Boundaries in Church youth ministry
I was at a meeting yesterday of the "Association Youth Coordinators" from the Baptist Associations in England. Most are part-time (glad that phase passed for me) and it was great to hear what's going on.
One of the issues raised was about boundaries in church youthwork. When I worked in Local Authority youthclubs it was very clear what was work, what the nature of the relationships were etc. In church life this is fuzzy, especially with the emphasis on church as family, socialising outside formal sessions and the emphasis on "being" as much as "doing" in discipleship. Add to that the lack of a culture of openness and accountability, and support for workers in many churches and there is potential for confusion.
When we hear of high profile cases of leaders getting in wrong (e.g. see this blog post), how can we work this out in a way that enables rather then hinders good youth ministry?
(Mark Driscoll has some interesting advice for male pastors here. But not sure how much of that works in a UK youth ministry context?)
Tags: youth ministry
I was at a meeting yesterday of the "Association Youth Coordinators" from the Baptist Associations in England. Most are part-time (glad that phase passed for me) and it was great to hear what's going on.
One of the issues raised was about boundaries in church youthwork. When I worked in Local Authority youthclubs it was very clear what was work, what the nature of the relationships were etc. In church life this is fuzzy, especially with the emphasis on church as family, socialising outside formal sessions and the emphasis on "being" as much as "doing" in discipleship. Add to that the lack of a culture of openness and accountability, and support for workers in many churches and there is potential for confusion.
When we hear of high profile cases of leaders getting in wrong (e.g. see this blog post), how can we work this out in a way that enables rather then hinders good youth ministry?
(Mark Driscoll has some interesting advice for male pastors here. But not sure how much of that works in a UK youth ministry context?)
Tags: youth ministry
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home