A Paradigm Shifter

Saw this video over on Mike King’s blog. It’s about the need for a paradigm shift in public education, but much that is discussed relates to the practice of youth ministry. It’s always beneficial to sharpen and evaluate our philosophy of ministry, and there are some great implications to draw out of this video to help us do that.

One of the key points the speaker makes is that we are continuing to move in a direction in which everything is standardized and entirely about the individual, and his assertion is that education should be moving in the opposite direction. It seems that the average youth ministry functions along the same lines of standardization, not necessarily intentionally but rather due to a general lack of resources (time, energy, creativity, volunteers).

What would our youth ministries look like if we began to move away from standardization? Or if we re-drew the lines of how our programs are broken down (i.e. by level of interest/commitment rather than by grade level)? Or if we changed how we implement our programs (i.e. Sunday School)? Or is it time to simply throw away the programs and work out of a brand-new paradigm (now we’re getting radical!)?

What other major implications jump out at you? What aspects of how we do youth ministry need to be tweaked? What aspects might need a total overhaul?

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