This month at Surge (our youth ministry) we are doing a series called “Old School”. We will be looking at 3 of the major prophets in the Old Testament. To add some creativity to the series we had the student vote which decade they wanted the leaders to dress in. I was elated when they said the 80’s! I myself am a product of the 80’s. I am a product of Coca Cola shirts, tight rolled pants, Michael Jackson and Big Hair Rock bands! I loved the music and the style. I loved that style was in style.
Youth ministry was different back then than it is now. Here are some youth ministry throwbacks from the 80’s. Though I am a child of the 80’s most of my ministry was done in the 90’s…however the 80’s left a mark.
CLIP ART
Back then there was no software to find images. Most pastors didn’t have computers and they weren’t used often for creativity (God bless Steve Jobs). So to make flyers you had to buy a clip art book, copy a page, actually clip it out, paste it on your flyer and make copies.
VISITATION
I contend that this one was a good idea and could be a good idea today if we weren’t such a private culture today. On Monday we would gather together at the church and all the visitor slips from the visitors from the previous several weeks were divided out and any youth were given to the youth pastor and a few volunteers and they would defend upon their houses and thank them for coming.
PAGER MINISTRY
I am pretty proud of this one. I had a pager…this was actually around 1992 but hey close enough. I gave students a card with my pager number and codes. (1) pray for my test (2) relationship troubles (3) sick. Then the students could use the payphone at the school and page me their number and code and I’d pray for them. It was pretty rad.
PETRA
The big hair band of the 80’s…of course their was also Stryper. But Petra was my favorite. It is still my go to jam for working in the office. Big Hair meets Big Faith meets Loud Music!
There are also some problems that came out of the 80’s in regards to youth ministry. The youth ministry from the 80’s gave birth to big flashy programs with little substance. It gave birth to horrible games like chubby bunny and it gave birth to Lock Ins.
Sean Rheaume 