Bring It On
I was so thrilled to see one of my students coming back to bible study! I thought she left our youth group and started going to a different church, but she came back to us and I could hardly wait to talk to her.
"We are so glad to have you back!" I said.
"Well thanks, I went to another church with my friend and you wouldn't believe everything they had! They had huge video screens and multiple Wi game systems and everything! All the kids loved playing them." She explained.
"That's really cool." (Secretly feeling bad because I knew we didn't have anything like that and probably wouldn't for a long time and I knew I just couldn't compete with that)
"Not really. They spent half the time just playing games and not much time learning about God. I didn't like it."
I was so impressed by this student's willingness and desire to learn about God. I decided that night I would spend most of the time really focusing on the lesson. I felt like this was God's way of saying I needed to take them deeper and... "It's time to bring it on!"
I think so often youth ministers feel like we have to entertain kids to get them to come to stuff. Even bible studies now spend half the time playing games and a little time doing actual bible study. I don't think games are wrong, and I know there is community value within them. But I truly believe students are looking for a faith that is deep and meaningful. Many students long to know who God is and how they can relate to Him. Of course this is not true with every student; some are in it for the fun and games. However, for the students who are willing to go deep I think we need to take them there and stop catering to the ones who don't care as much. If that means we lose a few kids because we are spending more time in God's Word and less time playing games, that's OK. Because what matters most is that these students grow in their faith, not for the youth ministry to grow in numbers. I rather shepherd a flock of five and feed them spiritually over being the youth director of five hundred and entertain them all the time. I truly believe if you lead students to grow spiritually deep than over time the youth ministry will grow. This is because your students will want to invite their friends out of the overflow of God's love they feel in their own heart. They will naturally desire for their peers to know that love and long for them to be part of God's Kingdom.
So if you are a bible study leader and/or youth worker don't be afraid to bring it on with your kids. Many of them are longing for God in deeper ways than we realize.
"We are so glad to have you back!" I said.
"Well thanks, I went to another church with my friend and you wouldn't believe everything they had! They had huge video screens and multiple Wi game systems and everything! All the kids loved playing them." She explained.
"That's really cool." (Secretly feeling bad because I knew we didn't have anything like that and probably wouldn't for a long time and I knew I just couldn't compete with that)
"Not really. They spent half the time just playing games and not much time learning about God. I didn't like it."
I was so impressed by this student's willingness and desire to learn about God. I decided that night I would spend most of the time really focusing on the lesson. I felt like this was God's way of saying I needed to take them deeper and... "It's time to bring it on!"
I think so often youth ministers feel like we have to entertain kids to get them to come to stuff. Even bible studies now spend half the time playing games and a little time doing actual bible study. I don't think games are wrong, and I know there is community value within them. But I truly believe students are looking for a faith that is deep and meaningful. Many students long to know who God is and how they can relate to Him. Of course this is not true with every student; some are in it for the fun and games. However, for the students who are willing to go deep I think we need to take them there and stop catering to the ones who don't care as much. If that means we lose a few kids because we are spending more time in God's Word and less time playing games, that's OK. Because what matters most is that these students grow in their faith, not for the youth ministry to grow in numbers. I rather shepherd a flock of five and feed them spiritually over being the youth director of five hundred and entertain them all the time. I truly believe if you lead students to grow spiritually deep than over time the youth ministry will grow. This is because your students will want to invite their friends out of the overflow of God's love they feel in their own heart. They will naturally desire for their peers to know that love and long for them to be part of God's Kingdom.
So if you are a bible study leader and/or youth worker don't be afraid to bring it on with your kids. Many of them are longing for God in deeper ways than we realize.
I would also add for thought that you don't always see immediate results from the fruits you offer to teens. For me, those fruits matured in my early 20s and beyond, but at least they were planted and nutured in my childhood and teen years.
ReplyDelete