What's the purpose for doing youth ministry?

I had a head cold the last few days of my vacation which forced me to finally relax on my vacation -- novel concept, I know! But as I was looking through some of my old youth ministry textbooks and I started to contemplate the purpose of youth ministry all together. So, I'll ask -- what's the purpose for doing youth ministry?

Your answer will no doubt be a little different from mine. But my response can be summed up in one sentence: The purpose of youth ministry is to lead students to become disciples, or followers, of Christ.

Now, how this gets done looks a million different ways. And, we must acknowledge that we play different roles with different students, depending on the level of parental engagement in a student’s spiritual development.

But if you ask me, our call -- our task -- is to play our part in helping God to develop disciples of Christ.

I think about discipleship a lot. I think a great deal about how we as youth ministers and youth workers lead students to be followers of Christ and not merely nominal Christians. So, I began to ask myself this: if we aren't leading teens to become disciples, what are we leading them to become?

Are we leading teens to be legalists? Do our teens see their relationship with Christ as little more than a list of “do’s and don’ts” to check off? Is our ministry full of teenagers who aren’t motivated by imitating Christ’s holiness, but are instead driven by a Pharisaical sense of rule keeping?

Are we leading our teens to be lukewarm religionists? Do our teens go through the motions at Church, but lead unremarkable lives at school, barely discernable from those who don’t know Christ?

Are we creating spiritual consumers? Are we more concerned about the level of our teens’ entertainment than the depth of their devotion? Do we put more time, thought, and energy into our presentation than we do our content?

Or are we leading teens away from Christ? Do the things we say and do demonstrate to teens that following Christ is optional, a hard task reserved for the super-spiritual? Or does the content of our programs show them that Christ is containable, and predictable, and not very life-changing or transformative?

I know I certainly don't do any of these things knowingly or willingly. And I'm confident you don't, either.

But I think it's so important for us to continually come to this question and to evaluate our efforts. Over at youthministry360, they have offered this list I think might be a good starting point:

You are shaping students faith. What are you shaping it to be?
How can we know if we are helping students grow into disciples? In other words, what is the fruit of our ministry in the lives of our students? What does it look like when it works?

• If you see students who are growing in their knowledge and understanding of Scripture, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If you see visible fruit of spiritual growth in their lives (in other words, if you see them applying their growing knowledge of Scripture), you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If you are actively working alongside students’ parents as co-laborers in shaping their faith-lives, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If your students are engaging in your church outside of “youth specific” activities, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If your students are developing a heart for the poor, the sick, and the outcast, you are helping them grow into disciples.
• If you see students willingly embrace leadership responsibilities, you are helping them grow into disciples.

What do you think? Do we measure up? How can we be better?