The foundation of my theology and philosophy of youth ministry has been majorly molded by my home church, which is a very traditional Southern Baptist Church. There are many aspects that I would change which is what will be outlined in this paper. The two main aspects I would reprioritize are; how parents influence the ministry and how discipleship is approached. During the course of this paper, I will cover my philosophy of youth ministry by developing a mission statement, then developing a purpose based off the mission statement, followed by using the purpose and mission statement to develop a vision for youth ministry and finally developing a strategy to put the above theology into a practical application.
Mission Statement My mission
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I strive to give my students more than good habits as a person in society. The mission statement I have developed for my ministry is revealing Jesus through Christ-centered leadership and transformational discipleship.
The first part of that mission statement is revealing Jesus. My main purpose for youth ministry is to assist students in creating a foundation as they grow and mature. One of the first steps that need to be taken is to change the fact that “kids essentially see God as a ‘divine butter’ or a ‘cosmic therapist’- Jesus’ job is to help them do what they want, make them happy, and solve their problems.” Students need to understand the character of God and let that shape their lives instead of their lives shaping who God is to them. About four in ten students say a good person can earn eternal salvation through good deeds. “Whatever we are doing to help
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I believe that this is a key to a successful ministry. You may think that this part is super obvious; however, I believe it is not. With most things comes good intentions. In order to keep a Christ-centered leadership the youth minister must stress the importance daily of being Christ-centered to the leadership staff. Most importantly, this includes pointing everything back to Christ, letting Christ work through the leadership, and letting the Gospel influence every decision. A main part of this includes being open to God’s agenda for this ministry and not my own. Mike Woodruff once said “Nothing characterizes successful organizations more than their willingness to abandon what made them successful.” I strongly believe that Christ-centered leaders will be open and flexible to changing how the ministry operates if it is what Christ is calling the ministry to