Len Sweet Interview

Group magazine interviewed Len Sweet on the state of youth ministry and his opinions on what needs to happen for the sake of the Kingdom. Here’s a snippet:

group: …what are the changes that must happen for youth leaders wanting to turn the corner?

sweet: The biggest one is their need to give up the ministry. I tell youth pastors, ‘Your major job is to give away the ministry to your kids. You must decrease that Christ may increase in their lives.” These kids need mentors. They do not need pied pipers.

This is the first generation in history that does not need authority figures to access information. But waft a minute-they need authority figures all the more to process all that information. They don’t need us to get the truth-what they need is mentoring. “Now that I can get it, help me. How do I live it? How do I perform it? How do I pray it?” That’s the mentoring model. It’s much more low-key but high-powered.

You can learn this from Star Wars, for crying out loud. These Jedi knights are spiritual masters. That’s what we need-knights of faith that can show our kids what it means to be a master of the spiritual disciplines, a master of the spiritual life, a master of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

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