For a while now, I have intended to write a short exposition on the modern idea that many of our assemblies have adopted. This idea is one that has become exponentially popular in the brotherhood of believers -especially in the recent history of our fellowship. The idea? Youth ministry! Of course, there have been thousands upon thousands of writings produced about this topic, some talking about the effectiveness of this ministry, (and perhaps how to improve on it), some talking about the good in the idea of having a youth ministry for every congregation of saints, and some talking about the blessings of having a ministry devoted entirely to the youth of today's increasingly problematic western society.

Never before have things like peer pressure been such a decisive factor in the seduction of our young brothers and sisters into ways and actions that do not give glory to the God we serve. Never before have so many youth felt so great a pressure to have sex before marriage, to experiment with smoking, alcohol and even the life damaging drugs used by worldly youth around them. The world seems to be invading our youth, invading the future of our Lord's assembly of believers, and many of us feel that youth ministry is about the most effective means by which to minister to them. Even before that, many of us feel that youth ministry is the only way to reach them.

This is all good and well, but let's not forget that all innovative ideas, especially those introduced into a fellowship such as ours that stresses restoration over innovation, need to be second-guessed, constantly reviewed, and constantly compared to the word of God in order to ensure purity of teaching and the health of the Church. Of these innovations, youth ministry is no exception. We must not forget that the mention of youth ministry, or any equivalent ministry for that matter, has not been made in the pages of God's revealed word -the very pattern-setting blueprint for the Church. Our fellowship began in the midst of a time where "sola scriptura!" (Scripture alone) was the battle cry, and we believed that if any idea was without biblical authority, it should be undertaken with extreme caution.

It is for this reason that I have chosen to play the devil's advocate in this exposition. I realize that what I am doing here might be incredibly risky, since youth ministry is such a popular idea at present. Indeed, many future leaders in the body of Christ who are my age, and it is a youthful age, pursue the path of ministering to youth -the very path I have chosen to question in these pages. I realize, therefore, that what I advocate now might meet certain opposition. I am prepared to face that opposition, however, because I am committed to truth and because I believe that it would be cowardly of me to keep from claiming responsibility for my words. I do this not because I am against having youth ministries in our assemblies, but because I am committed to the Church. I love the Church just as Christ loves the Church. Either way, I am merely playing the devil's advocate here, trying to make the saints think, question and rediscover the purity of doctrine.

Biblical Authority

I have already mentioned that youth ministry is without scriptural authority. Indeed, the pages of our bibles include no examples of specific ministries devoted entirely to the service of youth. In actuality, the New Testament has surprisingly little to say about youthful saints apart from the pastoral epistles which were written to Timothy and Titus, both young men, but both old enough to understand and teach -which indicates that they must have spent some considerable time in instruction, certainly enough to hold positions of authority, especially as Paul the apostle's own representatives, and the odd "children obey your parents" verse. Even though there are a few odd passages of this nature, there are no extensive passages written specifically concerning youth -certainly not enough to construct the biblical basis for youth ministry.

What we are forced to do, therefore, is to consider youth ministry as an innovation. Of course, it is popular in fellowships right across the board -Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, they all have them. Perhaps these fellowships are the origins from which we get the idea. Either way, as an innovation, youth ministry needs to be compared to the bible for authorization, not to denominational trends. If we can find any better way to address the needs of youth, written by the hands of apostles and prophets, would it not be better to use those biblical patterns over and above the patterns we see in fellowships around us? Certainly, many of these fellowships don't stress restoration as we do. Many of these fellowships don't hold so fervently to the bible as the sole authorization for their actions, preferring to depend on their various denominational headquarters for the establishment of pattern, blueprint and policy. Denominational trend cannot be the light that guides us; it must be words of scripture. After all, we ourselves appeal to the well-known II Timothy 3:16-17, "All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, in order that the man who is of God might be proficient, equipped for every good work."

Mentoring/Discipleship

Let me begin by proposing something we might find slightly radical at first, but something that, I believe, is more in tune biblically than we might first have thought: "Mentoring" or "discipleship".

As a direct result of the recent Boston based International Church of Christ/Churches of Christ split, we have been left a little sore, and, as the saying so well puts it, we're "once bitten, twice shy." We look to the idea of discipleship and hundreds of connotations come to mind. We see controlling authoritarianism, a fight for some kind of cultic power over our brothers. Of course, such an authoritarian system is not biblical at all. The principle of mentor-protégé relationships does have biblical authority, however. Mentoring, in fact, is biblical right from the get-go!

Jesus himself was a mentor throughout the course of his ministry. The very Greek word mathetes, commonly translated "disciple", in fact, means "student", "pupil" or "apprentice". If Jesus did himself was a mentor with apprentices, that's certainly biblical authority enough for me! But wait, there's more.

Both Timothy and Titus were young ministers. Timothy specifically, spent endless hours with Paul in his various mission trips. Both were commissioned by Paul at various stages to minister to the saints in two different locations: Timothy to the saints in Ephesus and Titus to the saints on the island of Crete. Naturally, the Pastoral Epistles, (I and II Timothy as well as Titus), are addressed to these young men -protégés of Paul. Paul was a mentor to them, one who guided them, and one who had them as both friends and ambassadors on his behalf. Paul himself must have understood the significance behind this form of guidance.

Titus 2 is a particularly attractive text when it comes to pressing the mentoring principle. Let's look briefly to verse 3 and following.

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." - Titus 2:3-4 [NASB]

Does it come as a shocker that mentoring is proposed in this particular example? Why is it that older women are instructed to be examples to those who were younger? Paul himself wrote this letter, under the inspiration of God Himself, as has been expressed in II Timothy 3:16, a verse I have already quoted.

In verse 7 of Titus 2, Paul urges Titus to "show yourself worthy to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." Titus himself was to "be an example" - a mentor.

The proof for the mentor-protégé relationship needs not to be expanded on beyond this. Simple bible reading will accent it enough. The issue at hand is the comparison between the biblical example of mentoring, and what we have in our modern assemblies as youth ministry.

Is not a youth minister being a mentor to his youth? Is he not providing them with teaching and guidance in order to equip them for the critical issues that they face today? He might very well be. The problem does not lie in the fact that we have youth ministries. The problem lies not in the youth minister either, but in the congregation that feels it needs a youth minister. Let me explain what I mean by this.

Restoring the Relationships

Too many older individuals, individuals who are well equipped and are certainly apt to teach, stop and look at the problems facing youth today and feel as though they're not well equipped enough to deal with contemporary youth issues -issues that they themselves did not grow up facing. They feel as though the gap in age and understanding between them and their youth is too great a chasm to transcend, and in turn, they are compelled to "hire" a trained professional who is younger, someone who can identify with them.

What is created then, is a wall between the youth and the rest of the congregation. The youth are made to meet together in their own, sectioned off setting as opposed to meeting together with the rest of the assembly during times of fellowship. The youth plan mission trips during the summer, events on Friday nights and bible studies during the week, but very rarely are there activities in which the youth are encouraged to visit the widows and orphans (James 1:27). Very rarely do the youth have a "youth event" in which they proceed to a mixed age gathering of saints and spend time talking to those older than themselves, extracting that vital knowledge and wisdom that only come through years of life and experience.

Dr. Don Shackelford, (who, at the time was a "mentor" himself, teaching at Harding University), expressed that he had concern for this very problem in that the elderly needed the youthful vigor that only the young saints possessed. In turn, the youthful needed the wisdom and instruction of the elderly. To him, accentuating differences between youth and the rest of the assembly was doing a great disservice to the Church. I am inclined to agree wholeheartedly.

Let me briefly quote I Timothy 4:12

"Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example to those who believe." - I Timothy 4:12 [NASB]

Clearly, Timothy was encouraged to set an example for the elderly! In order for someone to witness an example, they must be there to witness it. Clearly, Timothy, as a young man, was serving the church. Part of his doing so was to set an example.

"Crew Ministries"

When one looks at the New Testament, one can see that ministries happened in, what I call, "crew ministries". To explain: Everyone who participates in a ministry of some sort does so as a member of a "crew". Let me quote a verse or two to prove this.

"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ." - Ephesians 4:11-12 [NASB]

Notice the plurals! "Apostles", "Prophets", "Evangelists" etc. They work collectively at their individual tasks for the same goal: the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord." - I Corinthians 12:4-5 [NASB]

This verse out of I Corinthians 12 is merely the beginning of a whole three chapters devoted to the explanation of how there are many people, all equipped with different gifts, but for one work: The edification of the church. In addition, it can easily be seen that there were many people with one gift, an example here being the gift of tongues, or the gift of prophecy.

Why not apply this to our youth ministries? Why is the model we follow one of a sole individual who ministers to a group. Surely there are too many tasks for him to handle! A youth minister needs to function as a councilor, a teacher, an organizer and more. How does a youth minister handle all these tasks without help? Surely he needs assistance from those with similar gifts -identifying with youth, the ability to teach to a younger audience, organizational ability. (Of course, some youth ministries that I have seen do indeed employ the principle of youth ministry as a "crew ministry". It is far more effective by comparison).

Teaching

Let me give you a line that I find myself saying a lot: "You cannot teach what you don't know". All teachers must first understand what they're going to teach well before they present the material. The main role of a teacher is to deliver content in a way that makes sense to the learner. (Teaching is nothing more than facilitating the process by which knowledge is transferred).

Now, given that introduction, let me tell you a story.

I was sitting in a college level bible class this last Sunday morning. The teacher, an intern, had decided that we would read both the fifth and sixth chapters of the book of Luke. (We had been doing a textual study of the book of Luke). Once we had read the text, the teacher asked, "Okay, now, if there are any comments you would like to make about what we read or about what we've just done, go ahead and share your thoughts." After a brief time of silence, a girl sitting on the front row, with a look of repulse on her face, exclaimed, "I can't believe we just did that! I mean, reading like that! That's the sort of thing my grandparents do. Its so… Old-school".

I was thoroughly disgusted. What??? Reading the bible is 'old-school'??? Learning about Jesus Christ who came down to earth and died for our sins so that we could have eternal life is 'old-school'??? I couldn't believe my ears! I had just gotten over the occurrence last Sunday when the girl sitting next to me whispered, "Why are we doing this? This is the sort of thing is what we do in bible classes at school. Why are we doing this here?" to which I politely responded, "What? You don't want to learn about Jesus?" She kept quiet.

My point is this: My generation has not been taught growing up. The youth ministry we were a part of failed to do its primary goal: Teach the word of God. Now we sit here in a situation where, because none of us have ever been taught the word of God, we cannot bear sitting through it when it is taught. My generation is largely biblically illiterate. I would even go so far as to say with some confidence that my generation despises bible study! All of this is the result of a lack of discipline, a lack of spiritual mentoring, a lack of teaching.

There is no need to expand on the need for teaching. It's just too clear in the bible. But let me give you a verse or two anyway.

"As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming." - Ephesians 4:13 [NASB]

"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." - I Timothy 4:1 [NASB]

"The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." - II Timothy 2:2 [NASB]

The list goes on and on. These passages are right off the top of my head. Teaching is a definite must -and is vital. To fail to teach is to fail to secure a future for doctrinal purity, the future of what the assembly of Christ believes! If we, as the people of God, are not going to be taught, then we will believe any deceptive, demonic doctrine that comes into our midst. It is happening already because of this. Above and beyond all, teach, teach, and teach some more!

Conclusion

So let me try to wrap up what I'm saying here. It really is quite simple. If we insist on having youth ministries, and I'm sure we do, let us correct them a little, because for the most part, they've failed to do what we intended them to do. Let us work together towards destroying the chasm we have built between our youth and ourselves. Let us spend time working on relationships with them, mentoring them, teaching them correct doctrine, and let's do it in groups, as a network, using our gifts collectively for the edification of the body as a whole -not in segments. We are all one body, the body of Christ. All glory be to Him!