What is the the most pressing issue facing youth today? What issue do you think impacts the life of our youth in the church, and how should youth pastors and youth ministry workers approach said issues?
Your comments are welcome!
Friday, November 14, 2008
What do you think?
15:37
Unknown
3 comments:
What's up Tre! It's LaToya! I just wanted to comment on this.
In my opinion, I think that busy lifestyles are hurting our youth and that many parents are relying on youth pastors and youth ministry to fill in the blanks.
I think most families especially church families are too busy and the sole responsibility for teaching the children about God is starting to fall on the hands of youth pastors and youth ministry workers like you and Betta. And when the youth leaves the church it may look like it was the churches fault when in all actuality much wasn't being taught in the home because there just wasn't time.
Also I'd let them talk. Our youth pastor at Providence spends a lot of time preaching at the teenagers. I walk by cause I'm in the basement with Nathan and Peyton and listen to him drone on and on and it's good stuff but those kids be sleep and I notice a ton are always going to the bathroom over and over. Nice guy but he's not reading his audience. But he's a bad example, he's our parents age and seem to have that "Let me pound this into their heads kind of mentality"
I think rap sessions would be nice and teens love to talk so I'd open the floor for them to be able to discuss what they want and for those who are shy about talking in front of a group I'd put a bowl in front of the room and at the beginning of class they can drop in a topic annoynomously (I know spelling:-) or email you. Then they can tell you directly what's affecting them. And I'm sure they'd love to be able to discuss whatever is on their mind so I'd welcome them to not worry about offending anyone but to freely ask their questions on any topic.
Also team builder activies where they can see faith in action and learn by doing. There were some good suggestions in a Focus on the Family book I read once (Parents' Guide to the Spiritual Growth of Children) But the father would do all these cool activties that was teaching his kids about Christ without them just sitting in a chair. One was (and this may be extreme) he pulled out a bowl full of water and ice and told his children to put their feet in it. Of course they refused but he came back later with the ice and water and had money in it and he told them that whatever money they can pick up with their feet then they can have and suddenly the kids were willing to put their feet in that icy cold water (LOL I'm giving suggestions that will make you lose your job probably but there were others in the book). He them how suddenly it was worth going through the rough stuff in order to obtain a prize and he'd give all kinds of suggestions like these. He'd also take the kids for a drive to a familar spot but tell them to lead him there, but when the kids said to turn right he'd turn left etc. and it took them a lot longer to reach the destination and he'd just use that to show what happens when they don't follow directions etc. I'm probably making the book seem bad but it was pretty good and the kids were engaged.
And if I can say this another thing that was nice when Sam and I joined Providence was that in our new member class everytime we had a question of some sort, our instructor cracked the Bible and had us go to a verso. He rarely gave an opinion, he literally answered us with scripture and showed us how the Bible applies still today in almost every situation and I really thought that that'd been a nice thing to know as a teenager. You know when dealing with people gossiping about me, or sexual temptation that teenagers are going to face, or revenge, it'd just have been nice to know that God already answered this in the Bible and that might encourage them to read it on their own sometime to see youth pastors answering their questions Biblically.
So did that help at all or answer the question? I honestly don't think there is one pressing issue facing kids today, since every kid is so unique their issues are going to vary so I guess to sum it up I'm just saying that:
1. Families are too busy
2. Youth aren't given the freedom to express themselves, so I'd let them talk.
3. Youth don't always see how the Bible still applies to everyday life
Man you and Betta have got to be the bomb youth ministry leaders! I wish ours would take the time to seek info like this
Ignore all the typos and grammer in that last post please
Hey, I'm reading a really great book right now that I highly reccomend for you and Tre. It's called "Lies Young Women Believe" by Nancy Leigh Demoss and Dannah resh- I got it from the library and it's great. The authors surveyed teenage Christian girls ahd tackled the most common lies their faced with (dealing with sex, relationships etc. But there was a really good chapter in there on youth pastors that I think you guys will find interesting. I'll probably copy this same post onto Tre's blog cause he asked that youth pastor question awhile back and this book taclkes a lot of things facing teen girls. Nancy also wrote another book for Women our age called jus "Lies Women Believe and I reccomend that one as we..
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