Rev. Walt Marcum shares wisdom at Youth Workers' luncheon
Rev. Marcum emphasizes the importance of discipleship.
First UMC, Iowa Park
Discipleship now is the key word in youth ministry, Rev. Walt Marcum, Highland Park UMC, Dallas, told those gathered for Tuesday"s Youth Workers' Movement luncheon at the NTC annual conference.
Rev. Marcum said that in his 39 years of youth ministry, he has seen philosophies and curricula come and go, but what is most important is "the fundamental reality of relationships, relationship with God, relationships with brothers and sisters. The only way to learn relationships is through relationships."
In his keynote address, Rev Marcum provided his audience of mainly youth workers, with a history of youth ministry, one that began as recently as the late 1800s. He stated that what we know as "adolescence" did not exist before that time in the sense that the culture considered people as growing from childhood directly into adulthood.
As American society became more complicated with the rise of the industrial revolution, people needed more than a primary education. Young peoples' receiving more education required their taking more time for schooling and thus more time to mature before reaching the working years of adulthood. "Adolescence" described those teenaged years of growth.
"Youth ministry" did not begin until the formation of the para-church ministry Youth Endeavor in the 1940s. The word "teen-ager" did not gain widespread usage until 1952, he said. Over the next few decades, denominational churches, such as the predecessors to the UMC, created their own youth ministries.
Rev. Marcum observed that twenty-first century youth ministry has experienced some replacing of United Methodist Youth Fellowship with praise and worshipm services for youth.
Youth ministry now is a major component of UMC ministries. "Pastors are highly motivated to have good youth ministries," he said. But "most youth workers are not formally trained," partly because they do not stay in their positions long enough to receive that education.
Rev. Marcum said that the popularity of the current discipleship paradigm probably will continue to grow.
Charles Harrison, the emcee of the luncheon and the head of the Youth Workers' Movement of the
Rev. Marcum told him, "I could help more adults if I just could work with them as teenagers, when they are willing to try new things."
For more information visit: www.youthworkermovement.org or contact Charles Harrison, 972-333-9870, charles@mcyouth.org.
