Jr/Sr High Night Recap

Hey everyone!

If you couldn't make it out to youth on Friday night, we split the group into Jr and Sr High groups for separate events. Carlon, Sheldon, Angelika and Jake took the grade 11-12s on a Timmy's run and the rest of the leaders and myself played games with the grade 8-10s in the Attic. I had a great time - sometimes the best way to get to know kids better is just to play simple games with them and talk over some cookies and strawberries (thanks Miriam for all the snacks this week!).

The real reason we did this event wasn't just for fellowship though. Now that each grade has a significant amount of kids who regularly attend and participate in various church events/ministries/etc we're gearing up for a College and Career group that has huge potential for growth. We want to be deliberate about equipping our current high school students for life post-grad and Friday night was a night that we wanted to be deliberate about going about that. The senior high group spent some time talking about how they can each contribute to their future age group, the importance of being committed instead of casual, and Jake and Angelika spent some time talking with them about what kind of planning has worked in the past when it comes to small groups and fellowship events. I'm looking forward to spending time with my new peers next year as they work with the existing group to build up the ministry! As I've mentioned before, the small group that Carlon and I currently lead will become a college and career group next year so please be praying for those students as they learn how to run their own Bible study and events under the guidance of others who have done it in the past.

For the Jr High night, after we played some games I gave a short message about what a healthy church looks like based on Acts 2:42-47. The passage isn't new as it's the foundation for our TREES acronym that we have been talking about and working on over the past year (in case you don't know, TREES stands for our core values of Teaching, Relating, Evangelizing, Exalting and Serving). I talked about the different 'phases' of youth ministry since youth culture became a distinct culture post-WWII: Youth Ministry 1.0 was youth rallies with men in suits preaching and it worked at the time, Youth Ministry 2.0 was program-based ministry that also worked at the time, and now churches across the Western World are in a transition as we look to what Youth Ministry 3.0 could look like. I've already posted my thoughts on "Ministry FOR Teens" vs. "Ministry BY Teens" and how the former isn't exactly successful for preparing teens for post-grad life no matter how successful it can be during the high school years. I feel like Bethany is on the cusp of something new and exciting as we look for ways to equip teens to do ministry themselves instead of just handing it to them - because that doesn't teach them how to be a committed part of adult ministries one day. I talked about what Acts 2:42-47 would have looked like if every person in the church viewed the church (being a body of believers, not a building) as something that was there to serve them (a.k.a. 'Drive Thru Church' - take, not give, which is exactly what it usually is to someone in grade 8 or younger). I re-wrote the passage to show the kids how quickly churches can fail without members who aren't committed to furthering God's kingdom. This is what the "passage" said:

They only came to Sunday school or small group if something really interesting was happening, and even then they just talked through the lesson with friends and didn’t learn anything. They didn’t care about taking communion or praying for one another. Nobody really thought about how amazing God really is because all the events were shallow and didn’t encourage them to think about it. People weren’t interested in making new friends and only went if their clique would be there. Nobody was willing to make sacrifices to follow God and were more consumed with clothing, music, movies and technology. Because they knew they really "needed" those things, nobody felt like they had any money to give as a tithe to support the church’s ministries or to charities or those less fortunate. They weren’t committed to meeting regularly and only went to events if the adult leaders provided something fun for them. They didn’t build new friendships and relationships weren’t deep or genuine. Worship was "boring" and when it did happen it was more about looking cool by knowing the actions than about praising God. Non-Christians saw how these churches behaved and didn’t want anything to do with them because they were selfish and weren’t interested in sharing the gospel or helping and loving others. God didn’t work through them because they treated the Greatest Commandment to love God first and neighbour second like a joke, and also because they felt like the Great Commission to go into the world and make disciples was just a Great Suggestion, a suggestion they weren’t going to take. Eventually, no money came into the church so the programs couldn’t run, people didn’t commit to serving the church or even going regularly so even basic meetings failed, and without strong relationships, people just stopped going. The end.

After I finished reading this, Harlen exclaimed "Well that would just suck!!!" Yes it would Harlen, yes it would.

I challenged the kids to committ to youth ministry in their attendance and servant attitudes, and also to our church in the same way. I challenged them to get involved if they weren't already and look for ways to become more excited about serving God like how the early church was. It was no accident that application forms for 2012-2013 Student Leadership also came out on Friday and about 15 teens aside from the existing 10 students on the current team took forms. Wahoo! I'm so excited to see how God will be using our students' unique gifts this coming year! Please be praying for our junior high students also as we gear up for next year.