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| I’m relatively new to a church that has never had a strong youth ministry before, and "youth group" consists of 45 minutes of open gym/dodge ball, and 30 minutes of hanging out and maybe 15 minutes of teaching (not preaching). This format is not effective at growing the kids spiritually because they’re too wound up after the active time to be able to focus on anything we try to do in the second half.
I’m trying to infuse creativity into what we do, but I’m meeting some resistance – mostly from the youth sponsors that have only ever seen this youth group. My goal is to transition into a full-blown youth service highlighting relationship and the Word and downplaying the active time. Such as active time after the service - almost as a reward for listening.
What I’m working on now is turning our old sanctuary into a youth room and starting up a worship band. Now how do I downplay the play time? Has anybody else been through this? |
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| You are working up against a hard wall. First, youth fellowship with other Christians is as important as it is for adult Christians to surround themselves with Christians as friends. The support and like mindedness of this atmosphere is important in helping to avoid temptation and build strength in the values we are trying to teach them. All of that is a way for me to say some kind of "play time" is valuable to them.
I like your idea for a worship band and I pray you will find a way to build a service for you youth. Play time like activities need not be on the same day/evening, they can be scheduled seseparately I will also take a moment to point out that children of non-Christian religions (and certian Christian sects) who are knowledgeable in their doctrine and values are not "preached" constantly. They are in cultural schools that teach them in a school like environment what they are in need of. There is a substantial difference between a Christian church service and a learning environment, a synagauge for example is without the kind of foformalityf a Christian service except when the weekly Torah reading is made. This reading takes less time than the typical sermon in Christian churches and the balance of time in the synagauge is more akin to our S School time for kids and adults. A learning atmosphere.
Your choice of words is what led me to share this, teens are not going to respond well to a mid-midweekmon under most circumstances and you are not starting in the ideal setting. Discussion in learning is as important to the process as providing the resources to learn from. You will aslo build with your youth a more confidant relationship in which they can trust you and seek out your guidance.
God Bless,
Christopher Fishell
Xtreme Youth Resources International
God Bless,
Christopher Fishell
Executive Director
Xtreme Youth Resources International |
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| | What about starting a strong Bible study on another night and leaving that program intact? That way, you build up a strong leadership/core team who are interested in studying and can change things from the inside. In my experience, trying to force a change like you are proposing will kill the group you have. So look for other ways to strengthen it. Oh, and look to Jesus' biblical example on what to do. Did Jesus spend most of his time preaching? or building relationships while teaching? Did he teach mostly in the synagogue in a "sermon" or mostly by walking alongside people in their everyday life? Don't discount the play time, Scott. Jesus used weddings, travel, dinners and everything else as a time to disciple. So can we!
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| A great question and some great thoughts. My thoughts:
1. If you are relatively new to the position, be careful of pushing too fast. You need to win the trust of your existing leaders. Failure to do so can result in the destruction of the youth group and the loss of your leaders/job.
2. It does sound like there is some dis-equilibrum in the schedule of your youth group, but game time is still important. I think of game time as a great time in which to see how our the teens live out what we are talking about. Its great to talk on how we can be more patient or encouraging, but the tires hit the road when you just got out on a close call, when someone totally should have caught that ball, etc.
3. Our service is structured like this. Teens begin trickling in around 6:15. At 6:30 we break up into guy/girls groups for small group topical discussion. At 7:15 we play games. At 8 we get together and have a topical study through the bible (verse by verse) as well as eating snacks and making announcements. At 9 we are done, by 9:30 everyone has left and we head home.
One note about that. We allow teens to come for the small groups and games or games and bible study, but not just for games.
David.
- DaveMackey.Net - Personal Site with Ramblings on various topics including Church, Christianity, and Mental Disorders.
- Christian & Family Films. - A hobby site of mine where I research Christian films.
- Hundreds of youth group games organized by topic. |
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| I think the key is balance. We have a youth band for worship, teaching/discussion time and games. The games are an important time as not only do they allow the kids to hang out and know each other better, but that is a key time for my leaders to mesh with the kids as well.
We typically have about 20 minutes of structured game time within the service, plus kids roll in early and have about 45 minutes of just hang out/game time before service. We then have about 45-60 minutes of time that is worship/teaching/discussion and those components vary in time from week to week depending on the topic, etc.
I agree with the post that says go slow with transition. The last thing you want to do is alienate your leadership by changing too fast. Look for little ways to begin the transition, but slow and steady is better than fast and furious.
Pastor Mike
Student Ministries Rock!
http://www.extreme-encounter.org |
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| | Having a youth service as you describe it is a fantastic outreach, but like the others who responded, I advise caution. I've got two thoughts, both which have worked for me in the past. 1) Rather than changing youth group to a youth service, have the youth group put on a monthly service in the church. I did this in a previous parish, and it worked very well. We were able to maintain the "chat-about-it" atmosphere of a youth group (plus the fun of playing in the gym... why have the facility if people aren't using it!!??), but added on the responsibility of planning, practicing, and implimenting our own service (we did it on Sunday evenings, and the entire church was invited as well as other youth groups in the area). The kids got involved with church, rather than being an "audience." They chose the songs, prepared skits, practiced liturgical dances, and had a lot of fun doing it. Plus, the adults and the younger children loved the services, loved seeing their children, grandchildren, and older brothers and sisters becoming leaders. 2) Move your devotion/Bible study to the beginning of your youth group. So simple, but so effective! Also, make sure that whatever you are doing for the devotion/teaching time is ACTIVE. I cannot emphasize this enough. If they're playing games, talking in groups, doing activities, all which will emphasize the lesson, they will not be fidgity. Oh - and one last thing... 3) Think outside of the classroom or sanctuary! Last time I did a youth devotion time, I went down to the gym, sat down cross-legged on the floor, and as they begin to come near, I just began to teach, by asking open/leading questions, showing some pictures that illustrated my point while at the same time making the application of my point clear. We "chatted" for a few minutes (no more than 15), and I worked in reading the Scripture. Depending on the group of kids you've got, sometimes an informal style of teaching is best. God be with you as you prepare these young leaders!
Blessings,Pastor Alisha 
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Last Login: 6/11/2007 1:55:16 PM
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| | I agree with what has already been said- DO NOT CHANGE TOO MUCH TOO FAST. I am about two years into a youth ministry position, and I alienated everyone the first year by trying to change too much. Seriously, don't even touch this weekly youth event in terms of change for at least a year, aside from maybe changing the order that things happen in. That may seem like a long time, but it will be much better than driving everyone away. Several people have mentioned doing stuff on other nights....good ideas. The other idea is to slowly teach the group so that there are teen and/or parent leaders who are asking for something with more depth. |
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Last Login: 5/25/2007 11:03:00 PM
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| G'Day Scott,
Don't worry - there are good ways to change without rocking the boat too radically straight away. You can start by changing the type of games, rather than dropping them all together. Instead of dodgeball, try playing some bible-oriented games instead. Over time, you can introduce more and more Jesus-focused content. There's no need to divide the youth group time by saying "Now we're having some fun" and then "Now we're talking about God". It's totally possible to have a youth group where the kids have fun while learning more about Jesus the whole time (not just the last ten minutes!).
There's a great couple of books on this kind of thing. My recommendation is Changing the World through effective Youth Ministry by Ken Moser. He's got a really helpful chapter on how to introduce change in your group, as well as some good ideas for fun Bible-based activities. You can check it out at http://orders.koorong.com/search/details.jhtml?code=1875861939
It's an Australian store, 'cos I can't find anywhere in the US where this book's available.
Hope that's helpful!  |
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