-----------------------
The pages of history contain little insight into teen culture, let alone how the Church ministers to teenagers. This is partly because youth culture, as we know it, is a rather new novelty. Technically, teenagers were not culturally acknowledged as a separate developmental group until the late 1800s. They were considered “youth,” but were not considered to be much different from children or young adults (Pahl 170).
American families were primarily driven by agriculture. Therefore, when children were old enough they transitioned immediately into having adult responsibilities such as working the farm (Roadcup 15). There was little need to recognize a gap between childhood and adulthood.
In 1904, Granville Stanley Hall coined the phrase adolescent. He believed that there was a transitional stage between the onset of puberty and the age when adult behaviors were culturally expected. During this time, Hall noted adolescents dealt with specific, age related issues of identity, independence and affinity (Oestricher, np).
The cultural innovation of adolescence set a youth culture in motion that has steadily gained momentum in both the American culture and the Church. American teens immediately grabbed hold of their new position. Teens threw themselves into the midst of the culture. They played large roles in everything from working the factories of the Industrial Revolution to being a sought after consumer of American products. With each changing generation, Godly adults began to seek new ways to reach this new people group. During the process, one of the most innovative ministries to ever come from the church was born, transitioned and institutionalized. This development can be broken down into three eras: the Industrial Revolution (birth), the public high school (transition) and the ascent and decline of Parachurch (institutionalization).
Industrial Revolution (1850s – 1920s)
All movements grow out of a felt need. Youth ministry is no different. The Age of Enlightenment was the soil from which youth ministry sprang. In 1859, Charles Darwin released a revolutionary publication titled “On the Origin of Species.” His publication set into motion a culture that valued reason above faith. A society of intellect was replacing what once was a society of theology (Dunn 107). Authoritarian powers were seen as the enemy. While this provided individuals with a greater voice, the church was one of the main authorities under attack. Religious and moral influences were being systematically removed from society and schools. Rural family values were under attack as intellectuals hotly debated whether religious convictions were necessary (Senter 54). During this tumultuous time for the church, another revolution began that gave youth ministry the roots it needed to grow into a movement.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most American families were agricultural. As children came of age, they finished primary school and started working the farm. There were very few options for setting their life on a different path from their parents. Teens were expected to take over the farm and continue the cycle with their children. Schooling was not necessary. Everything that needed to be learned in life was passed on through the family structure. Because of this intellectualism was not as influential in the rural community. However, industrialism changed everything (Roadcup 16).
The Industrial Revolution introduced a promising city life. Cities were developing factories that specialized in mass production. Soon the need for family owned businesses began to wane. As industry replaced agriculture, young families in need of income began to move from their sheltered communities into thriving cities. New technologies allowed teens to distinguish themselves from children and adults by developing their own subculture. Their factories were harnessing electricity to perfect various forms of entertainment including the phonograph, kinetoscope and stereopticon. These new inventions made pop culture easily accessible to all peoples, especially teens (Benson 63). Teens stayed in their newly found culture longer, thus delaying adulthood. They were thus given their own designation as adolescents.
Teens who once were expected to take over the family farm now had a variety of life options offered to them. In order to make the most of their options schooling was becoming more necessary. David Roadcup writes,
Industrialism breeds adolescence because it delays adult status. Work roles become more refined and specialized, often requiring extended education. Physical strength doesn’t always suffice to secure a job. Additionally, industrial societies foster adolescence because they do not provide consistent cultural instruction concerning values and beliefs (Roadcup 16).
Absorbed in a city culture that does not value Christian values, families began to see their teens steadily “fall prey to the temptations that abounded in the city” (Dunn 108). These developments made the atmosphere ripe for the beginning of youth ministry.
Youth ministries did not initially start in the church. In fact, they were considered societies rather than ministries. Adults that noticed the removal of theology from schools and the spiritual vacuum of the city set out to make a difference. Their first big attempt at changing the lives of teens was developed around a program introduced by Robert Raikes in Gloucester, England in the seventeenth century, the Sunday School. By the late nineteenth century the American adults were using it to reach ragamuffin, street teens. These classes met on Sunday afternoons, after church. Their curriculum was designed as a correction of character. Though classes included scripture, most lessons revolved around hygiene and ethics (Estep 13.8).
Two other organizations were started to reach teens in the late nineteenth century. They were the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Like the Sunday School, these two organizations were independent from ecclesiastical control (Senter 98). The new teen culture was so enveloped with sin that many churches feared it. This new ministry to teens started as “Christian youth workers began to spring up, sensing a radical, missional calling to reach teenagers for Jesus Christ” (Oestricher, np). They sensed a need, saw the church was doing nothing about it and sprung into action.
It was not until Francis E. Clark started Christian Endeavor that the church designed a program to minister specifically to adolescents. Clark sensed a lack of spiritual growth coming from the YMCAs and Sunday Schools. He wanted to develop a means to teaching students that did not involve a “tithing man’s stick, with which to rap naughty boys over the head,” but instead to come with a “shepherd’s crook wherewith to guide them into the green pastures of loving service” (Benson 65). He believed that the failure of previous youth movements could be tracked back to their lack of expectations of teens. Clark says, “Most of these mistakes lay along the line of doing too much for the young people rather than allowing them to do what they could for themselves.” (65).
Francis Clark had heard about a man named Theodore Cuyler who had started a program in his church based off the YMCA model. Not much is known about what Cuyler’s model involved, but Francis Clark was impressed so much that he decided to start one in his congregation (Senter 72).
On February 2, 1881, at Williston Church in Portland, Maine, Clark launched the International Christian Endeavor Society. It was simple, yet highly effective. Every teen in his program was asked to sign a two page contract promising that they would uphold six characteristics. A summary of the characteristics were:
1. Commitment to serving Jesus and attending the Society’s meetings.
2. Attend the monthly experience or consecration meeting.
3. Be part of the work-training.
4. Private devotions, daily prayer and Bible reading.
5. Denominational loyalty (includes attending the church’s services)
6. Attending interdenominational fellowships.
The ministry started as a small group of teens. After the Sunday morning service, Clark invited the teens over to his home. Christian Endeavor started as a small group of eager teens. Two years later, six other congregations brought the society into their churches. By 1895, Christian Endeavor was holding their own convention in Boston. There were over 50,000 in attendance. By 1906, the movement went world wide, with 67,000 societies with over four million members (Benson 66).
There were youth programs in churches before Clark’s, but none were as influential for the local church as Christian Endeavor was. Most youth ministry programs in the early twentieth century were inspired by it. The society continued to be the most prominent youth ministry program in America for the first two decades of the 1900s. By the 1930s, youth ministry in denominational churches was well established. There was great optimism about reaching adolescents.
The Public High School (1930s – 1960s)
Optimism for both the church and America hit a wall in the thirties. A worldwide economic depression was underway. Just as America started to develop a youth culture, the Great Depression hit. Surviving replaced fun as priority number one. The jobs that they had found during the Industrial Revolution were slowly disappearing. With a shortage jobs, students began to embrace a life of public school (Senter 108).
In 1875, in the case of Stuart vs. School District No. 1 of Kalamazoo, the Supreme Court ruled that states could use tax money to finance public high schools. Before this decision, only 80,000 students had been enrolled in secondary school nation wide. When the Great Depression hit, American high schools enrolled over 5 million students. The hardships that the country experienced played a big role in the development of modern day youth ministries (Benson 66).
Within public high schools, modern day youth culture developed. With the boost to their schools, administrators began to readjust their curriculum. Instead of just focusing on liberal arts, schools began to add classes that were socially relevant (physical education, agriculture, arts, music, business education, etc.). As the curriculum progressed, administrators also began to limit and remove religion from the classroom (Senter 104). In 1948, in the case of McColum vs. the Board of Education the Supreme Court ruled that any public school that permitted religious education was unconstitutional (108). Then the schools began to remove those same students from churches. Dunn writes,
Put most teenagers in high school and you have football, cheerleaders, and the Saturday night dance. And that was happening just as the big dance bands were coming into vogue, along with radio, phonographs, soda fountains, jukeboxes and available cars. Suddenly there was a youth culture as never before. Compared to basketball games, school dances, and movie dates, youth groups seemed pretty dull (Benson 66).
In cities, such as New York, 80% of all students participated in extracurricular activities (Austin 97). Eventually the school had become the focal point of the community rather than the church. All the progress that youth ministries had made during the early twentieth century was beginning to unravel. However, just as Francis Clark during Industrial Revolution had done, Godly adults stepped up to develop strategies to bring the gospel to adolescents in a changing culture.
This new teen subculture proved to be too much for churches. Many churches felt under attack by a rising pop culture. Fundamentalists did all they could to separate its youth from it. During this period, youth ministry slowly began to move from being church based to organization based.
After graduating from Westminster, Percy Crawford set out to reach American adolescents by attracting teens by using pop culture. Crawford saw how teens were responding to the music surrounding them. He wanted to use that for his benefit. If churches were not going to do it, he was! With his wife, Ruth, he married modern day music and Christian lyrics. By the 1940s, his music was a staple among Christian youth nationwide (Benson 67).
Percy Crawford’s use of pop culture extended beyond writing music. He introduced teens to Saturday night youth rallies, entertaining Bible conferences, camps and bookstores. By 1950, he brought Christian music to radio and television.
World War II provided an energy boost to youth culture during this era. As adults left for war, teenagers were seen as the top dogs. The economy was booming once again, and advertisers were starting to target teenagers’ wallets. Before long teen magazines, music and clothes were in mass production (Benson 68).
When the war ended in 1945, Christians returned home with a spirit of victory. They had just changed the world, and they were ready to tackle the issues of the American church. A crusader’s mentality started to permeate youth ministries. Programs such as Christian Service Brigade, Pioneer Girls, and AWANA were introduced (Dunn 108). With the gung-ho of newly inspired youth leaders, youth ministry began to evolve from a personal-piety focused ministry to one focused on communal change in both America and the world.
The 1950s saw the rise of various parachurch organizations designed to bring revival to American teens. One particular organization was started under the leadership of Percy Crawford, Billy Graham and others. They called it Youth for Christ. Rallies were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Rallies were most often held on Saturday nights with “lively gospel music, personal testimonies from athletes, civic leaders or military heroes, and a brief sermon, climaxing with a gospel invitation to receive Jesus as personal Savior” (Pahl 60). Joel Carpenter describes the rallies like this:
Rally evangelists hammered at the sins of youthful desire, while creating an atmosphere of wholesome entertainment, patriotic affirmation, and religious commitment. Meetings featured carefully orchestrated visions of innocence, heroism, and loyalty…all wrapped in a contemporary idiom borrowed from radio variety shows and patriotic musical revues (Pahl 60).
The rallies that were developed were initially designed to attract students back to the church. However, most churches and youth workers looked down upon the rallies (Campolo 195).
Youth for Christ is just one example of the many parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1940s to 1960s. These organizations did more than invest in rallies. They inspired teens to get involved in serving God. Inspired from these organizations were other ministries such as World Vision (Benson 69). In the fifties and sixties teens continued in education and went to Christian colleges and Bible institutes. Upon graduating college, they would join the parachurch organizations that had influenced their lives. Youth ministry was starting to become a profession as can be evidenced by the thousands of youth workers involved in religious youth parachurch organizations (Senter 141).
The Ascent and Decline of the Parachurch (1970s – 1980s)
Since the years of the Christian Endeavor movement, congregations had not been successful at developing thriving ministries in their churches. Some had implemented parachurch strategies and succeeded. Largely, local church youth ministry struggled, while parachurch youth ministry thrived. In the seventies all this began to change.
As more teens went off to college to join the youth ministry profession, they were finding little comfort in parachurch organizations. It was not uncommon for these college graduates to spend a third of their workweek raising funds. Being hired by a church was typically not an option. Only a few larger churches in urban areas hired youth directors. Even when they were hired, the position was seen as a transitional one. They were expected to eventually become “real ministers” (Senter 141).
Eventually, churches stepped up to the plate. In the mid 1970s, the position of “youth pastor” caught on as a necessary role for pastoral staffs. Denominational leaders were seeing that their parachurch organizations were essentially removing teens from local churches. This led to a “dramatic dismantling of youth bureaus and services in the early 1960s.” (Benson 71). The goal was to instead integrate teens into the life of the local church. Adding a “youth pastor” was part of this transition.
As the ranks of people willing to work with youth swelled, churches became willing to compensate their young leaders. This new concept of youth pastor had two immediate effects The first was on parachurch organizations. Organizations were finding it harder and harder to find youth workers. Churches were taking from the same pool, colleges and Bible institutes, which parachurch organizations had relied on. Besides that, a church that would compensate their youth workers kept them from “wasting his time raising support” (Senter 142). Mike Yaconelli, (leader of a parachurch organization—Youth Specialties) voiced his frustrations with parachurch organizations in the 80s:
I believe we’re in a crisis of youth ministry. Most of our models of parachurch youth ministries were developed in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and are out of touch. When I talk to their staffs they get angry and defensive. I’m sorry. I wish I could say it’s a golden age and everything’s going great—but it’s not. (Senter 20).
The second effect of the “youth pastor” position was felt by volunteers within the church. With the addition of a professional youth worker, the need for volunteer youth workers was eliminated. At best, they were made to feel like “second class citizens” (143). In many situations, the church is not any better off with professionals. Tony Campolo makes the argument that there are many highly successful, yet nonprofessional youth pastors that have developed youth programs that “impact young people’s lives in ways that defy rational explanation” (Campolo 198). He goes on to say that it seems like specially trained youth workers lost the desire and charisma that marked the volunteer movement (198).
Though there were a few bad results of hiring specialized youth pastors, more often than not it was a benefit for the church. Parachurches were focused on reaching teens outside of the walls of the church. Now youth ministry was beginning to move inside the walls. Youth Pastors started to use the models of parachurch to minister to their teens and communities. In doing so, they focused on building relationships (Oestricher, np). Parachurches were not able to do that with their rallies. It was all about the big show. When the show was over they sent the teens to another ministry for Bible study. Youth ministers of the 80s changed that. They brought the show and the relationships.
Youth Ministry Coming into its Own (1990s - Present)
(Note: It is hard to evaluate the most recent history of any movement, let alone a movement that has very little history to begin with. Very little reflection has been written about the 1980s to present. With the desire to stay relevant in culture, youth ministries have done a good job about trying to predict the future. However, they have done poorly at the recording and reflection of the past. Most of what I have been able to draw from the 1980s is from books written during that time. In the books, they try to present a plan for the future. From their plans, I have tried to delineate what the issues were that were facing them in that time.)
Through the 1980s churches began to see youth ministry programs become flashy, just like their parachurch predecessors. However, the same youth ministries began to stray from their relational intentions. Programs became the driving force of youth ministry. When the emphasis shifted to performance over relationship, churches eventually began getting cues from businesses to enhance their programming. This business mentality led churches to focus their evaluation on measuring growth and success. Mark Oestricher sums up this transition by writing,
[This new phase of youth ministry] was birthed out of revolutionary positive intentions. And most youth workers (and churches) still have genuinely positive intentions, even though many of us are working with assumptions about youth ministry that are seriously flawed (www.ysmarko.com)
As the 80s ended, youth ministries around the country began to realize that the new model of youth ministry was highly inadequate at reaching and discipling teenagers. In a relatively short amount of time, youth ministries began to correct itself (Senter 161).
In the 1990s, the youth ministry world focused on becoming intentional in rectifying the two of its weak points. First, youth ministries began to get back to their original intentions of helping teens build relationships. More and more churches are supplementing their youth ministries with small groups. This is partly because youth culture is becoming harder to follow. There is no longer just one youth culture. There are multiple cultures within the culture. Mark Oestricher writes, “There is no one-size-fits all youth culture anymore. There was a day, in the not too distant past, when the entire high school revolved around the football players and cheerleaders” (Oestricher, np). He says that this day will likely never exist again.
Second, youth ministries are trying to return the ministry back to volunteer leaders. It has been said that Martin Luther’s contribution to the church was returning to it the Bible and our contribution should be returning to it the ministry. Benson accurately describes today’s professional youth pastors responsibilities as including:
1. Working with a team of leaders.
2. Growing the ministry out of the needs of youth.
3. Developing the ministry out of the involvement of shared leadership—youth and adults (Benson 72).
In its short-lived history, youth ministry has impacted and been impacted by the American culture. It has revolutionized the Christian world and the local church. It has given the church a means in reaching the rising generations, and given the rising generations hope and relevance to the church. Youth ministry will always have hurdles and detours thrown at it. The American culture will continue to remove religion from aspects of public life and youth ministries will have to change. The culture will continue to provide alternatives that compete with the church for a teen’s attention and youth ministries will have to change. However, as the past has shown, the church will continue to step up to the plate and follow God’s guidance in raising up new leaders to reach His youth for His kingdom.
----------------------------
Works Cited
Austin, Joe, ed. “Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America.” New York: New York UP; 1989.
Benson, Warren S, ed. “The Complete Book of Youth Ministry: .” Chicago: Moody; 1987.
Campolo, Tony. “The Church and the American Teenager.” Grand Rapids: Zondervan; 1989.
Dunn, Richards R, ed. “A Comprehensive Guide to Youth Ministry: Reaching a Generation for Christ.” Chicago: Moody; 1997.
Estep, James Riley, ed. “C.E.: The Heritage of Christian Education.” Joplin: College Press; 2003.
Oestricher, Mark. “Youth Ministry 3.0.” Online posting. 5 April, 2008. Youth Specialities Blog.
Pahl, Jon. “Youth Ministry in Modern America: 1930 to the Present.” Peabody: Hendrickson; 2000.
Roadcup, David, ed. “Ministering to Youth: A Strategy for the 80s.” Cincinnati: Standard; 1980.
Senter, Mark. “The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry: And it’s Radical Impact on the Church.” Wheaton: Victor; 1992.
Resources Not Sited
Ahlstrom, Sydney E. “A Religious History of the American People.” New Haven: Yale UP; 1972.
Brereton, Virginia L. “Training God’s Army: The American Bible School, 1880-1940.” Bloomington: Indiana UP; 1990.
Ellwood, Robert S. “The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace: American Religion in a Decade of Conflict.” New Brunswick: Rutgers; 1997.
Engelhardt, Tom. “The End of Victory Culture.” New York: Basic Books; 1995.
Hutchinson, William R. “The Modernist Impulse in American Protestantism.” New York: Oxford; 1976.
Marsden, George M. “Fundamentalism and American Culture.” New York: Oxford; 1980.
