Next Generation Ministry - Next Generation Ministry

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Reggie Joiner, founder of the reThink group and Co-author of Playing for Keeps/Losing your Marbles, has noted how church, represented by the color yellow and family, represented by the color red combine their influences to make the color orange. The light of the Lord (yellow) and the love of the home (red) “collide” to make an influence that is greater (orange) than either unit operating in and of itself.

Some studies suggest that anywhere from 70-80% of students raised in church drop out of church after high school graduation, with many to walk away from their faith altogether, never to return. Joiner calls for new strategies to be developed within this church/family partnership paradigm so that young people continue to attend church as they enter college and adulthood.

I believe the comprehensive strategy that Joiner is calling for is Next Generation Ministry (NGM). NGM encourages the next generation to worship, study, and serve together as they transition from one life group to another. Joiner emphasizes that once a child is born, a parent has 936 weeks with his or her child until he or she graduates from high school and moves onto college or young adulthood. In contrast, next generation ministry leaders (pre-school, children, youth) only get 52 weeks (36-40 weeks if you take out holidays, sick days, vacation days, sports, etc.) to influence a toddler, a child, or a teenager for Christ.

In any given year, a parent or guardian has 3000 hours to teach their child the ways of the Lord whereas next generation leaders are given an average of 40 hours at church. Well-documented research by social scientists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton have taught ministry leaders that parents are the primary disciplemakers of their children. Long before this groundbreaking research was completed, however, God gave families this time-tested directive in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Parents were to have faith talks with their children when the child awoke, at their house (breakfast/dinner table, etc.), on the way (to and from school, etc.), and when the child went to sleep.

Psalm 78:1-8 adds that parents were to tell the next generation of God’s commandments and glorious deeds. There is a faith legacy or torch that needs to be passed down to the next generation and grandparents are often involved in this faith process (2 Tim 1:3-7).

Often included within next generation ministry are milestones, phases, or rite of passage ceremonies. Milestones can play out differently depending on church context and philosophy. Rather than give you a full myriad of options, I have chosen to list just one faith journey that churches and families can walk together on. Brian Haynes in his book Shift details seven rite of passage events that the church should partner with the family to celebrate as a student develops through his or her life stages; (1) The Birth of a Baby (2) Faith Commitment (3) Preparing for Adolescence (4) Commitment to Purity (5) Passage to Adulthood (6) High School Graduation, and (7) Life in Christ.

Next generation ministry encompasses smooth transitions as handoffs are made when a preschooler moves into children’s ministry, a child moves into student ministry, or a teenager moves into a church’s collegiate/young adult ministry. Rite of passage ceremonies come naturally and assist the discipleship process. In next generation ministry, a “student” is a baby, child, or a teen. Next generation leaders work hand in hand with parents and guardians to make disciples of students (Matt. 28:19-20).

What Is Next Generation Ministry?

…that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, Psalms 78:6 (ESV)

Buzzwords come and go but they can and often do impact the life of a local church. The words “emerging” and “missional” are just two examples of trendy words that have become commonplace verbiage in many churches. For example, is there a new buzzword emerging in the church that is also missional in nature? I think so!

In the secular world, the phrase, “the next generation” is not only catching on but seems to be gaining steam. Just click on your television and watch the most recent commercials advertising for you to buy a new car or a new phone.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) in Wake Forest, NC has approved a new doctoral degree program which specializes in next generation ministry. I just happen to be a part of this initial cohort whom is studying and doing research on the next generation.

My research focuses on next generation topics such as millennials, the unchurched, and ways to do next generation ministry. So what exactly is next generation ministry and how could it impact life at the local church level?

Next generation ministry advances the Gospel through a biblical strategy, collaborating through the local church with parents, leaders, and students for the spiritual formation of those from birth through college.

Businesses are learning in today’s economic climate that they often must do with more with less. This often surfaces in the form of corporations downsizing or restructuring their organizational structures so that certain positions are eliminated in favor of the creation of new positions which require people to complete more tasks yet often with less resources.

Although a church is not per se “a business,” a church must often learn how to operate like a business while an economy like ours still behaves like it is in a recession. In other words, many churches today are being forced to look at how they can do more ministry with less resources.

Next generation ministry helps to solve this dilemma as well as the disciple-making dilemma found in many churches today. Next generation ministry could possibly replace, alter, or tweak many existing models of children and youth ministry.

Next generation ministry says let us take a look at the discipleship process as a continuum that begins at birth and ends at college rather than creating age-graded silos that compete against each other for money, time, and resources. In other words, let us unify ministry efforts so that we can do more with less.

The way next generation ministry is administered will differ according to the size of the church but the idea remains the same. Rather than hiring a traditional children and youth pastor, a small or mid-size church can hire a next generation pastor that will place equal value on discipling all age-graded areas from birth through college by working with and training volunteer or paid next generation leaders within all age-graded groups. A large church or megachurch would have the luxury of hiring a next generation pastor which would then oversee various age-graded pastors on staff (pre-school, children, youth, college) to make sure the adopted “biblical strategy” is kept intact.