The connection between youth ministry’s division of evangelism and discipleship, and the lack of retention of youth in North American churches

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The connection between youth ministry’s division of evangelism and discipleship, and the lack of retention of youth in North American churches
 
Creator Moser, Kenneth A. Nel, Malan
 
Subject Theology youth ministry; retention; identity; mission; evangelism; discipleship
Description The evangelical church in North America is facing a crisis in its failure to retain young people. Research has shown that young people are dropping out of the church and they are not only leaving but also failing to return once they are older. This crisis did not appear in a vacuum; it is the result of the church’s movement towards a style of programming that has created a division between evangelism and discipleship. This style of programme not only seeks to reach those outside of the church at the expense of those youth in the church but also creates a dichotomy between who we are (our identity) and what we do (our mission). The church must seek to remove this dichotomy between identity and mission and utilise strategies that work with our identity rather than against it.Intradisciplinary and/or Interdisciplinary Implications: This article is an interaction between practical theology and pastoral practice in Christian ministry. The crisis of youth leaving evangelical churches in North America is because of the dichotomy between mission and identity. Once this dichotomy is erased, mission will be a natural outworking of identity in youth ministry.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2019-11-20
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v40i1.2020
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 40, No 1 (2019); 8 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2020/3924 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2020/3923 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2020/3925 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2020/3922
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Kenneth A. Moser, Malan Nel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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