Almost half the world's population today is under the age of 25. Estimates suggest that by the year 2025, there will be about 72 million more youth than there at the present. More than any other time in history, the question of how to communicate effectively and engage in cross-cultural youth ministry must be posed and sufficiently answered. However, understanding the sheer number of youth around the globe is only one dynamic in this situation.

Were it that all the millions of youth around the globe lived in one country, region or continent, the task of reaching these youth would prove somewhat easier; but this is not reality. Since 2006, one-quarter of the youth population is in the developing regions of the world. In Africa, 32 percent of the population is youth, while Asia's youth population is 22 percent. Latin America and the Caribbean have a youth population of 24 percent combined.  These are only three areas of the world and three distinct cultures, but the fact that 96 percent of the world's youth live outside the United States helps us understand that youth ministry in the United States is a small percentage of global youth ministry. Therefore, the issue is not simply how to evangelize and minister to the youth population around the globe, but rather how to evangelize and minister effectively to youth across various cultures. Truly, this could and should be a question we ask even of those ministering to youth within our own country. Sherwood Lingenfelter said, "In today's world, cross-cultural ministry includes not only people going as missionaries to Latin America, Africa or Asia, but also those who are trying to be effective witnesses in the major urban centers of [one's own] country."

The growing population of youth worldwide, along with the diversity of cultures in which they reside, helps us understand that missions and ministry to reach the youth of the world entails understanding various cultures in the process, whether they are varying cultures within the same country or between countries. A one-size-fits-all approach to youth ministry across cultures, as with any age group, has not and will not work effectively. Therefore, we must come to understand cross-cultural missions and ministry while also outlining principles necessary when engaging in ministry to youth across varying cultures.

HUMAN DIVERSITY AND CULTURE

The Author of Human Diversity

Duane Elmer said in his book Cross-Cultural Connections, "It was God who authored human diversity." We may not fully understand to what degree, but human diversity must best reveal our God the Creator. He created diversity among humans in numerous ways. This diversity leads to the rich, contrasting cultures we find throughout the world.

Defining Culture

Individuals, out of their uniqueness, as well as different living climates, regions and history, create unique cultures which are not duplicated in any other place by any other group of individuals. Ebbie Smith gives insight regarding culture saying, "Every culture, then, is a way of life, but only one way of life, for a particular people...Every society or group of people will develop a group of traits or components of culture that allow them to live in a particular environment—physical and ideational. Though vastly different from one another, every culture exists to help people adjust to [their] environment."