More on problems with youth ministry

Dan Edelen has posted another installment in his series on the problem with youth ministry. Here's a sample:

The present-age role for the youth minister should be not as a semi-cult leader for teens but as a resource for parents. The youth minister’s main goal should be not ministering to teens directly but teaching parents to become the primary transmitters of the faith to their own children. And frankly, that needs to start long before the teen years.

That's not the only spot-on observation Dan makes; consider:

Somehow, our churches have devolved into age and affinity group ghettos. We’ve lost the coherence of a family, of being the Body of Christ wherein one organ cannot exist without the others. Instead, we break down everything—and everyone—into their generic components.

That’s wrong.

Yes, it is. Dan also shares insights on the church, rites of passage and how Christians spend our time. If you have the time, I strongly recommend Dan's whole article