Recently, on YouthWorker.com, Annie Lockhart wrote about her concept of a kinship model for youth ministry.  While starting with concern regarding the almost cliched tension between the youth worker and parent (and I say cliched because I believe we do a lot to perpetuate it), she wonders why we find ourselves separating young people from the whole of the church and therefore denying youth ministry partnerships in mentoring young people.

Lockhart’s key quote: “The missionary to youth’s job is to make sure teens of the congregation continue to be seen as current members of the congregation, not just future members. The youth worker keeps teen and adult members of the community dependent on each other.”