Youth Ministry today is increasingly Anthropocentric. Anthro = man, Centric = central. Man is in the central. Although the focus ought to be the Lord and Savior, in an effort to become more relevant often the emphasis shifts to (our worst enemy) ourselves.
I was just looking at a promotional brochure for a national youth training event that has local chapters in different cities. As I was reviewing the event brochure and advertising I noticed something; or maybe I should say I didn't notice something.
There was no mention of Jesus.
Titles included sessions like..."Making your Youth Ministry Relevant, Reaching the Hip Hop Influenced Generation, Midriffs, Myspace & More: Engaging a Plugged-in Generation, Rebuilding the Fatherless Generation." Compare this to how the scriptures teach about effective ministry. You wont go more than two verses in a new testament epistle before you come across the terms, "Lord", "God", "Spirit", "He", "Jesus" or "Christ" pertaining to our infinitely worthy savior. The Godhead is always prominent and the Lord Jesus Christ is always exalted as the example we should pattern our lives after; He is the Author of our faith (Hebrews 5:9 and 12:2).
So we find this pattern in the Word of God; We learn how to be Christ-like not by studying men, but by studying Christ. Just as Moses, Peter, John, Isaiah or Paul were changed by simply viewing this matchlessly glorious Christ, let us to learn to focus, study and consider the Lord Jesus Christ deeply, directly, and diligently. Fixing our eyes on the savior ultimately shows me that I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, but that our Lord Jesus Christ is able to justify, sanctify and glorify me by His touch.
For insights from a youth ministry that strives to elevate Christ check out this article from The Yunion. 
Mar 15, 2008
Anthropocentric Youth Ministry
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2 comments:
Grace and peace,
I attended one of these training sessions and there was one mention of the name Jesus during the last session (6-7 hours into the training). I truly had become angry by that time and gained nothing from my time there.
i understand -- i only use the mention of Jesus' name to point out the fact that the session is not focused on HIM. I actually work with a few ministries here in Chicago that use Hip HOp music. Most of the artists are actually more Christocentric than any other Christian Music Artists I have spent time with. This conference I was thinking of is more of a national youth event...lots of mention of hip hop, culture, "reaching youth" but little or no content that helps to transform us into the mind of Christ
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