Student Membership

[Gabriel Leadley]

Does anyone have good Local Church Membership materials for students that you've used or developed and would be willing to share? The plea went out to our District Ministry Leaders and came up empty. An appeal to the General Church level (Publishing House and USA/Canada Director) turned up the same. Vital Connection is 10 years old, and I am trying to avoid reinventing the wheel.

Maybe it's just work that has to be done. Maybe it's time for an honest look at if or how local church membership is even relevant and meaningful to students in our ministries. Are we even providing a product that is worth a student's time, energy, or effort, let alone membership?

Maybe I am being short-sited. What are the larger questions and issues we need to address in this conversation?

[Ron Davis]

I'm not finding many teens interested in formal membership unless it is to fulfill a requirement for leadership positions. I have not found any good material for bringing teens into membership of the church. Perhaps we could develop something using this forum as a way to exchange ideas.

There are many issues to work out. The first would be how to communicate the the value of membership to teens. I look forward to further discussion.