Since the days of the youth movement, church youth work has often lacked that element of Christian sobriety that alone might enable it to recognize that the spirit of youth is not the Holy Spirit and that the future of the church is not youth itself but rather the Lord Jesus Christ alone. It is the task of youth not to reshape the church, but rather to listen to the Word of God; it is the task of the church not to capture the youth, but to teach and proclaim the Word of God.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

[I saw this quote in the current issue of Christianity Today and thought it was worth repeating. Bonhoeffer spent many years in children and youth ministry and  probably wrote this about 80 years ago.]