YOUT 201 DISCUSSION - Ministry Levels
Chapter 5 of the Student Work Text discusses the 4 levels of student ministry (Entry, Evangelize,
Edify, and Equip). While in the presentations you have seen that all four are imperative to have
an effective and balanced ministry, it seems that each of us may personally gravitate to one or
two of these levels. In this Discussion Thread, you are to:
Communicate which level you are drawn to, which seems to come natural to you (for the
Discussion Thread, please pick only one).
Communicate why you made this choice.
List some ways you could implement this ministry level in a student ministry context.
(Some ministry examples are provided in the text.)
While my view and perspective to have any ministry to achieve success is to first trust in the Holy Spirit
and God’s Word to guide you. With this being said, I do not agree with the authors of the book
referenced in developing a ministry. As there is too much focus on the students and not enough on the
parents. In all of my years of experience in ministry, I find that the church MUST support, evangelize and
equip the parents first! Then this would set a good example for the children to follow. The same goes for
the secular schools, both them and the churches are not responsible for bringing or raising up children
spiritually, it is the parents’ sole responsibility to teach the children right from wrong and to follow God’s
word or not. The church is focusing too much on the children when they should be focused more on
teaching the parents to lead by example, just as Christ lead the disciples and apostles. The church should
be focused on supporting and edify the parents (Eph. 6:4 ESV).
When a parent says the church needs to do more for the children, is a warning sign that the parent
needs to become more pro-active in the ministry. Far too often, parents literally pawn off children as like
a babysitter. Then again, if parents would be more involved with their children including quality time,
children would be more stable and willing to follow their parents lead, resulting in more youth giving
their lives to Christ!
Of the four levels mentioned in Chapter five, when it come to children is to evangelize to the parents and
the children together. Any children ministries should focus on encouraging parents to set examples for
the children. It is in my humble opinion that the church having a children’s ministry is taking away from
the responsibility God gave the parents. While at the same time, the church can provide resources for
the parents to equip the children properly.
I have chosen these levels as in all of my years of experience are the most effective methods to enlarging
the Kingdom of God and saving as many souls as we can. Which is our primary goal as Jesus commands
us to fulfill in Matt. 28:19-20 (ESV), the Great Commission. In summary, I have mentioned to implement
a successful ministry would be to ignore any textbook except the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to guide
the ministry to success. Focusing on and providing the support with resources for the parents to equip
the children properly instead of creating a babysitting club for the kids. In the past I have attempted to
implement many of these ideas and “levels” and because they require a lot of work, so much it is hard to
maintain. So, I developed my own successful methods over the years that are mentioned above.
Therefore, I do not agree with any of the formats the authors wrote about in the text.
