Grandview Community Church (Muskogee, Michigan) started "Get R.E.A.L." as a way to bring un-churched folks into the church for "safe" classes that wouldn't scare them away.  While that happened, many of our regulars from Sunday morning started coming as well and our Wednesday night attendance went from 20 to 80 in one week! 

The classes we have offered so far have been:  Sign Language, Scrap-booking, Drama, Creation vs. Evolution, Sign Language Songs (learning to worship with signing), Revelations, Crafts, Cake Decorating, God Chasers, Self-Esteem, Self-Defense.

The surprise blessing from this was having classes with the teens (ages 12-17) mixed with the adults.  I have heard comments from the kids that they "didn't realize ‘Ms. Bertha' (name has been changed to protect the guilty) was so cool!"…And, from the adults, that they "didn't realize how smart the kids are"! The kids are learning that the adults really do like them and the adults are learning that there is more to the teens than purple hair and chains! 

From an interview with Wayne Rice, he was asked 'How would you love to see youth ministry change?

Rice: "I’d like to see youth ministry become more of an 'equipping of the saints; ministry in which youth workers are not required to work directly with students and create specialized programs for them, but instead are required to equip parents, families and the church to come alongside students and integrate them into the overall ministries of the church."

(from Youth Ministry Interview http://yminterviews.blogspot.com/ )

Youth Ministry Interview is a new blog site by a friend of FBYM.org, Len Evans. He's done two interviews and both of them think youth ministry should change into a "church-based youth ministry." Is this something we need to seriously be paying attention to?

From an interview with Mark Yaconelli,  he was asked 'How would you love to see youth ministry change?

Yaconelli:  "I think it's time for youth ministry to take all of it's idealism and creativity and wisdom and give it away to the church. I think it's time for the youth ministry experiment to be over. It's time youth ministry claimed itself as the revolutionary arm of the church... and then refuse to be segregated from the rest of the church. Every study in the past fifty years shows that it's an ecology of faithful, intergenerational relationships that best form young people into Christians. So it's time to stop being segregated. It's time for youth ministry to end and the whole church to begin. This may happen by youth ministry joining the church, or by the church joining youth ministry."

(from Youth Ministry Interview http://yminterviews.blogspot.com/)

What do you think?

Should the youth ministry join the church or should the church join the youth ministry? 

What are reasons for keeping the youth ministry segregated?