Youth ministry – social, spiritual and institutional agendas

This paper will explore the different purposes of church-based youth work through the ‘three domain model of Christian youth work’ that emerged from my doctoral research with young people and youth workers in churches. In particular, it will explore the social, spiritual and institutional purposes of youth work and how youth workers often find themselves caught between responding to the needs of the church and the needs of the young people. I will place a particular emphasis on exploring how the institutional agenda within churches may restrict the needs of young people being met.
I will build on my doctoral research findings to explore how my model of youth work, which is very much focused on that which takes place within the church, translates into settings where Christian youth workers are operating outside of the church building. I will consider whether the social and spiritual agendas of youth work are able to be fluid and combined where they are more distant from the institutional agenda of the church.

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