Youth ministry is in full swing all over China. Due to the different conditions of churches, expectations, organizational forms, and content for youth ministry vary. Factors like the number and living conditions of young people, the number and quality of pastoral teams, donations received by the church, local belief traditions, leaders’ cognition, and the relationship between fellow workers all influence youth ministry’s development. Among them, local young people’s basic situation is the main constraint. The following are three different types of youth ministry.
Church A’s youth ministry was established in 2010. By 2024, its membership had grown from over 30 to more than 200. Fixed activities are established in the form of fellowships and small groups. The main truth-based activities are a weekly gathering called “fellowship day,” featuring welcoming new members, bible study, and group discussions; weekly and quarterly prayer meetings; daily group online meditation and three chapters of Bible reading; various activities including worship and praise meetings, group gatherings, holiday celebrations, camping for singles or couples, etc. In the ministry, there is a lively and intimate fellowship culture, including a clear vision, admin system, convention; formal ceremony of making a pledge, birthday party, excellent group award, drawing pictures symbolizing the characteristics of the group together; planting flowers representing the group and fellowship together, and waiting for another appointment ten years later. Disciples turned back to serve the church, and young people became the main serving teams of reception, visit, worship, orientation, and choir of the church.
This kind of youth ministry has an enviable “high configuration.” One of the obvious characteristics is that the living conditions of this group of young people are very different from those of most other regions. The city where the church is located is in the second tier, which is a rising star in the province. The area where the church is located is at the center of the city’s rapid development, which means many job opportunities. The culture of mobility and the economic conditions of GDP per capita are close to those of developed countries, which make this generation of young people willing to stay here, relatively rich, basically stable in marriage and family, and more comfortable in the pace of life.
The point to emphasize this is that, as many pastors elaborate, why they cannot carry out active youth ministry is due to the fact that the local young people have left or the fast pace of life makes it difficult for them. As a Chinese saying goes, a capable housewife cooks nothing without ingredients. The work pressure has squeezed young people’s bodies, energy, and time infinitely, making it difficult for them to take a personal break so that they can join a fellowship. The common local background of young people in Church A makes it easier for them to have close fellowship with each other and enhanced commitment to the church.
Church B still has a certain proportion of young people, some of whom are from the local area, and some come here for study or career development. Compared with Church A, they objectively have less time to attend church activities, and their differences in life experience and cultural background are more obvious. Their abilities of intellectual knowledge and music worship vary.
Their youth fellowship is a set of relationship-oriented and relaxed activities, including band training, reading club, and weekend leisure. They serve to attract young people to join or return to the church, making it easier to come; weekly Bible teaching is fixed, providing courses with strong relevance to young people’s lives and mentality, with guaranteed guidance on truth; young people’s talents will be explored and help provided for them to serve so as to enhance their sense of belonging.
Church B’s expectation of young people’s participation in church activities is generally lower than that of A. Youth ministry can provide young people with targeted truth and relationship courses with regular schedules to realize a small proportion of servitude transformation, which is the pastoral effect they can achieve.
Church C, located in a rural area of Central China, faces a serious problem of young people leaving. Of the 500 congregations who attend Sunday services, less than 200 are under the age of 60, less than 100 are under the age of 40, and there are almost no young people around the age of 20. Leaving home to study and work is the main reason for the loss. Even so, the church can still make efforts in youth ministry. The 2022 Spring Festival was the starting point. A theology student who grew up in the church returned after graduation and took charge of the youth group in addition to pastoral affairs on weekdays. During the festival, she gathered more than 30 believers in their twenties to the church by contacting their parents. It took them a month to re-establish the habit of reading the Bible, attending sermons, sharing beliefs, and praying. At the end of the festival holiday, everyone was settled in a group, and the group leader was responsible for following up and connecting, doing online group courses, and urging them to actively participate in the religious activities of the local church.
Church C’s orientation and expectation for youth ministry is only to serve these “migratory birds,” and the most basic purpose is to ensure that the group can constantly maintain a relationship with a church, whether it is the church at home or elsewhere at work; provide them a group of peers belonging to the faith, so that they will not feel lonely and support each other spiritually; and step by step, keep good spiritual practice habits.
It is worth mentioning that most churches are not without young people, and they can also be very roughly categorized into the above three churches, of which the second and third ones are the majority. However, even in churches with superior conditions like A, there are examples of youth ministries being perfunctory. Not to mention there are not a few churches with the conditions of B and C that abandon youth ministry. Why can the three stand out and exceed expectations? Although they have their own characteristics, they also reflect some commonalities in concept and principle.
The first is the leader. A leader, who can see the importance of youth ministry has a burden, determination and persistence in youth are the keys to success. Poorer conditions, more complicated situations, and difficult relationships need a leader worthy of God’s trust all the more.
The second is the relationship. The new generation of young people is very direct. If they have connections, they will stay. If the atmosphere is uncomfortable, they will leave. The church should deeply realize this. In addition to peer relationships, in the above three typical examples, the leaders all emphasize that they should be friends rather than parents. Young people are against the authority that is unreasonable, but they like the authority that has been proved. The person in charge should win their trust and respect.
Moreover, form and content are equally important, and diverse activities and truth-learning are equally important. No activity is in line with the characteristics of young people; without Bible study, no ministry will last long.
Postscript
From the perspective of faith inheritance, the development of youth and family ministry has reached a critical moment that a church can no longer ignore. At present, the majority of young people in the state-recognized church still belong to the people who have had faith since childhood. They received the seeds of faith from their parents, gained a solid foundation in Sunday schools, went to other cities to pursue their studies, and became young members of local churches.
However, since the Sunday school ministry ceased, for nearly two to six the second generations of believers have not grown up in a church atmosphere. At the same time, most family ministries have only emerged for not so long. In the foreseeable three to five years, the next generation who might grow up in a believing environment will largely decrease not until very well-established family ministry matures and continues.
On the subject of faith inheritance, during the period when the church changed from relying on Sunday school ministry to relying on parent and family ministry, in order to reduce the loss, the most important thing to hold of at present is the last generation of young people who grew up in Sunday school ministry and are now gradually over 18 years old.
- Edited by Karen Luo, translated by Charlie Li
