Cultivating Multicultural Christian Youth Ministry Team Leaders Through Covenant Relationships With Youth in KC and STL Metro Area Churches

One significant challenge for today’s Christian churches involves bridging the gap between youth involvement in church after high school graduation and moving on to college (Owens, 2014). Owens (2014) asserts that today’s adolescents experience parental and church support during high school, but once they head off to college, they leave that support and stability at home. Students leave the church for many reasons. This study proposes that one significant reason is that Christian churches do not educate youth ministry team leaders on multiculturalism. This research explored satisfactory multicultural competencies necessary for youth ministry leaders to disciple youth by asking adult youth ministry leaders and adolescent youth ministry attendees to respond to questionnaires, essays, and surveys to develop essential satisfactory multicultural competencies. This study drew theoretical guidance from an explanatory sequential mixed-methods theory, commencing with a quantitative longitudinal study using closed-ended questionnaires and concluding with qualitative essays and surveys to enhance the quantitative findings. This mixed-methods research describes the satisfactory multicultural competencies essential to empower Christian youth ministry leaders to reach the multicultural youth within Kansas City and St. Louis metro area churches. Kite (2015) reports that multicultural competencies in education require valuing students’ racial diversity and racial differences. Awareness of cultural biases and virtues, learning to view others' worlds, and developing culturally appropriate interpersonal skills legitimize cultural competence. Discussing satisfactory multicultural competence helps transfer these traits from one to another (Kite, 2015).