01. Food for Thought: Engaging With Youth

Engaging with Youth

An Introduction by Clayton Fergie, International Youth Ministry Coordinator

“…we need to develop a strong understanding of the range of factors that impact, influence and shape youth – and we need to engage with these as we develop our ministry strategies and practice”

Recently I had the great experience of being interviewed by a group of teenagers in a rural village church in Egypt. The topic was young people from the West. ‘How do young Christians be Christian in such a highly sexualised society?’ was one of the questions (they had seen western TV shows and assumed that all life in the West was like this). Later I had the opportunity to ask them a similar question. ‘What are the things that make it difficult for you to follow Jesus in your situation?’

Not long before this, in another country, one of our senior staff showed me his scars from when he had been caught in crossfire as a 12 year old child soldier. Many of the social issues he’d faced as a teenager were worlds apart from the issues faced by most young people in other parts of the world.

These experiences alone reminded me of the huge diversity of factors that influence the development of adolescents: the sexualised West, the Christian minority in a rural village, and exploitation and trauma of war, genocide or poverty. In reality, these examples barely scratch the surface of the bigger picture!

As Christians, we believe we are part of a much larger story – the story of God’s Kingdom throughout history – of which all cultures are a part. It’s the story of a great rescue, as God redeems His creation from its brokenness. This is the Good News. SU is part of this story, called to be part of what God is doing in this diverse and constantly changing world. The young people we work with are part of that story too and we all feel great joy when we see some of them thinking Biblically and acting missionally in partnership with God and his people in his world!

There is enormous diversity in the experiences faced by young people in different parts of the world as they grow up, yet there are so many similarities – normal adolescent development on the one hand and globalisation on the other make sure of that! As we seek to serve young people well in their particular social and cultural context, we need to develop a strong understanding of the range of factors that impact, influence and shape them – and we need to engage with these as we develop our ministry strategies and practice.

With this in mind, we have included three articles in this ‘Food for Thought’ section – articles which provide quite diverse perspectives on SU youth ministry. Marcus Giger from SU Switzerland gives us a picture of youth cultures in a Western European context. Leonard Makoni, National Director of SU in Zimbabwe, provides a window into the enormous challenges of youth ministry in a highly stressed situation. Howard Groome, former Chair of SU Australia, explores the issue of adolescent identity from a global perspective.

We have posted more material on the new Catalyst Forum website, and there will be more to come. We hope that this material, together with the stories you will find in this Catalyst, will open up some of the key issues for those who work with teenagers and young people.

The Catalyst Forum website is interactive. You can ask questions, leave comments and make suggestions as part of the online youth ministry community that we hope develops. You may also have a useful article that could be posted.

Translation into our three official languages of Spanish, French and English will be a challenge for the website and there will be limitations. To reduce these, we welcome offers of assistance to translate articles, comments and so on. Please contact us if you think you can help.

May our ministry with teenagers and young people be dependant on God’s power that is wonderfully at work in and through us. May we be faithful, wise and courageous as we seek to serve His Kingdom as partners in the Gospel.