Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to spend some One-on-One time with each teen in the Youth Group. I simply set up an "appointment" or whatever to meet the kid for lunch or pick them up after school and just go sit and talk about random topics. For some of the kids I'll have a few specific things that I want to try and bring up, but for several of them its just been a "so how are things going?" kind of talk. They've all gone really well, and I only have 10 left before I've done one with each UYG teen. I'm already looking forward to doing it again soon.
One of the recent ones I had was with one of our High School girls, and one of the questions I asked her was how she thought the Youth Group was doing. This question is one that I've asked most of the teens and its been really interesting to see the 32 different perspectives that I've gotten. When I asked this girl the question, she had great things to say about the group itself and all the fun activities we do, but when talking about our classes she said, "Classes are just so boring, though."
This surprised me a little, because most of the comments I've gotten from the other teens have been pretty complimentary of our classes & teachers. Most of the teens have really loved our discussions (especially on Wednesday nights) and the lessons that the teachers have been sharing. So I asked this girl to tell me a little bit about why she thought the classes were boring, and her response was one that I just did not know how to react to. She said, "I just don't understand why we have to keep learning new stuff all the time. I mean, when are we ever going to need to use this?" I honestly had to look down at my french fries and try not to laugh at the response out of shock that it came out of a High Schooler who has been in the church all of her life. Has she just not been paying attention? Have we just not done a good enough job of teaching the applications? Have we been too focused on the "facts"? Is that even a bad thing?
So, I'm interested to get your opinions whether you're in Youth Ministry, have teens of your own, or don't even go to church. Why do we have to keep learning this stuff about the Bible and God? Is that just an immature response, or does she have a point?
Looking forward to hearing from you about this!
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Wow. Where to begin? Life is a journey. On a journey you are always moving (either forwards or, sometimes, backwards but always moving). The joy of life is in becoming a better person than you were 10 years ago or one year ago or one month ago. I will never "get there" but my goal is to always be a better __________ (son, husband, father, friend, etc.). The daily steps lead to a wonderful journey. Only by learning and applying will your journey begin.
ReplyDeleteTodd Kidder
It doesn't appear to be the point this young lady was making, but perhaps she could identify with the sentiment: at some point, don't we need to stop "learning" and start putting it into action? I recognize, of course, that learning takes place throughout the entire process, but I think teens sometimes need to see that the answer to "when are we ever gonna use this?" is as soon as possible!
ReplyDeleteI think as a high schooler and at this time in her life, she may just not open to new material because learning and applying something new requires effort and a little soul searching. When I was at pleasant ridge, many lessons were presented to me, but out of the hundreds of classes I attended, I don't remember one. Not one! How crazy is that? I could blame shift and say it was the teachers, and whether or not it was, I know it was my fault too. I wasn't ready at that point in my life to accept lessons about Christ, and even now it's hard to 'let go and let God'. We need to hear new lessons because in our lives, and especially in the lives of teens, there are new challenges to our faith every single day, hour, minute. And ministers like you need to keep teaching them, because even though some may not hear the lesson, others will, and the ones who seem to not be listening will look up from their pews one day and see how the Word can fit into their life. -Natalie Amendola
ReplyDeleteJosh...I'm sure you know that each time we read God's Word, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we not only learn but strengthen our relationship with God. Maybe the desire to be more Christlike is not a top priority for her right now, but hopefully, it will be. We all experience highs and lows in our spiritual journey. Listening to and absorbing the lyrics to "This is the Air I Breath" tugs at my heart each time I hear it! Maybe she could give it a listen and meditate on it before opening her bible.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're doing an awesome job of ministering to and getting into the lives of the teens in your youth group. May God continue to bless you and your labor of love!!! Debbie Encalade
I love the fact this girl in your group is so honest. That says so much about how trustworthy you are as a youth minister. She feels safe to say exactly what is on her mind.
ReplyDeleteI ran onto this principle when we did a "We Are The Sermon Day." As a church we do communion at church and then leave and spread out doing service projects all over Abilene all day on Sunday. It is painting, mowing, building ramps, cleaning, hauling trash for non-Christians all over the city. It is inter-generational. I had 6 year olds to 82 year olds on my crew. They had a blast all day and we reflected later why today was so great.
A teenager said it best, "You know we have learned enough about Jesus. It is just really fun to get out and do what he would do. I know a lot about Jesus from the Bible, but I learned so much today about what it means to be a servant like he called me to be today than sitting in a class."
The connection with the people we served was not boring. The woman whose house we painted visiting and talked with us as we painted and transformed her house. When we finished. She walked all the way around the house with her hand over her mouth and weeped with each step. She choked out the words, "I prayed to God for help. (Didn't attend anywhere) And he showed up today through you.
Keep up the struggle to help teens see Jesus. They are not always excited about a historical Jesus, but they get really excited when he shows up in their path today. Robert Oglesby
Yep. Sometimes it's just ok to take a break and change up approach or format. But it seems like that's not the real the root of the question.
ReplyDeleteWhen you haven't reached the point that you begin to consider why we believe what we believe, and how that applies to our lives. Why worry about it? I believe in God – I'm all set – right? Let's do something fun instead!
In my humble opinion – It's simply a matter of maturity. But the seeds your are planting – will germinate. Maybe not today. But they will.
In my opinion there is a reason that we have class twice a week instead of every day. I don't think God intended for us to do everything he asks of us during the hour or so that we meet as a youth group. The beauty of having a dynamic and living God is the freedom to grow and learn when we aren't sitting in a room with a teacher or preacher, listening to a lesson or discussing God's word. If we didn't grow outside of class our discussions would be fairly bland.
ReplyDeleteI believe that class should be new every sunday or wednesday. We definitely shouldn't entirely cut out discussing application! But I feel like application is a very personal thing, strongly dependent on individual situations. It's difficult to try to target such diversity of how we can apply these lessons during class.
I'm convinced that the biggest influence on what you get out of a class is dependent on yourself. I think openness is the deciding factor. Because we are learning about one true God. All we've ever learned is connected. Lessons build off of each other and apply to one another intricately. And if it is a true struggle to find an application for any particular lesson, I think the best thing to do is to not let it end at the end of the hour! If someone in the class feels like they can't apply what they learned, talking with others, or even talking with you, could help them find that "real world" application.
I'm young and have a lifetime more to learn. But that's my opinion on the matter. -Adam Simpson