 What COVID-19 Unveils About Today’s Youth Ministry){kind=link}
One age group is hit particularly hard with the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s teenagers.
Join Thom and youth ministry expert and author Rick Lawrence as they discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on youth ministers and teenagers around the country. Then discover key steps youth ministries can take to stay keep their teenagers engaged during these challenging times.
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Rick, author of Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry, said many youth pastors are trying to stay in contact with their kids during this time when regular youth group meetings aren’t possible. But they’re discovering that their old ways of communicating a message aren’t working.
Prior to the coronavirus, many or most youth ministers based their weekly lessons around a 20-minute sermon. Then, when churches came under lockdowns, they attempted to deliver their sermons via online platforms. But, as Rick describes in the podcast, the results have not been encouraging.
“The curtain has been pulled back,” Rick said. When youth workers see their teenagers’ faces on screen during a Zoom online meeting, it’s not usually a picture of rapt attention. But Rick said it’s not the technology that’s failing. It’s the form–the lecture method. The disinterest is also present, but often masked, when young people sit passively at church for a live youth sermon, Rick said.