader, who had worked hard for four years and seen considerable fruit, was told by the church that they had insufficient funds to employ him for any longer. I fully appreciate that churches have to make wise decisions about their budgets, but it may not be the ‘wisest’ to remove funding from youth ministry.

Stiff-necked generation

If we fail to minister God’s word to the coming generation, we will produce a Psalm 78 version of stiff-necked stubbornness in our children. If they hear nothing, they will go their own way. So, even if budget cuts mean parting company with a full-time youth pastor, at least consider alternatives so that your ministry is maintained. One of the biggest youth groups I ever led was staffed entirely by volunteers with a lot of back-up people from the church who did much of the maintenance and logistics. Perhaps some retired people, who may not see themselves as ‘front-line’, could help with resourcing an evening or event. I fear that a so-called wise approach which exercises severe caution may not turn out to be wise.

Young people are facing many questions which did not exist ten years ago. Full employment is a dream even for those who graduate and many are asking what’s the point? At times like this, I believe we have God-given opportunities to minister to young people whether it be in youth groups or schools which have not been there before. Now is not the time to be cautious, so, even if we are short of cash, we should consider ways in which we can use people who can squeeze out some time to serve in the local church among our children and young people.

This is Olympic year — a year of challenge when we shall welcome people from every tribe and nation to our country. Now is not the time to be retreating.

Dave Fenton is associate minister at Christ Church Winchester. He leads the youth teams at New Word Alive and is the Training Director of Root 66, which runs training courses for youth ministers across the UK.