youth ministry
Why it matters where your youth group meets
Robin Barfield
Over the last few months, I have suggested that we need to rethink a dynamic that is focused on being ‘top-down’, so focused on teaching the Bible that we may have lost sight of the needs and views of the young people.
This shows itself in what we think our role as adults should be. This could also be understood by considering whether we are ministering ‘to’ the young people, or whether we are ministering ‘for’ them or ‘with’ them. Each will suggest radically different approaches.
More Scottish youth reached
Luke Randall
Scripture Union (SU) Scotland have revealed that they connected with about 5% of Scotland’s young people in the year to August 2024 and have seen their reach return to pre-pandemic levels.
The organisation’s 2023/24 annual review revealed that their engagement with more than 35,100 of Scotland’s 702,000 young people ensured that they met a long-term goal set in 2019 to reach 5% of the country’s population, after only reaching about 2% that year.
Three vital ways to support your Youth and Children's Worker
Back in April, I started writing a little three part series for en looking at the role of the traditional youth and children's worker.
We started by establishing that there was a role to be played by the church in teaching youth and children and that it wasn't all the parents' job. Then we looked at some reasons why I believe it is a very legitimate thing to do to appoint someone to do that role in a church. As we finish, I've got just three thoughts for churches as they think about employing and supporting someone in this role, based on everything we've looked at so far.