Friday, June 10, 2005
The role of the young in the church.
As most of you know I have a passion for youth ministry and a love for youth ministers that comes from time spent in the trenches. As we look at this time of year, many of our churches face a time of tragedy. Some of our best and brightest will graduate from the church. Their time in youth group is over, many if not most churches have very inept young adult ministries, and the students have not really been take seriously by the church as a whole. The time of their parents being able to force them to attend worship is over. Mind you all of this is happening at the time when a lot of these people face the most uncertainty they have ever faced in their lives and may well be the time when they need the body of Christ the most.
Is this going to be yet another whining blog about the pathetic condition of the church, absolutely not, there are far too many of those already. The fact of the matter is young adult ministry is tough. As mentioned above the time period between 18 and 25 is the largest transitional perion a person might ever face. In a single group, you may have single people, married people, parents, not to mention college students, laborers, the unemployed and under empployed career people and on and on. It is a time of tremendous diversity and also sometimes tremendous adversity. These are also people with tremendous energy and vitality that are crucial to the church and if we lose them (and we are) we will pay for it down the road.
But remember this is not a whining piece. This is a proactive piece so what can we do to keep them. Well a couple of things come to mind. First of all, if you wait until they graduate you have waited too long. Whole funding youth programs and having vital youth ministries is Vital, it is also vital to make sure that the youth are part of the whole church, building relationships with people of all ages. Mentoring is a key in this. By the time a student is a graduate they should be fully invested in the church.
Give them a ministry. Get to know the kids, find their giftings and talents and involve them in activities that will be fulfilling for them and help to draw them into ministry. This doesn't mean heap all the garbage jobs on them that the older members dont want to do. I realize that they need to be taught to serve and that some things just need to be done, but if you don't work by their side on the hard "unfun stuff" they will; quickly feel put upon and they will be right. I can almost hear someone saying it now, "But they're too young." No they're not, read the beginning of Jeremiah and Timothy and you will quickly see that God does not have an age limit. Give them what they are ready for and give them help (that can keep them out of trouble, but not do everything for them) and don't be afraid to push them a little. Remember teens can kill giants when God is with them.
Love them, (real love not the lip service kind) involve them and don't treat them like second class citizens. If you are going to put a teen on your board, for example, don't make him a token, listen to what he has to say. And lastly strike these words from the vocabulary of every church member, "Our youth are the church of the future." WRONG! They are the church of the right now and if you don't involve them now you may not have them in the future.
Oh and one more thing for the Christian ed people, drop age based sunday school classes for adults in favor of multigenerational classes where the young can learn from the old and the old can learn from the young and INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS can be fostered. This can go a long way into eliminating the us and them mentality that thrives in too many churches.
As most of you know I have a passion for youth ministry and a love for youth ministers that comes from time spent in the trenches. As we look at this time of year, many of our churches face a time of tragedy. Some of our best and brightest will graduate from the church. Their time in youth group is over, many if not most churches have very inept young adult ministries, and the students have not really been take seriously by the church as a whole. The time of their parents being able to force them to attend worship is over. Mind you all of this is happening at the time when a lot of these people face the most uncertainty they have ever faced in their lives and may well be the time when they need the body of Christ the most.
Is this going to be yet another whining blog about the pathetic condition of the church, absolutely not, there are far too many of those already. The fact of the matter is young adult ministry is tough. As mentioned above the time period between 18 and 25 is the largest transitional perion a person might ever face. In a single group, you may have single people, married people, parents, not to mention college students, laborers, the unemployed and under empployed career people and on and on. It is a time of tremendous diversity and also sometimes tremendous adversity. These are also people with tremendous energy and vitality that are crucial to the church and if we lose them (and we are) we will pay for it down the road.
But remember this is not a whining piece. This is a proactive piece so what can we do to keep them. Well a couple of things come to mind. First of all, if you wait until they graduate you have waited too long. Whole funding youth programs and having vital youth ministries is Vital, it is also vital to make sure that the youth are part of the whole church, building relationships with people of all ages. Mentoring is a key in this. By the time a student is a graduate they should be fully invested in the church.
Give them a ministry. Get to know the kids, find their giftings and talents and involve them in activities that will be fulfilling for them and help to draw them into ministry. This doesn't mean heap all the garbage jobs on them that the older members dont want to do. I realize that they need to be taught to serve and that some things just need to be done, but if you don't work by their side on the hard "unfun stuff" they will; quickly feel put upon and they will be right. I can almost hear someone saying it now, "But they're too young." No they're not, read the beginning of Jeremiah and Timothy and you will quickly see that God does not have an age limit. Give them what they are ready for and give them help (that can keep them out of trouble, but not do everything for them) and don't be afraid to push them a little. Remember teens can kill giants when God is with them.
Love them, (real love not the lip service kind) involve them and don't treat them like second class citizens. If you are going to put a teen on your board, for example, don't make him a token, listen to what he has to say. And lastly strike these words from the vocabulary of every church member, "Our youth are the church of the future." WRONG! They are the church of the right now and if you don't involve them now you may not have them in the future.
Oh and one more thing for the Christian ed people, drop age based sunday school classes for adults in favor of multigenerational classes where the young can learn from the old and the old can learn from the young and INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS can be fostered. This can go a long way into eliminating the us and them mentality that thrives in too many churches.
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