Hello Boards,

 This is my first post. So, yeah for that.

 I have been the Youth Director for about 7 years, in my current calling for about 4. We have a terrific Youth Ministry program, running youth group on Sunday evenings, service/mission outreach on Wednesday evenings, and in depth Bible study on Thursday evenings. Every program we launch is well attended by our group and each one is growing rather consistently.

My issue is Sunday mornings. We had a decent Sunday School program when I arrived, but kids stopped showing up this year. NONE of them come to Sunday morning corporate worship. In my last call, the kids all came, cuz that's just what you did. Sunday morning was non-negotiable. In my current call, however, the attitude is different. In 4 years, I have yet to get the kids to show regularly on Sunday morning. My Pastor (the boss man) and I were discussing it and he has expressed a real desire to see the kids Sunday morning for corporate worship. He is awesome, willing to do whatever it takes.

Our issue is that we have run out of ideas. I have tried sermons on the importance of worship, lesson series on joining the congregational body as a whole, involving them in service responsibilities (trying to create ownership of the service), intense and continual prayer on the issue, talking to parents, begging, pleading, bribes, threats, and even offering rides. Nothing has worked. It's a little embarrassing, to be quite honest. Every other thing I do is blowing up, but I can't make this happen... I have taken the high road, and the low road, an neither is working.

I have expressed the concern with my ministry team, and we feel like part of the issue is the cultural climate of the parents, given that many of our kids don't drive. If it isn't important to the family, it won't be important to the kids. Nevertheless, I am not one to just pass blame, or even assign responsibility and walk away. I really want to solve this issue, and I am going crazy trying. It's baffling, and I can't figure it out. So I am looking for help...

We have a contemporary service (8:45am, which may be part of the problem), so it's not even like we are subjecting them to boring "high church."

I am open to any ideas/ the collective wisdom of the boards....

God Bless & Godspeed,

Holy Ghost Echo

"You cannot grow a beard in a moment of passion." - G.K. Chesterton

God Bless,

Josh

Try having your group during church right after the worship set.  The kids get out of a boring sermon, they get breakfast, a Bible study on what they want to hear about....hey, it's all here on my website.  Give it a look:

http://sundayschoollessonconnection.com/

Besides, taking youth OUT of corporate worship is, I believe, the worst thing you can do when it comes to making them feel part of the church as a whole. 


Pictures taken on vacation at Lake Junaluska, NC.

Corperate worship is another issue.  Families of all ages can sing praises and worship God together and all enjoy the experience of the family of Christ.  I like the kids being in the worship (singing) part of the service but the learning part is different.  Middle School age kids learn different than adults.  Kid's brains are different than adults.  Kids dig discussion, interaction, hands on activities.

High School kids are ready for the adult service and should be there but they have to want to be there.  My experience has been that by the time my Middle schoolers are graduating into High School they are eager to move up to "grown-up" status because they are soooo done with the kids stuff. It's all in their perception of the grown-up experience.  If they are forced to attend as Middle Schoolers they get the idea that it's boring.  If they have their own class they view church as fun and the graduation to the adult service as a cool step in becoming an adult.  The graduates from my class understand from the start that the next step is adult-hood.

It is good for the kids to hand out bullitens, be part of the worship band, service in the kitchen and nursery too as already suggested.  Our kids also play on the B-ball teams and do activities with the adults during the week. That's the family stuff. They feel valued and involved.

High School and Middle school age do attend the Wednesday evening youth group together because it's a small church.  If the facilities allowed I'd seperate the age groups here too.  I'm not against family ministy at all. Quite the opposite actually. But the term "Family-Ministry" has been completly misunderstood. 

I have a book review of a book called Family Based Youth Ministry by Mark DeVries on my website at this URL: http://sundayschoollessonconnection.com/teach_sunday_school.html  It's near the bottom of the page.

I'm not sure if you'll ever convice the current High School age kids that grown-up church is anything but boring but if you take a longer view and aim at the younger Junior High kids now you might see them attending when they become High Schoolers in a few years.