Reaching the Marginalized
Recently, I met with a potential adult leader. I shared my heart with him, interviewed him, and then asked if he had any questions for me
He proceeded to tell me about how his son, who’s now in his 20s, was never involved in our church’s youth ministry. When I asked why this was, he said no one ever reached out to him. He then looked me straight in the eye and asked, “So what do you do to reach out to kids like my son?”
As I listened to this deeply personal question, it occurred to me how often we in the church miss the population that includes this man’s son.
As youth workers, we spend a lot of time discipling our church kids. Since we know Jesus came to seek and save the lost, we also spend a lot of time reaching out to unchurched kids in our communities. But what about those caught in between? How can we reach those students who are, for whatever reason, within our congregations and yet very much still on the margins of our ministries?
Though there’s certainly no magic bullet for this, here are seven ideas for getting started.
