Rich Brown: Youth ministry helps youngsters ‘grow in their faith’
BRANSON MO NEWS:
The goal of Young Life has stayed the same since it began nearly eight decades ago in Texas, but the dramatic change in youth culture over the years has required an adjustment for the ministry.Even though Young Life didn’t begin in Joplin until 1997, that first director of the local and southwest Missouri ministry and the current director made adjustments while keeping the ministry’s goal alive.That goal is to introduce youngsters to Jesus Christ and help them to grow in their faith.
Greg Stone, the first Joplin director who is now the Young Life area developer out of the Branson area, said that youth culture today is dramatically different from the pre-technological days.This requires a slight change in how the ministry approaches youngsters.“I think technology, while it has good qualities, has been damaging in some ways,” said Stone, who left his Joplin post for a ministry in Branson in 2002. “When I started with Young Life, the internet was pretty young. Today, the majority of teenagers are communicating through smartphones with many kids connecting on Instagram. This is an interesting dynamic.“They are connecting with pseudo-relationships, but with that there is a lot more pressure on kids and a lot more depression, anxiety and insecurity.”As a result, there are distinctive problems that have developed in relating to youths, particularly with their attention spans, he said.Jeremy Ritchie, in his seventh year as the Joplin-area director, said one thing that has not changed and has always been a key to connecting with youths is going where they are and spending time on their turf.“The purpose behind this is that kids are going to be way more comfortable on their turf,” Ritchie said. “They feel comfortable with what they do from day to day, so for …
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