Youth Group...again.

Last night, youth group was held here at the church. There has been a new resurgence of leaders and enthusiasm. Erin and I were invited to lead worship.
There is a lot of work that goes into running a youth group that you may not expect. I want to share with you some of them that I have been experiencing in Mexico.
First, what is the purpose? It may seem like an easy question to answer, but it is not. Here are ones that I have heard:

• to save the kids



• to keep them coming to church



• to keep them off of drugs and alcohol



• to give them something to do



• because every church should have one

These may be good results from a youth ministry, but they are not the purpose. The purpose should be something like:

• We bring youth together to worship God and talk about their lives with caring Christian mature adults who are skilled in connecting with youth.

This doesn't have to be the purpose, but you need to be clear with what you are trying to accomplish.

Second, who is going to lead? Again, this is not an easy question to answer. Luckily, Erik, a man from the church is stepping up to be the point person, but there are leaders from different parts of the community that want to help. But the problem comes from when you have an event and you want to invite people to lead, not everyone knows that there are rules to leading. For example, some parents showed up last night. This is not a bad thing, especially the ones that showed up. But not every kid wants their parents there. Some other people from the community showed up. They need to be informed that if they want to lead, and we hope they do, that they need to be trained and attend the leaders meetings so that we are all on the same page for what we are trying to accomplish.

This can make for some uncomfortable situations. And with my lack of Spanish fluency, and the position that I am in, I find that these are best handled by someone who is in the position of youth leader.

Finally, there is a lot of work that goes into making sure everyone is on the same page. Already there have been many instances where people have different ideas about how something should be. We all bring our histories and ideas into building a youth program. The problem is trying to communicate them and work together to bring about the maximum results of what we are trying to accomplish.

It is fun to begin to start working on this program in the church. I hope to be able to support it in any way that I can. I am grateful for the start that has taken place and for the chance to be a part of this exciting ministry. Continue to pray for us down here...