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The article below is just one part of the State of Youth Ministry research we’ll be sharing at this year’s NATIONAL YOUTHWORKERS CONVENTION (HTTP://NYWC.COM). We enlisted the help of Barna Group to understand how the landscape ofyouth ministry might be shifting across the U.S., and the resulting information can help any church understand how bestto support teens in their congregation. The information in this article on “The Myth of the Lazy Teen” will be discussed ingreater detail in the YS EXPLORES: SERVICE (HTTPS://NYWC2016CINCINNATI.SCHED.ORG/EVENT/7TIE/BIG-ROOM-YS-EXPLORES-SERVICE) session at NYWC. Don’t miss out on the full report at NYWC (HTTP://NYWC.COM) in Cincinnati,Ohio on Nov. 17-20, 2016. REGISTER TODAY (HTTP://YOUTHSPECIALTIES.COM/NYWC/PAYLATER/)!

There’s been plenty of debate about teens and their social justice “slacktivism,” but how much truth is there to the claimthat young people are only taking action with 140 characters or less? A new study from Barna shows that teens areactively engaged in service and volunteer projects and youth ministry is a primary channel through which they serve. Inpartnership with Youth Specialties and YouthWorks, Barna conducted a major study on the state of youth ministry in theUnited States, which included a look at service and volunteering trends among teens. Here are some of the key andings:

TEENS ARE ACTIVE VOLUNTEERS

Volunteer and service projects are a foundational element of youth ministry programs in churches across the country.According to their parents, a majority of teens (68%) are fairly active when it comes to volunteering at least once everyfew months: a little less than one afth of teens (17%) volunteer once a week, one-quarter (25%) volunteer at least once amonth, another one-quarter (26%) volunteer once every few months, and about one-third (32%) say they volunteer lessoften than that.

THE STATE OF YOUTH MINISTRY: THE MYTHOF THE LAZY TEENBY YOUTH SPECIALTIES SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

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TEEN VOLUNTEERING FOCUSES ON CHURCH SERVICE AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION

Teenagers are nocking to the local church when they feel the urge to volunteer. The most common forms of service forteens (as reported by their parents) are those associated with church/ministry (42%). Followed closely behind arefeeding the hungry/helping the homeless (35%), educational (31%), and environmental/cleanup (28%). Less popular arevolunteering with animals (20%), service trips (18%), social advocacy/political (11%), or medical or healthcare (10%).

(HTTPS://WWW.BARNA.COM/RESEARCH/TEEN-ATTITUDES-TOWARD-SERVICE/#)

THE CHURCH IS CENTRAL TO TEEN VOLUNTEERING EFFORTS

The importance of the church when it comes to volunteering is a testament to the power of local congregations ingalvanizing young people to serve their communities and the world. When parents of teens who attend youth groupregularly are asked speciacally whether their teen has participated in a service project with a church, six in 10 (61%) sayyes. So what kinds of service projects are youth groups engaging? Parents of teens who volunteer with a church aremost likely to say their kids did a day of service at church (52%). Outside of serving at church, they are most likely tospend a day serving in their town (48%). A little more than one-third of parents say their kids have an ongoing service

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commitment that they participate in on a regular basis (36%). Of course, many youth groups plan for longer service tripsduring the year. Just over one-third of parents say their kids go on service trips to a destination that could be reached inone day of driving (36%), about one in ave say they go further than that (19%), somewhere in the U.S. that cannot bereached in one day of driving. What about foreign mission trips? Less than one-tenth of parents (8%) say they send theirkids to serve at destinations outside the U.S.

(HTTPS://WWW.BARNA.COM/RESEARCH/TEEN-ATTITUDES-TOWARD-SERVICE/#)

Parental involvement and encouragement seems to be a key factor in teen service. Teenagers who attend church withtheir parents are more likely to participate in service with their church (60% of teens who attended church with theirparent participated in service projects, vs only 16% of those who did not).

THE GOALS OF SERVICE ARE TO LOVE AND SERVE OTHERS

Galatians 5:13 instructs Christians to “serve one another humbly in love,” and for youth pastors and parents, this is themost important goal of a missions trip. Loving and serving others (74% for pastors, 56% for parents) is the primary goalfor both groups, followed by being the hands and feet of Jesus (56% for pastors, 40% for parents). Other notable goalsfor pastors and parents are discipleship for youth on the trip (41% for pastors), teaching and modeling compassion (30%for pastors, 34% for parents), and providing for the poor (30% for parents). Explicitly sharing the gospel on these trips isalso considered either very important (69%) or somewhat important (23%) by more than nine in ten youth pastors (92%).

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DEBRIEFING AND FOLLOW-UP ARE IMPORTANT AFTER A TRIP

A common experience among teens who participate in service trips, especially after returning from an international tripand facing stark cultural and economic differences, is culture shock. Returning from these kinds of trips often requiressome debrieang and follow-up, a practice valued highly among youth pastors. A large majority of youth pastors (81%)valued follow-up to a mission trip either extremely important (32%) or very important (49%). The types of follow-upsvaried, but a majority of youth pastors followed up the mission trip experience by having teens share about the trip withother students (83%), reminding students about continuing service in their everyday life (75%) and by praying for thoseimpacted by the trip (63%).

(HTTPS://WWW.BARNA.COM/RESEARCH/TEEN-ATTITUDES-TOWARD-SERVICE/#)

It’s clear youth pastors believe service and mission trips are an important element of youth ministry and teendiscipleship, but do these experiences offer long term transformation? Parents seem to think so—among those whoseteenager participated in a trip, their belief was that it made a lasting impression. Three-quarters (74%) say it deanitelymade a lasting impression, one quarter (24%) say it probably made an impression, and a small 2 percent say not really.Parents also feel the youth leader or pastor adequately prepared their teen before the trip (65% deanitely, 31%somewhat), and adequately debriefed their teen after the trip (55% deanitely, 40% somewhat).

(HTTPS://WWW.BARNA.COM/RESEARCH/TEEN-ATTITUDES-TOWARD-SERVICE/#)

WHAT THE RESEARCH MEANS

“On the one hand, our society tells teens that service and volunteerism are important hallmarks of a well-roundedindividual,” says Brooke Hempell, vice president of research at Barna Group. “College-bound teens know this is animportant element of their school application portfolio, and social media reinforces the idea that social justice andactivism are “trendy.” On the other hand, each generation demonstrates an increasing self-absorption that runs counter tothis trend—many Millennials say volunteering is more talk than action.

“The church, and youth groups in particular, have a unique opportunity to stand out as an authentic example of lovethrough service by being the hands and feet of Jesus to those in need,” Hempell continues. “Parents and Youth Pastorsalike know the importance of this, and many and service and missions trips more engaging to youth than trying tocompete for being “the coolest place to hang out on a Friday night.” Further, through these experiences, teens learn arsthand what the Gospel is and have tangible life lessons to renect on in the weeks, months, or years that follow. It is clearthat service is an important element to any successful teen discipleship effort.”

About the ResearchThis study included three surveys with representative random samples conducted among parents of teenagers, seniorpastors of Protestant churches and youth pastors of Protestant churches.

The study of parents was conducted online and included 606 surveys among a representative random sample of adults18 and older with children ages 13-19 within all 50 states and was conducted March 29th through April 7th, 2016. Thesampling error for a sample of this size is +/-4 percentage points at the 95% conadence level. The response rate for theonline study was 20%.

A total of 381 senior pastors of Protestant churches within all 50 states were surveyed online March 15th – June 7th,2016. One method was using an online panel of Protestant senior pastors from a panel maintained by Barna (n=299).The second method was a random representative sample of Protestant pastors obtained from an outside list provider(n=82). The total sampling error for the total number of senior pastors is +/-5 percentage points at the 95% conadencelevel. The response rate for the panel maintained by Barna was 37%, and the response rate for the representative samplefrom an outside list provider was 20%.

A total of 352 youth pastors of Protestant churches within all 50 states were surveyed online March 15th-June 15th,2016. One method was using an online panel of youth pastors from a panel maintained by Barna (n=51). The secondmethod was a random representative sample of youth pastors obtained from an outside list provider (n=301). The totalsampling error for the total number of youth pastors is + / -5 percentage points at the 95% conadence level. Theresponse rate for the panel maintained by Barna was 47% and the response rate for the representative sample from anoutside list provider was 8%.

Youth Specialties equips and encourages churches to help teenagers and and follow Jesus through training, events, andresources. Learn more at YOUTHSPECIALTIES.COM (HTTPS://YOUTHSPECIALTIES.COM/) and visit NYWC.COM(HTTPS://YOUTHSPECIALTIES.COM/NYWC/) to register for the National Youth Workers Convention, November 17-20 inCincinnati, OH.

YouthWorks exists to connect teenagers to God, each other, and communities through life-changing Christ-Centeredmission trips. Learn more at YOUTHWORKS.COM (HTTPS://WWW.YOUTHWORKS.COM/).

The Barna Group is a private, non-partisan, for-proat organization under the umbrella of the Issachar Companies.Located in Ventura, California, Barna Group has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand culturaltrends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the YS Blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily renect theopinion or position of YS.

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Lisa Nasby Jacobs · Youth Pastor at Joint Youth Ministryexcellent article and study. Looking forward to more information.Like · Reply · 23 hrs

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