I'm one of the sponsors for the youth and I've noticed a decline in the teen's desire to learn more and grow in faith. Their discipline has been a problem too- talking throughout the entire message that the youth pastor is giving. Does anyone face these same problems? Any ideas of how to recapture their fire for God?
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
getting their attention
- Thread starter Bassclar84
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Pentecostal Boy
C.S. Lewis/Tolkien Nerd
um... Have fun in the learning don't cram it down there throats. It will scare them off. Have fun why'll learning about God.
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What would you consider fun? What would you, as a teen, want in a youth group? What wouldn't you want?
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Bassclar84 said:
Having the Youth Pastor enteract with all the kids. Serving Pizza during your services. Having funn videos ( like 1 or 2 mins long ) to start up the worship service. Funny stories to correlate with the message being presented. The youth workers listening and enteracting while having the same amount of fun.
Bassclar84 said:
Don't let the workers do all the work. Get the kids insight into what they want, their ideas for a growing ministry. WOrkers that Love and Care. Fun trips to the local arcade, to hang out and have a great time. Enteracting witht he older generations in the Church. Creating drama teams, having kids share in the worship service.
Bassclar84 said:
THe same thing week after week after week. Not having anyone that wants to listen or cares about them. No fun events.
This is just a few of things that i've noticed in the youth group I am. ( except for the last part : things that I wouldn't want to see happen ).
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swingnscream
more music - dance our troubles away
- Jan 25, 2004
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that will forever be an undying problem within youth ministry, someone talking throughout the lesson/sermon. I personal don't know if there's any grand cure for it, but there's always little things that can be done. Making sure it's interactive is a big thing though. You can try things like breaking it up into segments like the first of half and the last half of the sermon/lesson or intro, middle, ending... with something in the middle of which the teens can particpate in or will at least recapture their attention to a different setting. Things like: songs, dramas, videos clips, games/quizzes, or something of the like. You could also try questions & answers [sometimes that really is the quickest way to get them all silent! 
sadly..].
Basically whatever keeps their mind involved with what you're talking about as well. There's nothing that works the same on any one group of teens, so it depends on what you're doing now and what you're willing to try.
sadly..]. Basically whatever keeps their mind involved with what you're talking about as well. There's nothing that works the same on any one group of teens, so it depends on what you're doing now and what you're willing to try.
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bluedart
Regular Member
Bassclar84 said:
Well, pray for them first of all. Maybe you could try having them go through a book together that is fun and creative. You could also use clips from movies like Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Star Wars and present a message doing this. I know that we are going to use the devotional called Matrix Reflections with our youth group. It focus on presenting Christian truths and the gospel using the Matrix films. It also gets them doing a quiet time for six weeks. Just a couple suggestions.
Bluedart
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I'm gonna be teaching in 2 weeks on being bold in Christ- not letting fears hold back from telling others about Jesus. Any ideas of any movie clips that would go along with this topic? I can't think of any. I am using Daniel 3 as an example.
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You could do a bunch of clips of daring (extreme) things. Correlate it in with being bold. There is a clip somewhere of this guy surfing these huge waves right before a hurricane hits. It's like horrible rain, wind and waves and this dudes out there surfing them. Stuff like that gets the kids attention. Just recently Danny Way (Pro-skateboarder) broke a record for gapping over the great wall of china. There is a video floating around on the internet of the event ... (http://www.big-boys.com/articles/greatjump.html ) I don't know much about the site so surf at your own risk, but I hear it is a good site for some crazy videos.
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StarryEyedPea
Well-Known Member
Perhaps maybe a teaching or a session on something like respect?
Your probably wondering what planet I am coming from , but you know, some of the best ways are just the simple ways. Before a preach, or youth talk, or anything else, even if it is someone just reading or sharing something, say something on the lines, you know, while that person is speaking, can everyone else not speak.
I remember quite close to the beginning of my youth work time in a certain group, i was sharing part of my testimony, involving hard reality issues that they, as young people face day to day in the area we live in.
We all sat in a circle, and i basically gave them the choice, they sat and listened while i spoke, or if they didnt want to they were more than welcome to sit in the room next door.
Told them opportunities would be there after to chat and speak, but while leaders were speaking they needed to show respect.
It did work.
Dont get me wrong, we constantly have to remind them, but rather than just saying "ssssshhhhh" , sometimes it is good to just explain "respect"
hope that made some sense!
Other ways of getting them more involved in what they are doing, and more interested in what they are learning is by involving them in deciding what to learn about, asking them what they wanna know, what topics they wanna study, is there anything in particular that is relevant to them. Ask them for feed back! Be careful with this, and remember that these guys and gals are young people, so use any feed back constructively, not negatively, but ensure that your teaching these guys stuff they wanna know about, because then they will have an interest.
enough from me for now, but i hope some of this has made some sense for you anyway!
god bless
starry eyed pea !
Your probably wondering what planet I am coming from , but you know, some of the best ways are just the simple ways. Before a preach, or youth talk, or anything else, even if it is someone just reading or sharing something, say something on the lines, you know, while that person is speaking, can everyone else not speak.
I remember quite close to the beginning of my youth work time in a certain group, i was sharing part of my testimony, involving hard reality issues that they, as young people face day to day in the area we live in.
We all sat in a circle, and i basically gave them the choice, they sat and listened while i spoke, or if they didnt want to they were more than welcome to sit in the room next door.
Told them opportunities would be there after to chat and speak, but while leaders were speaking they needed to show respect.
It did work.
Dont get me wrong, we constantly have to remind them, but rather than just saying "ssssshhhhh" , sometimes it is good to just explain "respect"
hope that made some sense!
Other ways of getting them more involved in what they are doing, and more interested in what they are learning is by involving them in deciding what to learn about, asking them what they wanna know, what topics they wanna study, is there anything in particular that is relevant to them. Ask them for feed back! Be careful with this, and remember that these guys and gals are young people, so use any feed back constructively, not negatively, but ensure that your teaching these guys stuff they wanna know about, because then they will have an interest.
enough from me for now, but i hope some of this has made some sense for you anyway!
god bless
starry eyed pea !
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bluedart
Regular Member
Bassclar84 said:
Shrek 1, the clip where Shrek and donkey cross the bridge. Donkey is so afraid and before he knew it he is on the other side. Sometimes fear parazlyes us from crossing the bridges in our life. In this case we can become a bridge for someone to cross over and meet God.
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EXCELLANT thoughts starry eyed pea!
"Distractions" will always be a problem. One youth group I worked with a few years ago was large, often 100+ kids, and it seems there was always some chatter or in-attentiveness during the youth pastors talk that distracted others, but he handled it well and straightened out when he had too. There were times I wanted 2 get on a megaphone and be reeeeeeeel blunt about it . Pay attention, or at least dont distract others, or LEAVE.
Never got to do that for some reason .
Blessings,
Keith
"Distractions" will always be a problem. One youth group I worked with a few years ago was large, often 100+ kids, and it seems there was always some chatter or in-attentiveness during the youth pastors talk that distracted others, but he handled it well and straightened out when he had too. There were times I wanted 2 get on a megaphone and be reeeeeeeel blunt about it . Pay attention, or at least dont distract others, or LEAVE.
Never got to do that for some reason .
Blessings,
Keith
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Bassclar84 said:
Be careful about focusing solely on having fun! One way to kill the spirituality of your group is to have it all inward-focused. You're asking the wrong questions. Don't ask "what would they want?" - ask yourself "what would Christ want?"
Here's the real message you should get across to your kids: It's not about YOU - It's about HIM!
My advice is to focus on outreach. One way to unite people is to get them all to work on a problem together. The fact that there are lost souls in the world that don't have a relationship with Christ is your problem. They shouldn't come to activities just to have fun - they should come to activities because there might be someone there they can influence for Christ!
Every single activity you plan should go through this filter - how will this reach the lost ?
It's very simple. For instance - if your kids want to go hang out at the arcade or if they want to have a pizza party, etc. etc. - make them tell you how having that activity will reach the lost. If they agree to bring their non-Christian freinds to the activity, then do it! If you or they can't come up with a way your activity is going to reach the lost, then don't do it. Having fun just to have fun does not serve Christ, but if you have fun with a purpose - you will be blessed beyond measure!
If you run your group this way, God will bless it.
I promise (and I speak from experiance - my group went from 5 to 126 in a couple of years).
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ITBM
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Being the Junior High Youth group leader @ my church...
I've had the same experience. I've found that many times the kids would be talking while other students are talking and while I'm sharing the lesson.
I agree with keeping the lessons interactive. Especially for younger kids. Breaking up the lesson with quick clips, quotes read aloud by students, and other "fillers" help keep the kids attention.
Doing a lesson on respect is a good idea too. Teaching the kids that talking over others is showing disrepect to that person and shows others that you don't respect them.
However, I think we need to institute discipline as well. Youth group can't just be all about being their friends and having fun. We can be their friends. But it's better to be their mentor. We need to make the rules obvious and easy to understand. Then we need to follow through with consequences.
The kids will not know how to show respect until the understand it. They will not give it until you earn it. If you always cave and let them break the rules without consequences then why SHOULD they respect you?
How do you do this while trying to keep an upbeat environment for the rest of the students? That I would LOVE to hear.
I've had the same experience. I've found that many times the kids would be talking while other students are talking and while I'm sharing the lesson.
I agree with keeping the lessons interactive. Especially for younger kids. Breaking up the lesson with quick clips, quotes read aloud by students, and other "fillers" help keep the kids attention.
Doing a lesson on respect is a good idea too. Teaching the kids that talking over others is showing disrepect to that person and shows others that you don't respect them.
However, I think we need to institute discipline as well. Youth group can't just be all about being their friends and having fun. We can be their friends. But it's better to be their mentor. We need to make the rules obvious and easy to understand. Then we need to follow through with consequences.
The kids will not know how to show respect until the understand it. They will not give it until you earn it. If you always cave and let them break the rules without consequences then why SHOULD they respect you?
How do you do this while trying to keep an upbeat environment for the rest of the students? That I would LOVE to hear.
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