Is h.s. the upper age limit for your youth group? When should they move on? Age 19? 20?

[justme6272]

What if it's a small church with no formal college or 'young singles' group to move on to, or any other Sunday morning Bible study group? When should they step into the same boat as every other adult and just have to accept it? When should they give up the line 'but that's where all my friends are!'?

 

[Jonaitis]

Well, that's what I've been doing since I was 15, sitting through regular services. Since the time I was converted until now I felt that I was missing more in youth groups than what Christians normally did, so I never cared about it. I went to regular bible studies with grown adults, even when I switched churches several times since. The church I now attend actually has more young people than the ones I use to attend, but we do not believe in having separates studies/classes in this congregation. Most of the youth sat through regular services when they were children, and parents who attend from other towns nearby have their children sit through our regular services. I believe that is the healthiest way.

I've been to several youth groups in my (short) time, and they were worse than my expectations. I remember one from the biggest church in our town (500 members), and they were expositing the Shrek movie and how it teaches us Christian values. It came off as strange, especially how the youth pastor/teacher taught and the style of reaching young people. In all of the ones I've been to, to my memory, minimized Scripture and doctrine. As someone who knew basics as a young Christian, I was seen as an intellectual to others.

 

[Tsquared]

What if it's a small church with no formal college or 'young singles' group to move on to, or any other Sunday morning Bible study group? When should they step into the same boat as every other adult and just have to accept it? When should they give up the line 'but that's where all my friends are!'?

That's a great question justme6272. I'm sure that the answer varies depending on the church. I am the youth pastor at a small church that runs about 65-70 people. In our youth group we have about 6-8 youth that are between the ages of 12-18. However, we also have 7 people that are between the ages of 19-30. Since our church primarily consists of older saints, we didn't want the 19-30 group to feel out of place, so we wanted to keep them included in youth in some ways. So here's what we did: We have a Youth Class on Sundays, which we only allow those between the ages of 12-18 in. But, we have Youth service on Tuesday nights (the same night as adult Bible Study), and we allow the 19-30 age group to join us on those nights.

Having the 19-30 age group in with us on Tuesday night Youth service has been a blessing in many ways for us. They act as a great model for the youth that are coming up, they help with chaperoning at events, help with fundraisers, set an example for worship, etc. However, this also allows the 19-30 age group to participate in service with the adults upstairs on Sunday AM & PM services, which keeps them integrated with the adults as well.

This is just what we do, and it works for us in our situation. However, if the older group is being a hindrance to the younger ones, I would have handled things completely different and "promoted" them to the adult congregation. I hope this has been helpful in some way! Blessings.