A look at 120 years of Mennonite youth ministry and what’s ahead

Acommon response I heard when researching the history of Mennonite youth ministry was, “I didn’t know Mennonites had one.” I learned that the Mennonite church has paid considerable attention to youth. But what can we learn from our history as we seek to faithfully follow Jesus?

Three common threads stand out. First, the tension between what youth want and what adult church leaders think is best for them persists. Second, I struggle to identify a “Mennonite model” of youth ministry since we have borrowed much. Third, though our denominational efforts have been abundant, we are only as effective as what the congregation enables to nurture faith.

1885-1940

Congregational-based initiatives by young people were met with adult church leaders who hindered or controlled these efforts. Young People’s Bible Meetings (YPBMs) gained momentum in the Mennonite Church (MC) from 1890 to 1910. Outside Sunday school, this was perhaps the most readily accepted activity for young people who desired to gather in homes for Bible study and fellowship. These meetings, however, evolved to incorporate the entire congregation supported by denominational resources. In the General Conference Mennonite Church (GC), Christian Endeavor Sunday evening meetings were similar.

The next influential youth activity was the Literary Society. At first there was disapproval among church leaders, since these were not started by the church and were more social in nature. But by 1940, most conferences accepted them as legitimate youth activities. With the increasing intergenerational and institutional nature of YPBM, the Literaries became the place where young people could experience life with each other without the presence of controlling adults.

These grassroots efforts influenced denominational approaches to youth ministry. In 1921, the Young People’s Problems Committee (YPPC) of the MC was formed to examine the problems and religious life of Mennonite young people ages 15 to 27. The YPPC sponsored a four-day Young People’s Institute (YPIs) in 1927 on the campus of Goshen (Ind.) College. Though youth were not directly involved in its planning, they had positively influenced certain decisions. Eventually, the YPPC discontinued direct sponsorship of the YPIs but empowered regional conferences to plan their own events before phasing out due to the growth of Mennonite camping. Similarly, the GCs organized the first nine-day Young People’s Retreat (YPR) at Bluffton (Ohio) College in 1925, along with subsequent regional events springing up including the first churchwide YPR held in conjunction with the GC session in 1935. The YPRs and YPIs served as important socializing efforts in Mennonite faith and identity and enabled young people to experience God through time away from home, fellowship with other youth and engaging dynamic speakers, worship and discussion topics.

1940-1968

Denominational efforts to influence the faith of young people epitomized this era during a time of war and the emerging “teenage culture.” Young People’s Union (YPU) began in 1941 to support local youth ministry efforts in GC churches by giving guidance to the plethora of congregational activities already offered. All young people between the ages of 12 and 30 were considered members. YPU included executive officers, cabinet, annual council of district and institutional representatives, and conference-wide retreats and workshops.

Mennonite Youth Fellowship (MYF) officially started in 1948, though it was an action by the MC General Conference in 1947 that authorized its formation and appointed the first interim council. Since Literaries received criticism as one-dimensional social gatherings, the MYF touted a holistic program around the areas of Faith and Practice, Fellowship and Service. Though MYF was not embraced by every conference, it was organized at the national, regional and local levels with annual delegate conventions for executive officers of each branch to gather for instruction and exhortation. The national MYF Cabinet dissolved in 1968 due to denominational restructuring and realignment of youth ministry oversight.

Two other youth ministry movements deserve mentioning: Mennonite camps and high schools. Stemming from the recent success of YPRs and YPIs, Camp Men-O-Lan (GC) and Laurelville Mennonite Camp (MC) began in 1941 and 1943, respectively, as their denominations’ first camps. Over the next 40 years, 41 MC-affiliated camps and 18 GC-affiliated camps developed. Some started with the intent of nurturing the children and youth of the church, but others had a more evangelistic focus. Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite School began in 1942. Though there had been a few Mennonite academies established prior to this date, this was the first of a dozen Mennonite high schools to open in the next 15 years. These schools promoted a particular set of values, beliefs, attitudes and lifestyle expectations uniquely Mennonite.

1968-present

This third era is characterized by both a continuation of denominational efforts and by congregational self-direction. Conference youth ministers and denominational staff comprised the newly formed Youth Ministry Council (YMC), whose primary focus was to resource paid conference staff. However, not all conferences were able to afford such staff. The churchwide youth conventions grew, but unlike the MYF delegate conventions of the 1950s and 1960s, these gatherings were intended for high school youth and the entire youth group. The five-day mass sessions provided opportunities for young people to experience God during worship, seminars, service assignments and fellowship.

At the congregational level, voices called for churches to holistically integrate youth ministry into the life of the church. A denominational staff person wrote that youth ministry had been under fire in many congregations from parents who hurt when their children lost interest in church activities and from youth sponsors unwilling to serve more than one term. Other sources of entertainment competed with the youth group, the youth program became a parallel congregation separate from the adult congregation, and fewer and fewer adults were interested in serving as youth group sponsors. To respond to these challenges, Blueprint for Congregational Youth Ministry, a project of the Church of the Brethren, General Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Church, was published in 1988 and encouraged an integrated organizational structure.

Another reality has been the professionalization of youth ministry. A trend to hire paid youth pastors had increased among churches who could afford multistaffing, and by the early 2000s all our Mennonite colleges and seminaries offered courses in youth ministry. An increase in credentialing such pastors raised the pastoral and theological expectations of these leaders. However, numerous conferences had cut funding for youth ministry staff throughout the 1990s, and perhaps the low point of this trend occurred in 2003, when the denominational youth ministry position of Mennonite Church USA was eliminated.

Even though significant denominational resources have been exerted, local leaders were responsible for congregational efforts. Sometimes leaders gravitated toward experiential activities that interested them, excited the youth or were convenient to attend rather than always theologically consider the nature of faith championed by these activities. The 1970s saw the rise of entrepreneurial, nondenominational publishing efforts from Youth Specialties and Group Publishing. These energies touted a more “generic, bottom-line” form of Christianity and offered “cut-and-paste” activities to help busy youth leaders. As these businesses grew, so did their influence on youth ministry.

Future considerations

As I consider the future of Mennonite youth ministry, I believe we need to be theologically intentional and reflectively informed in all that we do, no matter the programmatic effort we employ. Life is busy and full of choices, and we dare not be theologically lazy. Will we as leaders and parents have the guts to discern what activities should comprise our youth’s time as we also examine our own lives?
Our denomination is positioned well to support the faith-nurturing efforts of our youth, but this must be done in a collaborative posture. Our church is multifaceted, so we dare not put all our eggs into one basket. Will the various faith-shaping institutions work together to wrestle with today’s challenges, or will we compete for the attention of our youth and youth leaders?

We need to listen to the cries of all our youth, not just the ones who engage our denominational efforts. The North American Mennonite church is changing, and we need to be attuned to all its voices, not just the ones who have paid adult leaders guiding the way. Will we listen to the underrepresented and actively pay attention to the diverse places the Holy Spirit is at work?

The challenges faced in youth ministry are no different from what the broader church confronts. If we as a church are properly attuned to the changing world around us and faithfully respond as Jesus would—and involve our youth in that process—then I am confident their faith will positively grow. Will we have the courage to put aside some of the generational bickering and get on with the mission of