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In die Skriflig
On-line version ISSN 2305-0853
Print version ISSN 1018-6441
Abstract
STRONG, Philippa. Effective Youth Ministry: Theology-driven in a Cultural Context. In Skriflig (Online) [online]. 2015, vol.49, n.3, pp.1-9. ISSN 2305-0853. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/IDS.V49I1.1889.
Recently Youth Ministry finds itself mostly in a crisis as it is wrongly presented. In a nutshell the crisis can be described as falling short of leading young people to become mature Christian adults. Research shows that there are a variety of contributing factors to this crisis. This article focuses on two of these contributing factors. Firstly, Youth Ministry today is skill and socially driven, rather than theology or spiritually driven. The discussion commences by indicating the importance of establishing theology as the foundation of Youth Ministry. A Christ-centric theological framework as foundation for effective Youth Ministry is proposed. The article emphasises the meaning and essence of theology, with the Sola Scriptura approach being followed throughout. The second contributing factor discussed is the issue that cultural relevance is wrongly being made the heartbeat and foundation of Youth Ministry instead of theology. The article gives culture its rightful and relevant place in Youth Ministry, without it overshadowing the foundation of effective Youth Ministry, namely theology. Postmodernism and subculture also receive attention and in the conclusion the emphasis falls on a call to return to a Youth Ministry that is theology driven in a cultural context.