Family Focused
If you know me, you know I spend a great deal of my time at church. I love church. I love going to church. I love being a part of a church and I love working in a church. I have done many jobs at church, financial secretary, preschool director, student ministries director, secretary, drama director. Although I know God called me to student ministries, I have truly loved most of those jobs and would be willing to do a variety of jobs in my church.
Over the last couple of years, God has really been speaking to me about families. As a young, youth director, I was most concerned with getting teenagers IN to the church. Church was the place they would meet Jesus, church was the place they would grow as disciples, youth group was going to be the biggest, spiritual influence on their lives.
As I got into my fifth year of ministry, I began to see kids leave the church and not come back. Kids who attended our youth group three times each week for years, served in various areas of the church, worshiped like crazy...and they were done. I could not quite figure this out. As the years went by, I realized there are a lot of factors that go into whether or not a young person stays in church after high school. I realized, that while impacting, the youth group was not the end all to be all. I realized that in order to really affect these kids, we as a church needed to affect their families in a big way.
Hear me correct on this. I am not saying we do not need youth groups, I am working on building one right now. What I am saying is that the youth group should exist as one more place a family, whether good or bad, can be introduced to Jesus, one more place a family can be strengthened, one more place a family can find support in this crazy world.
Over the last couple of years, God has really been speaking to me about families. As a young, youth director, I was most concerned with getting teenagers IN to the church. Church was the place they would meet Jesus, church was the place they would grow as disciples, youth group was going to be the biggest, spiritual influence on their lives.
As I got into my fifth year of ministry, I began to see kids leave the church and not come back. Kids who attended our youth group three times each week for years, served in various areas of the church, worshiped like crazy...and they were done. I could not quite figure this out. As the years went by, I realized there are a lot of factors that go into whether or not a young person stays in church after high school. I realized, that while impacting, the youth group was not the end all to be all. I realized that in order to really affect these kids, we as a church needed to affect their families in a big way.
Hear me correct on this. I am not saying we do not need youth groups, I am working on building one right now. What I am saying is that the youth group should exist as one more place a family, whether good or bad, can be introduced to Jesus, one more place a family can be strengthened, one more place a family can find support in this crazy world.
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