Youth Group

[HisHomeMaker]

I do not have a formal leadership role in my church.

My children are in high school and very involved in youth group. One goes to church and is a server, the others "don't feel like it" very often anymore. One thing I've noticed is that the kids are bringing their friends to Youth Group. Our Youth Group is HUGE and these kids truly love each other. However, most of the kids' families are not from our church and few attend regular services on Sunday.

What can members like me do to encourage youth who come to the church for Youth Group to test-drive the rest of what we have to offer?

 

[Adam Warlock]

I do not have a formal leadership role in my church.

My children are in high school and very involved in youth group. One goes to church and is a server, the others "don't feel like it" very often anymore. One thing I've noticed is that the kids are bringing their friends to Youth Group. Our Youth Group is HUGE and these kids truly love each other. However, most of the kids' families are not from our church and few attend regular services on Sunday.

What can members like me do to encourage youth who come to the church for Youth Group to test-drive the rest of what we have to offer?

Oh wow. This is always a tough one - especially for me, because I used to be an acting "college minister" for an Anglican church plant (in the absence of someone who actually knew what they were doing ). We had my "Thursday night" group & the Sunday morning group, and the rector would always ask me why we couldn't get most of the young people from Thursdays to show up on Sundays. I think it was even harder for the middle school and high school groups to get kids to participate outside of the youth groups.

Having established my lack of competence to answer the question, I'll try to do so anyway haha. I think that it is important for parishioners to show how the rest of "church life" has helped them grow as Christians. Whether we're serving the community, gathering for prayer, or growing in grace on Sunday mornings, we have to show that it's all one part of an entire Christian life. It's too easy to compartmentalize that life; we must keep it connected and show that to them. If we can testify to how we serve Christ in others, if we keep a journal of prayers we raise that are answered, if we show how a year of Bible reading has strengthened our faith - and if we demonstrate the infinite worth of the Sacraments that our Lord has given to us - perhaps we can excite the youth to expand beyond their own small group. We need to show that Christianity is a life, and a vibrant & full one at that. The more we invest in it, the more the Holy Spirit blesses us and guides us through it...

Hmm...I need to think about this further...

 

[ebia]

I do not have a formal leadership role in my church.

My children are in high school and very involved in youth group. One goes to church and is a server, the others "don't feel like it" very often anymore. One thing I've noticed is that the kids are bringing their friends to Youth Group. Our Youth Group is HUGE and these kids truly love each other. However, most of the kids' families are not from our church and few attend regular services on Sunday.

What can members like me do to encourage youth who come to the church for Youth Group to test-drive the rest of what we have to offer?

Most of the advice from the Mission Shaped Church stuff is that you need to develop the youth group into being it's own church congregation. Getting people to step from your outreach activity to your existing normal Sunday congregation is pushing water uphill. Instead allow it to become an alternative congregation in its own right with it's own way of being church.

 

[HisHomeMaker]

...develop the youth group into being it's own church congregation.

I believe that this is what exists now.

 

[Naomi4Christ]

What do the young people do in youth group?

What do you think is attractive for them about the Sunday Service?

If you want them to go to your existing service, the young people who do already go need to invite their friends, and to have an area where they all sit together.

 

[ebia]

I believe that this is what exists now.

So why think they need to translate into Sunday attenders?

 

[HisHomeMaker]

So why think they need to translate into Sunday attenders?

They do not have a worship service, so they are missing that and communion.

What they get is excellent teaching and a lot of socializing.

 

[Naomi4Christ]

They do not have a worship service, so they are missing that and communion.

What they get is excellent teaching and a lot of socializing.

They might not feel they are missing out on worship. As for communion, presumably they are eating together at youth group. It wouldn't take much to turn this into an agape meal, maybe once a month.

Are any members of the clergy involved in youth group?

 

[HisHomeMaker]

What do you think is attractive for them about the Sunday Service?

I don't know. And I don't know what is unattractive about it, either. Maybe they don't like to get out of bed on Sunday mornings like two of my own. Maybe their parents take them to their own churches. Maybe our high service is a bit "much" for them. I would guess that their friends would attract them. That said, maybe there isn't anything that the rest of the membership can do but to welcome them if they do come on Sunday.

 

[HisHomeMaker]

Are any members of the clergy involved in youth group?

Oh yes! Our twentysomething priest. He is AMAZING. Us oldies think so, too.

What is an agape meal? Yes, the kids eat supper together every week.

 

[ebia]

They do not have a worship service, so they are missing that and communion.

What they get is excellent teaching and a lot of socializing.

So I suggest what is needed is to gradually add what is missing to their congregation, not to try to get them into another congregation.

 

[Naomi4Christ]

Maybe they don't like to get out of bed on Sunday mornings like two of my own.

Yep. Young people prefer evening services

Maybe their parents take them to their own churches.

Have you asked them?

Maybe our high service is a bit "much" for them.

That would be my instinct. Again, have you asked them what they think of church, what they think church is?

I would guess that their friends would attract them.

Absolutely. A cooked breakfast helps too.

That said, maybe there isn't anything that the rest of the membership can do but to welcome them if they do come on Sunday.

Are you doing outreach or drag in?

Have the interested adults met together to pray about it?

 

[Adam Warlock]

I believe that this is what exists now.

Exactly. And with all due respect to those who advocate it, I would seriously question what makes this a good thing! If you're trying to break down separation, why are people saying to completely split them off into their own "congregation"? And doesn't separation just reinforce the myth that there's "old people church" and there's "cool church"? There are right and wrong approaches to worship, after all. Why give them Big Macs when they can have Steak in the real church service? Why limit their outreach and fellowship to their own age group when there is so much more available in the wider church? Is it too much to ask for both?

 

[Timothy]

Exactly. And with all due respect to those who advocate it, I would seriously question what makes this a good thing! If you're trying to break down separation, why are people saying to completely split them off into their own "congregation"? And doesn't separation just reinforce the myth that there's "old people church" and there's "cool church"? There are right and wrong approaches to worship, after all. Why give them Big Macs when they can have Steak in the real church service? Why limit their outreach and fellowship to their own age group when there is so much more available in the wider church? Is it too much to ask for both?

Realistically, yes. Because while this view is unpopular in STR, most of us being arrogant enough to assume that Anglicanism of our preferred strand is the ultimate way to worship, different people need different things from church, and frequently separation is healthy, so long as the boundaries are natural rather than enforced.

 

[Naomi4Christ]

HHM,

What happens to your young people when they are too old for youth group?

Do they drop out of church completely? What do those people do when they disappear off to university and return four years later?

Sorry for all the questions, but trying to get a feel for your church. I wouldn't want to just tell you to do what we do at our church.

 

[MKJ]

So why think they need to translate into Sunday attenders?

This is not an ideal situation for a lot of reasons IMO. It isn't good for communities to be segregated by age this way, to the extent that they are just two separate groups. A healthy community isn't a bunch of middle aged and old people, nor is it a bunch of teenagers.

It's really, when you think about it, kind of a bizarre way to operate any community.

 

[Scottish Knight]

I know at my old church we used to have occasional services where the youth groups would play a big part in the service. The youth grous might lead the worship for the service, youth group members would read the Bible readings to the church and sometimes they would put on a short Christian drama or play. This way the youth groups are actually contributing to the life of the church and not just attending services.

 

[MKJ]

My first thought would be to ask them about it. Do they understand what the purpose of the Sunday Eucharist service is? What do they think a healthy community is, and what role do they see different groups playing within that? Do they have a good idea what the various "high" aspects of the worship are about?

Youth groups have some great features, as does Sunday School, but they do tend to reinforce the idea that the kids already get that people are somehow meant to be segregated by age in school, activities, even in activist groups and political parties. I think that a lot of young people actually find themselves feeling very awkward when they are needing to interact socially with adults and people outside their usual sphere. If that is part of the issue with your group, figuring out a way to make it seem safe and comfortable for them in the main service would be useful.

 

[ebia]

This is not an ideal situation for a lot of reasons IMO. .

Mission doesn't happen in an ideal world.

 

[Scottish Knight]

I also remember my youth pastor once talked to us about the importance of using our gifts to the service of the church. He then drew up a list of jobs and ways we could volunteer to help and encouraged everyone to sign up. It worked too. He succeeded in getting the youth groups more involved in the church as a whole