We say that if you can minister in Mexico City, you can minister anywhere. Three of the things I think are big challenges to youth ministry in Mexico City are space, transportation, and time.

Because of the way things are built here, there is little space. Churches don’t have a lot of room. There are no “church parking lots” where you could go out and play games. There are no fields that are on church property. If you are lucky, you get to share a room with some other classes for your youth meetings. Maybe, you can have your youth meetings in the church sanctuary. You will more than likely never have your own space for youth.

Transportation is the second challenge. If you want to go on a trip, you must rent transportation, which is not always cheap. Even for a little short trip to the mall or something, everyone will have to go in the public transportation (not always safe with younger teens). If parents or youth workers are fortunate enough to have a car, it’s a two door Chevy that barely holds 4 people.

Time is the third challenge, and it may be the biggest of the three mentioned here. Because of the traffic, many people leave for work at 6 AM and get home at 9 PM. There is little time for ministry to them. If a pastor or youth pastor is going to make visits, it will take him all day to visit a few people. If we try to have midweek services, few can make it. Students who are studying in the university have little time, either, because of their schedules. Even middle school and high school students could be in classes until 7 at night.

So, pray for these three big challenges to ministry in Mexico. Pray that we will be able to figure out ways around them so that youth workers can better minister to the young people of this enormous city.