Chapter One

A Reality We Can't Ignore

It was the mid-1950s, and millions of baby boomers were nearing adolescence. Never before had there been such an influx of young people who were drastically shaping the culture. And the church was unprepared. Youth ministry expert Mark Senter writes, "The post-war baby boom caught the church without a strategy for dealing with the sudden influx of people whom the media began to call 'teenagers.'"

These young baby boomers represented a huge untapped resource for the church, and some people began to work nationally at convincing church leaders that youth ministry was vitally important. These entrepreneurs created a sense of urgency among churches to reach out to this young generation before it was too late.

This idea caught on, in part because of the bulging number of teenagers who were alive. Today, most churches have a youth minister as a part of their staff, and often it is the second or third position they add after the senior pastor. Youth ministry has become a popular degree of study in most Bible colleges and seminaries across the country. It is an expected element of our current church culture.

These baby boomers who revolutionized youth ministry are now entering their fifth and sixth decades of life. They are marching into their later years at an unprecedented rate. And the urgency of ministry with them is just as great as when they were young-perhaps even greater.

The stakes are high. There is much to be gained for Christ or much to be lost. And it star