Is faith caught or is faith taught? Pick up any book on Youth Ministry and you will find that it has a particular bias to this question. Many of the popular models of Youth Ministry have some good ideas but maybe they don’t solve the issues you face in your ministry. So as a youth ministry leader which model or theory should you choose? This is perhaps the greatest tension in Youth Ministry today.
Dig a little deeper and you will find there two camps of Youth Ministry:
Camp One - Catechesis focused
Key Goal – Giving young people the foundations of the faith for their future
One Extreme form – the Baltimore Catechism
If you look at the development of Catholic Youth Ministry it came out of the Religious Education movement and the Social Movements. The basis of this style of youth ministry is that youth ministry prepares young people to be adult members of the Church. With this goal in mind youth ministry leaders are encouraged to provide opportunities for young people to learn their faith, perhaps the motto is “Faith is taught not caught”.
One extreme version of this mindset is the old style Catechism. The Baltimore
Camp One - Evangelisation focused
Key Goal – getting young people to begin a relationship with Christ
One Extreme form – The Altar Call
If you look at the development of Evangelical Youth Ministry there is a lot of emphasis on young people making a personal decision to follow Christ. The basis of this style of youth ministry is that youth ministry leaders have to take the Gospel to young people or else they are not “saved”. With this goal in mind Youth Ministry leaders are encouraged to provide opportunities for young people to have a personal experience of God, perhaps the motto is “Faith is caught, not taught”.
One extreme version of this mindset is the pressure of the Altar Call. Young people are told that responding to one altar call and repeating a prayer said by the Leaders will guarantee their salvation.
Faith is caught AND taught
Perhaps this tension is good because it encourages all of us in Youth Ministry to see that the focus should be Evangelisation and Catechesis. The goal for youth ministry could be:
“Helping young people to begin a relationship with God that will grow and develop through life long Catechesis.”
Both camps have got some elements right and have grown Youth Ministry yet both sides are also missing some important elements of Youth Ministry
Please comment on how you see the greatest tension in Youth Ministry. Join us next week for further thought on this tension.
Faith is Caught AND Taught, I totally agree ... it's not Either-Or, but Both-And ... I'm not so sure I agree with the titles of the 2 camps though ... because, after all, they both involve evangelisation & teaching, just different styles, as you rightly point out. Perhaps the real difference is in terms of methodology or worldview ...
ReplyDeleteThe tension I see is that traditionally in Broken Bay youth ministry has not been characterised by either of these extremes. The tension to conform what we do to models that are either outdated or culturally inappropriate is for me the key issue.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has actively chosen to follow the Catholic faith and worked to provide opportunities for others to develop their faith, I believe an approach that engages with Catholic theology and cultural practice is key. If you want evangelical there are many churches that will appeal, if you want ultra conservative that can be easily found as well. My observation over the past 22 years working in youth ministry is that relationship, acceptance, community and challenge are key to engaging young people in a discipleship journey. You can have all the fluff you want but if these things are not there the results will not succeed in burning about the Kingdom of God.
The comprehensive youth ministry model supported by the ACBC provides a good framework for providing the full range of experiences that enables discipleship to develop. As Francis says above Both-And.
Thank you for your comment Francis, it is Both/And. I think that methodology is a valid issue, there are many different ways to achieve the same goal. The issue of World view is also an interesting thought, although there are differing Catholic world views out there at the moment. Perhaps one solution to this tension is stay local; gather one community around a common vision and a common world view rather than trying to do everything in the one Parish.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments Andrew. The ACBC document is a good start to seeing Youth Ministry as more than just catechesis or evangelisation. I suppose from your experience you may also have seen how there has been the tension between the school which some seen as the place of catechesis, and the desire for a parish to engage in catechesis also. The result in some parishes has been to avoid catechesis and evangelisation and just offer social activities. As you pointed out the social dimension is vital if combined with the catechesis and evangelisation.
ReplyDeleteAny other comments about how to build relationships?
Building relationships is one of those simple yet complex tasks.
ReplyDeletePrimarily building relationships is about invitation. In the same way that God invites humanity to be in relationship, as ministry leaders we need to reach out and invite people to join us. I learned this many years ago from Sr Margaret Armstrong who was the pastoral associate at the parish I was involved in. Sr Margaret was the master of invitation. She would observe first, sometimes do a little investigation and then extend an invitation. Sometimes these invitations were to leadership and other times to be followers,but she rarely got turned down. Her invitation was to be in relationship, to walk with the invitee, just as we are called by Jesus to be in relationship.