Worship and Youth Ministry
Look at worship through the lens of “Love God, love people” and you have to measure the worship service differently. The first question is does it honor God and lead the worshipers to show love and honor to Him? Secondly we have to ask ourselves if our worship is accessible to our target audience (well I guess we would need to define our target audience to go here then right?) – Does it show love and if so to who?
Do we, as a group of believers gathered together as a local church, choose worship style(s) based on our congregations needs and taste or of those we seek to reach? Is our worship service for the “body” or for the lost and/or unchurched? These are toughies.
In a dieing and lost world we have to choose where to invest our time. Sunday mornings – prime time - do we invest them in strengthening the church or reaching the lost?
So what are teens into these days; what do they “dig”? Do I talk about these things and use them as entry or connection points to talking about God?
Today’s teens are not as interested with what is “true” as my generation is. This generation is much more interested in “Is it real?” They are watching us, the church, in their search for that answer. Does our religion “change” things? Whether we change because of our relationship with Jesus is where they will derive their answer. My teens who have been raised in the church are now facing parents who are of the world with one foot in the church and they are not seeing that it is “real”; to them it is just religion.
Our worship services are very traditional and I wonder if our teens understand our worship (the meaning and reasons) or see it just as rituals and lump it with the rest of the practices of the “christian” adults in their lives.
I have had the phrase “people must belong before they will belief” stuck in my head for weeks now. I don’t even remember where I heard it but it is there skipping away.
My youth ministry model is based on adults loving and discipling teens in groups and one on one. I want the teens to belong somewhere and know that they are cared about as they are, a safe place. If the adult volunteers will not engage in this kind of authentic, vulnerable, and yes – time consuming ministry then all I’m left with is the programming and programming isn’t my strong suite.
Do we, as a group of believers gathered together as a local church, choose worship style(s) based on our congregations needs and taste or of those we seek to reach? Is our worship service for the “body” or for the lost and/or unchurched? These are toughies.
In a dieing and lost world we have to choose where to invest our time. Sunday mornings – prime time - do we invest them in strengthening the church or reaching the lost?
So what are teens into these days; what do they “dig”? Do I talk about these things and use them as entry or connection points to talking about God?
Today’s teens are not as interested with what is “true” as my generation is. This generation is much more interested in “Is it real?” They are watching us, the church, in their search for that answer. Does our religion “change” things? Whether we change because of our relationship with Jesus is where they will derive their answer. My teens who have been raised in the church are now facing parents who are of the world with one foot in the church and they are not seeing that it is “real”; to them it is just religion.
Our worship services are very traditional and I wonder if our teens understand our worship (the meaning and reasons) or see it just as rituals and lump it with the rest of the practices of the “christian” adults in their lives.
I have had the phrase “people must belong before they will belief” stuck in my head for weeks now. I don’t even remember where I heard it but it is there skipping away.
My youth ministry model is based on adults loving and discipling teens in groups and one on one. I want the teens to belong somewhere and know that they are cared about as they are, a safe place. If the adult volunteers will not engage in this kind of authentic, vulnerable, and yes – time consuming ministry then all I’m left with is the programming and programming isn’t my strong suite.
posted by murph411 | 3:18 PM
2 Comments:
Murph, I love you, man.
from your previous posts, it seems like the church you're in is very into "programming". Not just the youth now, but the leaders within the church itself...so that the proper "image" can been seen rather than believed. I say, go against the flow murph. You're there for a reason, maybe it's time for that church to change.
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