Older teenagers and young adults are leaving the church at an alarming rate. There are multiple reasons for this. Our guest this week on the podcast is Mel Walker and he believes one of those reasons is because we are not adequately connecting students to the older generations in the church. Mel is the co-founder and president of Vision For Youth. He is a youth ministry veteran whose most recent book is Inter-Generational Youth Ministry. You can find out more about Mel and his book at http://intergenerationalyouthministry.com/.
Takeaways from this episode
- Youth ministry is important, but we have to balance connecting generations in the church
- We need to be intentional about helping the older generation connect with students (mentors, volunteers, small group leaders)
- Identify 3 people in your church who you want to connect with your students
Steps to implement this:
- Talk about it – leadership teams need to talk about the importance of connecting generations
- Pray about emerging generations – pray for the specific names of the young people
- Help youth get involved – not just in youth group, but also in the church
- Don’t complicate it