Global Youth Ministry Network - Asia

All these areas of development we have discussed have a direct effect on how an adolescent experiences spiritual transformation—a period when he/she places a “God-filter” in his or her life.  Physical development, for instance, influences the way youth relate to God. G. Stanley Hall once wrote that it is no accident that the age of [...]

Wayne Rice’s description of adolescent faith is instructive.1
First, spiritual development in teens includes doubt and disbelief. With their newly acquired ability to think, it should be expected that adolescents will challenge the faith of their childhood. They are also bombarded with different information that complicates their faith-formation.
Second, it is personal. Young people experience the transition [...]

Teenagers can be emotional people. They can laugh uncontrollably during the first part of the youth meeting and then become depressed and resentful in the second half.  Mood swings can be caused by the erratic surge of hormones in their body. Their feelings can be tense as well as unpredictable. Since they are just beginning [...]

It is not unusual for teenagers to shift their interest from parental to peer relations. Sometimes, they go to school not because they enjoy studying but rather they want to be with their friends. Social acceptance is one of the prime indicators of their self-esteem, more important than their cognitive/academic competence. Youth ministers must understand [...]

Adolescents develop the ability to reason more logically, to conceptualize and to think in abstract terms. Youth ministry leaders must be well-informed of this well-established fact because it can greatly help in preparing Bible studies and applying teaching strategies. We must understand the recurring awkwardness in the philosophy of many teenagers because they are just [...]

More physical changes take place during adolescence than during any other time in life except for the first 18 months. Adolescence starts with the onset of puberty or the stage when somebody becomes capable of sexual reproduction. The Bible declares that the glory of every youth is his strength. Since teens find physical activities irresistible, [...]

When American psychologist Granville Stanley Hall, coined in 1904 the phrase “storm and stress” with reference to adolescence, he was well-aware of the changes young people experience and, perhaps, the changing variables youth ministers have to contend with—the teens themselves, the cultures which influence them, their families and friends, among others. To say the least, youth ministers are hitting a “moving target.”