Youth Ministry

Dewey Bertolini, the author of Back to the Heart of Youth Work, established the youth ministry major at the Master's College, and he trains Christian youth pastors and travels the country giving lectures about the youth ministry. He is also Product Developer for the youth curriculum at Scripture Press, and has authored other books, including Escaping the Subtle Sellout and Secret Wounds and Silent Cries. His primary interest and concern is in helping young people whom, he says, "are a primary target of Satan" (14). His purpose in writing Back to the Heart of Youth was to provide a guide for others involved in Christian youth ministry, whether as pastors or volunteer workers.

He acknowledges that working with young people is a difficult calling when a high percentage of American teenagers come from broken homes and have first-hand experience with drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, suicide, and AIDS. In addition, Bertolini has found in his own experience that teenagers are bored and feel as though they have no purpose in life. Anyone entering the youth ministry must be ready to combat these obstacles on a daily basis, and he says that his book "is offered in the hope of rekindling a flickering flame into a blazing inferno within the heart of every youth worker who peruses these pages" (15).

The book is organized into thirteen chapters which focus on each of the ingredients a Christian youth minister or volunteer must have in order to do his or her work successfu

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of establishing communication with parents (102-112). Those who work with young people, especially young people who may not enjoy a warm, secure relationship with their parents, walk a fine line. They must be supportive of the young people without putting excess strain on their relationship with their parents. The best way for a youth minister to help teenagers is to work with, not against, their parents and attempt to guide them toward a responsible and Christian adulthood. Two chapters focus on developing and maintaining solid relationships with both the volunteer lay staff and the senior pastor, respectively. Bertolini stresses that a successful youth ministry relies heavily on teamwork, and in the youth ministry, the team is composed of the volunteer staff working under the youth minister, who himself is a member of the senior pastor's staff. The youth minister, therefore, must be able to assemble and oversee a qualified, dedicated staff; at the same time, he has to maintain a healthy working relationship with the senior pastor and make certain that the goals he has set for his youth ministry are in line with the senior pastor's goals for the ministry as a whole. The final chapters are devoted to activity plannin

Category: Philosophy - Y