I was in a church in Cuba where the average person makes less than $20 a month, and the sign on the wall says “A church blessed to be a blessing.” I’ve always believed that we receive blessings (finances, opportunities, resources, etc) in order to be in a position to bless others.
The profession of youth ministry has been blessed to be a blessing. Many of us who are in youth ministry have received numerous opportunities. Some of us have been educated in youth ministry. We have experience in ministering to young people. We have learned a lot and been offered a lot. Now it’s our turn to be a blessing to others around the world.
Global youth ministry is important for many reasons. Here are some of them.
Because of the need
When we talk about the need for international youth ministry, I am often reminded of the statistics that I first heard when I was a youth ministry student at Liberty University.
Ninety-seven percent of the world’s trained youth workers live and work in the United States, ministering to less than 3% of the world’s youth population. In the United States, there is one trained youth worker for every 600 young people. In the rest of the world, there is one trained youth worker for every 400,000 young people.
While I’m not denying that the young people of America need youth pastors, the American church, who has focused on missions for quite some time now, has not yet turned its focus towards impacting the next generation with trained professionals in youth ministry.
Because of the blessings we’ve received
Training in youth ministry at either a graduate or undergraduate level is available from more than 140 accredited institutions in the United States (link). There are countless conferences, training sessions, and resources for youth workers. However, there are very few organizations who are focused on training and resourcing those outside of the English speaking world.
Because of invitations
New requests come in every day for training in other parts of the world. Youth Ministry International could use full time youth ministry trainers in all of the countries in which we are working right now, and there are other countries asking for our help.
We have invitations from at least three other countries in Latin America alone who want youth ministry training, but we are unable to respond to these requests for lack of trainers. There’s just not enough time or personnel to keep up with the invitations we are receiving.
Because of the commands.
God has commanded us to make disciples of all nations. Youth workers are doing their best to obey God and bring young people to follow Christ. If you’re a youth worker, I commend you for the work you are doing. I believe youth pastors are some of the most under-appreciated people on the planet. Thank you for doing what you do.
Now I’d like to ask you to consider what you are doing to be a blessing to others in the world who could benefit from your experience and training. We are praying that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into His field. There are multitudes of young people who are in desperate need for people who have the ability to come alongside them and help them.
You have been blessed. Now be a blessing.
Yesterday in my Professional Orientation to youth ministry class, we talked about contacting students in ministry. We talked about many different ways to contact people, and in class, I asked on twitter for some suggestions on how to contact students during the week.
Of course, the popular way to contact students in the United States right now is on Facebook. I received replies from both Tony and Sara that told me to suggest creating Facebook groups to keep in touch with students. Right now, Facebook has not really caught on in Mexico.
However, Huberto showed me a social network that is taking off in Mexico. It’s called Hi5, and it’s really pretty much like all the other social networking sites that are out there right now. Hi5 is the 3rd largest social networking site in Latin America and has more users than MySpace or Facebook.
It looks a lot like MySpace, in my opinion. Huberto says he uses it to stay in touch with the students in his ministry, and he was worried about the dangers that there are with his students using these sites and putting too much information online, etc.
I thought that this whole conversation was good because it’s interesting to see how different countries’ use of social media evolves. I started a Spanish social network on ning.com for youth workers, which led the youth pastor from our church to create one for the youth ministry at our church.
Social networking is getting more popular in Mexico, and it will definitely be a way to communicate with young people in the future. Right now, it’s cutting edge. I wonder what new thing will be out in the USA when it finally becomes mainstream here?
(image by: dsevilla on flickr)
In January, I taught a class on camps and retreats in the Master’s in Youth Ministry program that YMI is directing. Their post-class assignment was to actually plan a camp. They worked out their schedules to put together two camps. One is happening this weekend, and the other happened a few weeks ago.
The focus of the camp a few weeks ago was to train youth leaders using the Jesus Focused Youth Ministry curriculum from Reach-Out. It seems that the camp went very well.
Here’s a visual report that they sent me, with some descriptions of the photos. Click a picture to read the title and description.
By the way, this isn’t a youth camp in Mexico. It’s in another country. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch the slideshow and read the descriptions. You’ll get the idea.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Mexico City. For some reason, I can’t get it out of my head. There is an enormous need in this mega-city. Our job is to train youth workers for local churches. In the United States, there is a trained youth worker for every 600 young people. In the rest of the world, there is a trained youth worker for every 400,000 young people.
In order for Mexico City to have one youth worker for every 600 young people, there would have to be around 25,000 youth workers in this city. There aren’t even that many evangelical churches in Mexico City. The population of Mexico City is less than 2% Christian, and the young people of this country are in desperate need for role models, mentors, heroes, and leaders.
We’re off to a great start with the 9 students studying at the seminary to be youth ministers, but we need more workers. I believe that something great is going to happen in this city. We need youth ministers here in Mexico, and we need global youth workers from the United States who will help with this enormous job.
Our friends Tim and Annette Gulick, who lived and worked in Mexico for many years and run an incredibly helpful resource site for Spanish speaking youth workers, have recently moved to Argentina. They’ve gone there to help with a youth ministry institute that Youth Specialties is beginning.
They’ve been blogging about their experiences and their new life in Argentina, and anyone who’s interested in youth ministry in Latin America or global youth ministry should read what they’re doing down there.
Check out their blog here.
