Andrews

University
SDA Theological Seminary
Department of Discipleship and Religious Education











JUST 4 YOUTH

AN ASSESSMENT OF YOUTH MINISTRY AT THE GRACE PLACE

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Course DSRE 636















By:

Amberdawn Cheatham

A LITTLE BACKGROUND
I am a proud member of The Grace Place, a community plant church located in South Bend
Indiana. We stand proudly on our unique purpose that we are designed to reach and serve the
community. We invite community members to Come and See at The Grace Place based on the
John 1:39. The church has been in existence for three years, and in this short time we have done
quite a bit for the community. We are excited to share with the community that we have a place
that is safe and loving and just for you. We have tailor made programs that are designed to meet
needs and be evangelistic in nature. Over the past years we have held financial peace seminars,
forgiveness seminars, food and clothing drives, childrens birthday parties, and visit the
community to do Simple Acts of Kindness Evangelism, which we like to call S.A.K.E. for short.
Not only do we hold community based programing we have a weekly Sabbath Service designed
specifically to meet the needs of those who are new to Christianity or have completely severed
their connection to a church. Some would call this population the unchurched.

I would say that our church reaches mostly low-income members of the community that

have varying levels of education. Most of the people that attend our church regularly are in need
of transportation services and rely on our weekly meals to feed themselves and their families at
least once a week. Our church members provide financial assistance as much as we can to those in
need. Due to their limited knowledge about church we are in the process of trying to help our
steady members form close bonds with each other and find their niche at The Grace Place.

Our senior pastor, Dr. Hyveth Williams, is a highly experienced Pastor, Professor,

Entrepreneur, and writer. She has two other Pastors on her leadership team, and works with a
team of zealous pastoral interns from the seminary that hold most of the offices in the church. I
know what youre thinking, Your church sounds great, what is the problem? In the next section
I will address the problem that exist at The Grace Place from the perspective of a youth pastor.

WHATS THE DEAL (The Problem)

PROBLEM: THERE IS CURRENTLY NO YOUTH MINISTRY PROGRAM AT THE
GRACE PLACE.


That is right, you read correctly. In such a community focused church, currently there is no
youth ministry department. I do not wish to paint my church in a negative light. Currently, our
church is building. As mentioned previously, our TGP is a community-based church that has only
been in existence for three years. The church membership was built from scratch and started with
one community member that was looking for a Church home. Naturally, as with any church, we
have seen youth come and go. Most that were at the church came with their parents who were at
the seminary and moved away. Most of the community members do not have children that are
considered youth. The One youth that is in our church currently, just reached the age to be
considered a youth.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Last year the church had approximately six regular attending youth. Their parents were in
the seminary and held staff positions at TGP. As a result they were involved in the church
minimally (not for lack of effort of the church leadership) and attended church services once a
week. The previous youth leader hosted Adventist Youth Society (AYS) Meetings once a month,
and held one major event every year. The friends of the youth leader that she met on Campus at
Andrews generally supported the AYS meetings, which seldom involved the youth at the church in
the. The major event of the year, a Valentines Day banquet, was really well attended by all
members of the church, youth from community, and Andrewss students. After the youth leader
left there has been no contact with the community members that she reached out to and she has
not transferred any of their information to the current leadership. Five out of the six youth in the
church have moved away from the church due to graduation, and the one that remains attends
every Sabbath.

FAILURE TO MAKE YOUTH MINISTRY A CHURCH EFFORT

Based on the information that I have gathered and through observation and conversation, I

can say that there has been no effort on behalf of the leadership to cultivate a mindset in the
church that youth ministry is a church initiative. The past youth leader was unable to get support
from the church for programs, and there was little effort made to find people to assist with

cultivating relationships with the community members. The youth ministry department seemed
to operate as an auxiliary to the church rather than part of the church. In the book Love Them
and They Will Come the authors share some key advice that is vital to youth ministry, they write,
That the church is a community committed to a central causeIn a Christian Community
everything depends on whether each individual is an indispensable link on a chain. Only when the
smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable1. Members of the church that they
are links of a chain and they are needed to make youth ministry successful must realize it. If a
church desires to get young people involved there must be an investment of the membership in
the youth and ministry department.

LACK OF OUTREACH

Another reason I believe that this problem exists is because the current efforts of the

church are focused on adult retention and childrens ministry. This year The Grace Place has
launched two new initiatives. The first initiative, The Creative Caf is an evangelistic effort that is
planned to reach the young adults in the community that are drawn to poetry, art, and music that
is produced and performed by local artist. While this would be something that is enjoyed by youth
and could potentially attract them, it is specifically for young adults. The issues that are addressed
in the programs are specific to the needs of young adults who are in college or are working. The
second initiative, Just for Kids (JFK), is a monthly evangelistic birthday party hosted for
community children that teaches them bible principles in a fun and exciting way. While the
program itself is mainly for children, the hope is that as a result of ministering to the needs of the
community children that we can build and cultivate relationships with the parents.

Both of these efforts are great evangelistic tools, but both miss the needs of the youth in our

church and the community. We cannot expect that youth are simply going to trickle into our
churches. Kenda Dean tells us that research shows that most youth reflect the spiritual lives
modeled by their parents. The demographic that the church currently outreaches to is low income
and do not attend church regularly. Consequently, the youth that are in the community are less
likely to attend our churches of their own accord. We must adopt a mission mentality that allows

1 Gillespie, V. Bailey, and Timothy J. Gillespie. Hey!: Love Them and They Will Come. Riverside, Calif.: Hancock

Center Publications ;, 2011. 75.

us to be present in the community and with other community agents that meet the needs of the
youth. Missional churches tend to be structurally agile, they often rub shoulders with other local
youth-serving institutions like schools, law enforcement, the media and politics.2 In doing this the
church can begin to live out the command to model Christ ministry.

NO CURRENT IN-REACH
Currently The Grace Place has no youth ministry programs to serve the one youth that regularly
attends our a church, so even if we had visitors or outreached to youth that wanted to make The
Grace Place there permanent place of worship we would be unable to meet their needs with
Sabbath morning programs that talk about relevant issues and discus how to have a JesusCentered Life.

WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE?

The Grace Place has a unique niche among churches. Their goal is to be a community
church that is specifically geared to the community and their needs. For this reason, the model for
ministry that we follow has to be unique and tailored to meeting the needs of our community. The
bible seems to provide little instruction for practical youth ministry. It seems to only provide
instructions for adults aiming to be witnesses and great leaders for other adults. However, the
bible has no age limits to its instructions. Therefore we need to ensure that we read the bible
prayerfully to extract the messages that it has specifically for youth ministry.

TEACHING
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,

2 Dean, Kenda Creasy. Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 96.

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
-

Psalm 78:1-4

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall
bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall
teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you
are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
-Deuteronomy 11:18-19

The first thing that seems to be the quintessential text for youth ministry would be in
Deuteronomy. The bible tells us in Deuteronomy 11:18 and 19 that we should teach the ways of
God to our children in our homes on the road. The teachings should govern our home and should
be referenced in and out of our homes daily. This text tells us that one of the foundational
principles for youth ministry and The Grace Place should be teaching our youth. We can teach
through our conversations and the way that we live our lives. Although we may not be the direct
parents of the youth that are in our church, or the young people that visit from time to time, we
should aim to have some sort of instruction for them formally and informal. When they interact
with us, they should be able to discern that God is with us, and His Spirit and teachings are in us.
We should also be willing to open the mind of the youth to the teachings of God as specified in
Psalm 78:1-4.

SERVICE
The spirit of the lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He
has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free
those who are oppressed to proclaim the favorable year of the lord."
- Luke 4:18-19
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

-James 1:27

Another foundation that dictates what ought to be occurring at The Grace Place is service.
Based on Luke 4:18-19, our focus should not just be service to the designated groups above, we
should be serving the youth and be mission oriented in our approach. The reality is that young
people are struggling with things such as identity and question their own relationships with God.
It should be our desire to work to help them understand their relationship with God and their
identity as sons and daughters of God. The Grace Place has a unique opportunity to serve the
lower income community. We pride ourself in reaching out to that who are often forgotten and
that includes the fatherless and orphaned. I believe that the fatherless does not just include the
orphaned but the children who only have a mother, and are often an afterthought because their
mothers do not have the resources or the energy to give them appropriate instruction. This type of
ministry is very helpful to at-risk youth. We, as Christians, understand what it means to be
orphaned and adopted into the family of God. We should be willing to share this great gift with
youth around us who are fatherless or orphaned based on the misfortune that has become their
reality. We can help them realize that they can have a new identity in Christ.
DISCIPLE
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp
and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way,
let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your
Father who is in heaven.
-Matthew 5:14-16
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved
you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
-Ephesians 5:1-2

Discipleship is the last foundation that I believe dictates youth ministry at The Grace Place.
Following the instruction of Matthew 5:14-16, we are the light of the world and part of our tasks
as disciples is to share that light with others around us. We are to share this light with the youth in
and out of church and teach them how to be light bearers for others. The Gospel is a message that
gives light in a world full of darkness, and that is what it should be for The Grace Place as well.
There is darkness in the lives of the youth in the community surrounding The Grace Place. They

are poor, oppressed, fatherless, motherless, or hopeless. The text says to let our light shine so that
they may see our good works and be led to give glory to God. The bible also tells those of us who
are followers of Christ not just to be followers but also to be imitators of God, and walk in love. We
must live as Christ lived. Christ lived, ate, walked, and ministered with the people who were
rejected and lonely. He came to sacrifice his life for others. We too, should be willing to practice
incarnational ministry that allows us to be mission focused and present for the youth. This life
requires sacrifice of our time and sometimes finances which serves as an offering to God.

HOW WILL WE RESPOND?

I would like to propose a two-fold approach to youth ministry. In-Reach and Outreach that
will address the lack of youth ministry in the church and assist in helping The Grace Place build a
connection with the youth in the community.

BUILD A YOUTH MINISTRY TEAMThere is currently no youth ministry team at The Grace Place. Most of the ministry team is
invested in the needs of the Children or Adult ministry that takes place in the church.

Sticky church
1. Prayer- Pray that God will help provide members in the church that will be willing to assist
with youth ministry.
2. Recruit from inside the church- Offer the opportunity to at least two members in the church
that are not seminarians. Assure them that you will find them help, but ask them to take the
reigns on leadership of the Ministry. If no one steps up offer the leadership to your recruited
seminarians.
3. Recruit from seminary- Concurrently running with church recruitment, offer an opportunity
for practicum work to the MAYYAM department for to carry out the Missional Model of Youth
Ministry. The pastor will not be responsible for advising due to the current structure of practicum
requirements in the program. It should be required for Practicum/TFE students to spend devote
time at homeless shelter or volunteering at the Kroc center to build relationships.

4. Implement the 5:1 model3- allows for each adult in the church to take responsibility for
praying for and getting to know a youth in the church.

OUTREACH
Partner with the local homeless shelter to help put on programs that are already offered by the
organization. Practicum/TFE should dedicate at least one day a week to visit the shelter and get
to know the staff and local homeless youth.
Refuge
Every Sabbath afternoon offer a place for homeless teens to come and rest, receive food, prayer,
and a skill. This will require for recruited practicum/TFE members to commit to building
relationships with local homeless shelter and community members. Currently Hope Ministries
offers several programs for the homeless, but there are still several homeless teens on the streets.
Having a place of refuge every Saturday during the times that the shelter is closed to outside
community members will allow for a safe place for teens where they can come and receive
spiritual and physical care.

Sample Refuge Program: Each One Reach One
-

Chat and Chew: Haystacks

Staff should mingle

Ten-Minute Talk: Romans 8:28 God Works In Hidden Ways

o Story: Brian was stranded on an island after a plane crash. Prayed to God every day
and was not delivered until he told God that he trusted him even if he never left the
island(Should be noted that the story should not be read but shared)
o Application: Ask youth the share about what they think the application is(have
applications available)
o Prayer: Specific prayer about trusting God in spite of our situation.

3 Powell, Kara Eckmann, and Brad M. Griffin. Sticky Faith: Practical Ideas to Nurture Long-term Faith in
Teenagers. Youth Worker ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. 89.

Skill- Getting A Job (Invite a person from the homeless shelter to talk about how to go about
getting a job)

Closing Prayer

Dismissal

IN-REACH
Start a Sabbath School Program for the youth that attend the church. Your local church leader
should lead this, with the assistance of the recruited practicum students. The topics should be
relevant and involve outreach. Once a Month host a Sabbath School program specifically geared to
youth at the Kroc center where youth at the church attend Sabbath School at the Kroc Center.
Bring the youth from the church to the croc center and host an interactive 60-minute program
geared toward teaching youth practical bible principles.

GRIP: Growing, Restoring, Instructing, Planning
-

Morning Breakfast

Opening Prayer

Snapshot activity: Where have you seen God in your story this week

Sabbath School Lesson Content: Get a Grip On: Presence Centered Devotion
o Story of Daniel and his prayer life
o Practicing Conversational Prayer

Practical Application: Ask youth about their prayer life, how can we apply Danials
routine to our lives. Why is this important?

Goal Setting: Set goals with young people about practicing the presence of Jesus through
out the week. Commit to having conversational prayer at least once a day.(This goal
should be set based don the spiritual life of your youth)

Closing Prayer: Invite a youth to pray.

MY PRAYER
I cannot guarantee that these solutions will work but there is a need to minister to this group.
Youth are the church of today and if that statement is true, then The Grace Place has no church. I
have a great respect and love for the work that is being done at The Grace Place and it is the type

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of church that is built to reach this generation of youth, we just need to continue trying. My prayer
is:

LORD I PLACE THE GRACE PLACE IN YOUR HANDS. SPECIFICALLY THE YOUTH. LORD GIVE US THE
GUIDANCE AND THE PASSION TO REACH YOUR CHILDREN THAT ARE IN NEED. HELP US TO REALIZE
THAT THIS WORK IS NOT AN OPTION IT IS A REQUIREMENT. LORD I KNOW THAT YOU WILL ANSWER
THIS PRAYER SO I CLAIM VICTORY TODAY THAT YOU WILL HAVE YOUTH RESPOND TO OUR EFFORTS. IN
JESUS NAME, AMEN.

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Bibliography
Dean, Kenda Creasy. Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American
Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 96.
Gillespie, V. Bailey, and Timothy J. Gillespie. Hey!: Love Them and They Will Come. Riverside, Calif.:
Hancock Center Publications ;, 2011. 75.
Powell, Kara Eckmann, and Brad M. Griffin. Sticky Faith: Practical Ideas to Nurture Long-term Faith
in Teenagers. Youth Worker ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. 89.

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