YOUTH MINISTRY SUNDAY

Today was youth ministry Sunday at Christ Church. A Sunday where we take time to hear stories and testimonials from youth mission trips and focus on the next generation and hear and see what God is up to in the lives of our young people. It was a great day and I really appreciate the way Christ Church finds that critical balance of youth peer time and youth adult interaction, their remarkable balance has shown much fruit...

Having worked in several churches in my life I had had the experience of seeing how different churches and church staffs implement not only youth ministry but also "Youth Sundays". Some churches opt out stating that youth Sundays should not exist because youth should in fact be helping all the time and do not deserve a special day.... often I find Ironically those who have that view don’t really have many youth in their church to speak of anyway (and its probably because of their attitudes and lack of attention to the future).... and often these types of churches for sure do not invest adequate time or resources like full time staff. Rather they keep focusing on the inward needs of the current body...

Still other churches I have seen invest much time and capital into youth programs because they know that a good youth program attracts parents like no ones business...they have separate rooms and the youth actually never even interact with the adults and we only play into culture and heighten generational gaps because really the kids never see their parents on a Sunday morning and....that’s probably not good either....

So the question remains...how do you do youth ministry where we have parents involved and so we train up the next generation without leaving them on their own in separate rooms and then once then turn 18 the join the big person church? (Or actually by then have left after confirmation...)

In many churches we either ignore the youth (and our future) or we build separate churches for them where they never have to see anyone different then themselves and then when they turn 18 they join the "adult church".... perhaps Youth Sundays may be a large part of the connection point...we need to invite them into leadership and coach them we need to bring them into the "adult church" and hear their stories just as they hear ours....

Perhaps this is what Youth Sundays bring to the table, a connection point and an investment point and opportunity...

What do you think?