The Demonization of Teenagers

My friend and YouthFront CEO, Mike King (also a JW elder) has written a great post on his blog about the use of fear as a means of raising money to fund youth ministry, among many other things. Mike has worked with youth and within youth culture for over 30 years. Take a minute and read his post. It is very thoughtful, wise, and instructive. Here is the opening salvo:

"Unfortunately, one of the most successful strategies for funding youth ministry involves demonizing young people. This process involves painting a picture using statistics, stories, and alarmist scare tactics in order to convince adults to give money to help reach the youth culture because 'it's never been worse.' This strategy works for fund-raising, but I don't think this posture of viewing teenagers as the most evil demographic group creates an environment that results in genuine salvation and the biblical Christian formation of young people as disciples of Jesus Christ."

Comments

[Heather]

My spouse, who did youth ministry professionally for several years, used to laugh at the traditional model of youth group: scavenger hunts, floor hockey, etc, etc, etc. He called it the "tire them out so they won't have sex" model....

[Tim]

I actually had a parent say that to me when I was a youth pastor, Heather. Hilarious and sad at the same time.