This is a series of blog posts concerning youth participation. The articles will be published every Tuesdays in the coming 5 weeks. The last one was published on 15th Dec 2008.

 Youth= the ‘future’ of the Lutheran chuches?

 You assigned an important task to a youth group and they turn it up like a mess. You… 

1. regret that you have made a stupid decision to let such a group of immature and inexperienced kids to spoil the whole thing.
2. tell them it is okay if they learn from the failure this time. But at the same time you say to yourself you will not engage them next time.
3. feel guilty that you have not empowered them well enough to take up the task. You think next time both sides should have better communication.
4. think they did not want to mess up the things. What they need are support, empowerment, accompaniment, and last but not least, a chance to make mistakes and learn from it. 

        Youth engagement is somewhat like roasting beef steak. Some people like it to be well cooked, some would say medium or even rare would be fine for them. The same applies to the ‘best timing’ for engaging youth. 

        During the LWF Council Meeting 2008 in Arusha, the youth stewards wore a blue vest with a LWF logo on it. If one paid attention, she can also see a few words under the logo – ‘General Secretary-in-training’.

  A funny thing happened though. The stewards chose not to wear the eye-catching vest in the second day of the meeting! The reasons vary from ‘The vest brought me too much attention which makes me feel uncomfortable’ to ‘General Secretary-in-training? I feel like I am ridiculing myself to have such aspiration’. 

‘General Secretary-in-training’ – those intriguing words made me think about a very common view of youth’s role in our Lutheran churches. I do not know whether there is an official name of it. Perhaps let me just name it the ‘General-Secretary in Training Approach.’ 

        In fact, this approach can be understood in another short sentence. This sentence, in my opinion, reflects a common view in our Lutheran Communion. Have you ever heard someone saying ‘Youths are the future of our churches’? 

        With this view, the church elders assert that the youths will succeed them as future leaders of the church. As such, they often see that a systematic training should be offered to the youths so that they could acquire necessary ministry skills. 

        When put it into a parish level, the ‘General Secretary-in-training’ approach may result in a relatively strong youth ministry or department.

        In this case, the youth ministry’s major mandate is to organize various programs for the ‘future general secretary’, ranging from bible studies to leadership and advocacy skill trainings.

        Those training foci may vary from church to church. It very much depends on, for example, whether a church prefer to train more evangelist or they would prefer more members good at diaconal work or advocacy.

        In your opinion, youths are the present or the future of our churches? For me, if youth are ‘the present’, I believe the church can have a better future.