Dan Boone on youth ministry

Dan Boone, president of Trevecca Nazarene University, joined the Pastor's Circle today to talk about youth ministry - and what makes a good one.


Modern youth ministry hasn't worked...do you agree with that premise?

Well, there would certainly be youth programs I would look at, and say, that 's more about fun than discipleship.

I even think there has been a turn back towards more of a service-oriented youth group.

I'm really concerned about the theological depth of what young people are getting from the youth ministries out there.

Is part of the problem that we think "who is the coolest young guy," not "who is the person who will disciple our kids the best?"

In some ways I don't just fault teenagers for that.

I've got a great friend named Greg who's a youth pastor in Memphis.

He has such a clear discipleship track from the time a young person hits 6th grade until they graduate.

They truly engage in that

It's a thoughtful attempt to form students in Christian thinking and Christian action.

He wouldn't win anybody's contest for cool, but those students love him.

I think you mentioned something good...have a discipleship program. What would you put on a list of discipleship characteristics?

The first one would be, just a deep-souled passion to be like Jesus.

The second one, I think, would be someone who knows how to feed themself as well as to appreciate the corporate process as a feeding.

I think journals are a great practice for a teen.

Third one would be, they are becoming a pretty good exegete of the culture they live in.

By the time they graduate from high school, they can look at some kind of movement or person and think, everyone might be going along with this, but I think there may be some kind of wrong here.

I would hope they would also have the beginning of a sense of vocation, that God had placed them in this world to do particular kinds of work to the glory of God and the good of others.

That would be my off-the-top-of-my-head list.

Dave Kinneman says that 85% of youth leave the church after high school....what does that tell us?

One, a lot of the youth pastors aren't thinking beyond high school.

The statistics just make me weep when I think about.

I think our Christian colleges and universities are a pivotal discipleship choice.

I think parents sometimes are sometimes missing it. I know the cost factor...but when you get to the end of that four years, and that person's married to a non-believer, and they've walked away from the church, I want to say, is that worth the savings?

When we look at youth ministry, are we expecting too much of youth ministry?

Well, I don't know if we expect too much of youth ministry; I think we expect too little of parents.

I've always said to youth pastors, you are pastors to the entire family.

I think it takes a great parent and a great youth pastor to disciple a family.