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Written by Russell Mitchell-Walker
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Monday, 10 May 2010 11:34 |
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Last week, I held another family based youth ministry evening, gathering parents and youth together for an opportunity to talk about faith and life together. These are very successful evenings even if there is a small group. There are often new insights and learnings about each other and the perspectives of the different generations. The value of this kind of learning together is essential for building strong relationships with our youth, which can lead them toward becoming mature Christian adults. One of the things we talked about was how to get more out to this program and the best way, it was agreed, was by telling others and asking them to come out and join us. This was a similar conversation we had last month with the SS teachers as we talked about SS attendance. The teachers wondered, what if children called each other up and said, "I'm going to SS tomorrow, are you? Come and join me so I'm not the only one my age" or something like that? I sometimes hear the question 'where are all the children and youth on Sunday mornings?' We have around 50 on our SS lists but do not get anywhere near that attendance. We rarely hear the question, where are the adults, but it is the adults who bring the children, and sometimes the youth. People lead very busy lives and church is not the priority that it once was. So we may ask the question: What would we need to do to make it a priority? What would the church need to do? What would the families need to do? When I think of youth, I know that Sunday morning is not a time that they want to be getting up in the morning, regardless of what it might be for! I've often wondered whether there would be interest in offering a worship service or faith celebration time at a different time other than Sunday morning for those who find Sunday morning difficult. What could we offer to our youth that would bring them out so that they feel an important part of our community? Our culture has changed and in order to stay relevant and vibrant, we need to explore ways to change with it. One way our SS is changing how we do things to meet this challenge of finding teachers each week, is to ask every parent to volunteer at least one Sunday, and we will ask them face to face or by phone - no e-mails! As we look around our circle on Sunday mornings, and wonder where people are, may we also wonder what we might offer to them to bring them here. A simple invitation may be all that's needed, or have conversation about what would meet their needs. In order to be a creative and welcoming community, we all need to do our part to live out the message of the gospel, sharing our enthusiasm for what we experience, and be open to learning how we can do things differently to bring in those who are missing.
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Located in Regina, SK.
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