Okay I have to admit that I have been involved in and teaching on youth ministry in various parts of the world. I have seen the impact on young people of good and effective youth ministry. But I have been coming to a place for a while now that I think we have to look at changing the very style and structure of what youth ministry is.

The reason I say this is because after 25 years in youth ministry I have seen heaps of short-term impact of effective youth ministry but the same cannot be said of long-term impact. I am seeing too many young people in the 18 plus age group drift away from youth group, church, and often their Christian faith.

We have made youth ministry relevant for being young but not for being a young adult and not for being in the real world. The level of ownership of young people of "church" is so low because we haven’t created ways for them to be involved with, give direction to, or feel at home at church.

We have followed the path that says "youth" need their own programme that is relevant to them. This has meant that youth have had their own social and discipleship programmes, their own services and small groups. But once they hit the young adult stage then often things get lost.

My belief is that by separating the age groups in church then we have set church and the Christian faith to be irrelevant for young people. Actually at the heart of everyone is to be in community and family. It is the security and sanctuary of people of all ages and backgrounds sharing the Christian journey together that I think becomes the very "glue" that will help people stay involved with church and seeking after God.

We have brought into the social myths that says that we need to separate out the ages so that everyone has their own way of learning and experiencing God–I think we have been wrong. Youth ministry doesn’t have to go down that path–we think it is all about making the youth feel excited about their faith and doing it in ways that are relevant. NO ... it is about helping them to become part of the Christian community they belong to. It is when they are involved and have ownership of their Christian community that they will have a longer lasting ownership of the Christian faith. It is the community that becomes the glue for them retaining and growing in their Christian faith.

Follow Sean on Twitter: @YouthMesh