Scott McNight, over at his Jesus Creed blog, asks a few good questions about family-based youth ministry.  Here are his questions (italics) and my answers (bold).

1. Is there a need for a youth pastor/worker in a family-based model? No, not really.  More like a youth (pastor)/facilitator.
2. What does discipleship/formation look like in a family-based model? Parents are the primary disciplers.  Church volunteers and/or youth (pastor)/facilitators are secondary and always point towards the significance of the family and their more basic role.
3. How do you go about this in cooperation with the other staff or workers in your church (for example, the children’s ministry) The entire church should be a family-based, not simply the youth ministry.
4. How does the ‘youngish’ in age youth pastor/worker even lead parents of teenagers toward such a model? (Of course, I am assuming that there is a need for a youth pastor/worker in such a model.) The assumption may be a poor one, then—that is, unless the role of the youth pastor was to change dramatically.  The ‘youngish’ youth pastor/worker will need to create a youth ministry environment that reveals both to the students and parents alike what I believe is the more biblically-consistent discipleship hierarchy: parents are to be the most basic and foundational part of the discipleship process.  To the extent that the family is absent in this process (assuming poor or nonexistent spiritual quality on their part) youth workers are to be that much more involved in the life of the student’s discipleship.
5. Does it work?  Do you have any ’success’ stories to share?  What defines success? Without a doubt, the most successful students I’ve ever pastored were the one’s with discipling, nurturing parents that were active in the church.
6. Where might I go to get some really good help on better understanding what family-based youth ministry is? I believe Voddie Bachuam has some good stuff out on or related to this (voddiebaucham.org).
7. How do the youth in your faith community feel about family-based youth ministry? They just want to be loved.  And, if they are, they feel fine.

Related Resources:

• Youthministry.com published an article I wrote on a similar topic a few months ago.  Read the article here.
• In my answers above I mentioned Voddie Baucham as a resource for information on family-based youth ministry.  Voddie’s got a book on the subject, Family-Driven Faith.  Voddie has also preached a sermon on the topic, “The Centrality of the Home.”  That sermon audio is available directly below.

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