Issues Paper Intro

The Christian Bible holds no direct doctrine concerning the organization of the ministry for children and young adults, except Jesus Christ’s own words to “suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me” (Matthew 19:14). In accordance to Christ’s example, the  importance of the religious education of our youth has lead us to construct a long line of institutions dedicated to just that. The first organized sunday school for youth was founded in 1780, by Robert Raikes in Gloucester, England. He wanted to give the children of the time, who were over worked and down right neglected, a better start to life by teaching them to read the Bible. This idea for a youth sunday school made its way to American pioneers by 1785. (Adams, 25) One of the most widely known church centered organization is the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Nearly a century after sunday schools were established, England was still a place of struggle and poverty for the youth on the streets. In London 1844, 22 year old George Williams organized the first association with 11 of his friends to study the bible and gain spiritual strength for their labored lives. The YMCA made it’s way into America just seven years later. (History - Founding) Today, the YMCA is making as big of an impact as it ever has. But it is not the only youth organization to have a lasting influence. In 1843, just one year before sunday school started in England, a man by the name of Heber C. Kimbell started the Young Gentlemen’s and Young Ladies Relief Society of Nauvoo, within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and under the support of the LDS prophet Joseph Smith. What started as a small youth social gathering quickly grow into a large organization of the youth of the church to learn the gospel. (Hartley) On one occasion, Joseph Smith asked the youth to help out within the community, “specifically, he asked them to fund and then build a house for a brother who was lame. In response, the youth drew up a constitution, elected officers, called monthly meetings, and opened their membership to anyone under age thirty in Nauvoo, LDS or not” (Hartley). Although many youth organizations follow this same sense of service today, many have lost the vital gospel message that they were founded on. By the 20th century, the religious education of the youth had fallen by the wayside again, until Jim Rayburn started to teach the ministry to the teenagers at a local high school. But even by the 1950’s and 60’s, the simple message of Christ being taught in those high schools and rallies around North America and England began shifting to a more relevant and relatable ministry. By the 1970’s, church leaders could see the potential of youth groups as publicity for the church to bring in the parents of those teens. The idea of a youth group had changed completely from focusing on the gospel, to simply luring people in to gain more members. By the 80’s, churches were employing extreme methods to keep the youth entertained, but even those methods did not last long, and today we see a devastating trend of youth leaving their churches after high school. (Wright)

Why did these methods not work out in the end? Where had the ministry gone wrong? It is easy to see from the downward spiral that lead to this trend, as laid out above, that youth have simply lost interest in the church. However, are youth group organizations really to blame? Today, the Young Men’s and Young Women’s organization of the the LDS church is much the same as it was at it’s founding: centered on the teaching of the gospel to the youth of the church, conducting and participating in service, and building the leadership skills of the youth within the church. But, after all this time, why has this group not seen the same decline in youth attendance? The answer can be found not in the attitude of the youth themselves, but in the changing way that the church views the youth of its ministry. Youth would be more willing to continue in their church as an adult if they are given responsibility early, were able to gain more from their church meetings personally, and feel they are contributing to the congregation as a whole.