Our church allows for a Youth takeover in our Sunday Morning worship once a year. Today was the day! Here are some random thoughts/reflections from this service.I think Ben brings up some great points. Here are my reactions:
1. Teens deal with a lot of 'crap' today. Topics like suicide, pregnancy/abortion, cutting/self-mutilation, drugs/alcohol are more prevalent now than in any other generation. I think back 10 years to my high school days and sex and beer were the 'rebellious choices'. Now there are so many more layers.
2. We, the church have to figure out proactive solutions to these issues. Too often we do not have a voice for hope with these people until they come to us broken.
3. Parents and youth leaders have a huge responsibility to invest in their kids lives and make their homes a fun and welcome place for hanging out so that kids have alternatives to the 'crap'.
4. One of the teens on the worship team had a mountain dew on stage, instead of the normal H2O option. It is good to see someone placing the dew in a venerated position.
5. Teens need to be courageous for the cause of Christ. It seems that every high school kid I know is overwhelmed with all that they are involved in. Sports, music, speech, schoolwork, etc. consume their schedules. I get the feeling that faith in Christ/being involved in youth group is just another 'thing' on their schedule rather than the most important, life giving, life changing thing that they know. This is an indictment on parents, because kids learn habits from those they are connected to. Is your kid seeing the transformative power of good news in your daily life?
1. Kids today live in a world that is already very different from the one I grew up in not so long ago. The total media saturation, the permissiveness when it comes to sex and violence in entertainment. It's pretty amazing. In one sense, they are more connected to the world than I ever was, but there is also a real isolation from real relationships. Christians need to think about how to reach young people who have grown up in an environment where communication is instantaneous and impersonal.
2. We need to learn how to introduce young people to the love of God before they reach some kind of crisis. It's true that many people come to God through difficult or formative experiences, but perhaps so many wouldn't lose their faith if they had something to cling to in tough times.
3. I know from experience that as a teen or young adult you are trying to build your own life and often this leads you away from your family. Kids want to hang out together and I think that that is natural. The problem is that without any strong family relationship, a person can fall into what Ben calls "the crap." Homes (and churches) need to be places where kids feel safe and welcomes, but also strengthened and challenged to grow.
4. I love Mountain Dew.
5. For many people (not just young people) the Faith is just an aspect of their identity, kind of like having Polish or Irish background. We need to help people make their relationship with Jesus the center of their lives. Only when we love God with everything we have can we truly love anyone else or truly enjoy anything that we like to do.
All of us are so busy these days. Our lives become fragmented. With Jesus as the center, we can see what is important and live for it.
3 comments:
All true.
I was in field today, and part of the music game for 3rd graders was to blindfold one person and have them find their way out of the circle while the kids sing. The teacher commented on the handkerchief-blindfolded student that they looked like a Ninja Turtle. One of the little boys said, "What's a ninja turtle?"
That doesn't have much to do with your post, but I found it funny nonetheless.
Those kids are missing out.
I think they should bring back some of the shows that we watched including Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, and PowerRangers. That really didn't add to the post but it did add to these comments :)
It freaks me out a little bit when I go to Walmart *blah* or wherever and the kids (mostly pre-teens) are dressed like they are in some terrible music video.
When I did early experience, all the kids wanted to have a certain brand of clothes...what's up with that? Sweaters with puppies and sideways pony tails are good for me!
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