Wednesday, June 30, 2010

One Size Does NOT Fit All

I was recently approached by a well meaning person that wanted to give me advice on how to make the youth group here at Legacy "better". (side note - this person is not a leader in youth group, does not have a child in youth group and does not even live in this state). That being said, I listened patiently and decided to truly hear out what they were saying to me. Was it bad advice? Nope, it was good advice. As I sat and thought about it, however, I realized that it just didn't fit our youth group.
I have come to realize that many people have a specific idea of what a youth group should look like. Most are of the opinion that it is a small bunch (4-10) of churched kids that meet every week, eat, play and talk about God a little. They are well behaved, sit through the lesson and respect their elders. Maybe because I had little to no experience in youth ministry before I became involved in the youth group here, I had no opinion (or any idea, for that matter) on what a youth group should look like.
Our youth group here is about 80% unchurched kids, and by that I mean have never, ever stepped foot in a church and don't know the difference between Jesus and Moses. They are loud, energetic and sometimes a little crude. We also are not a small group, with Jr and Sr High combined, we average about 55 to 60 a week, and we've had weeks where there were more. They are rough around the edges and tend to come off a little scary. And I love them :) They are honest and eager to learn. Because they are who they are, we could not do youth group in a "traditional" sense. We have to meet them where they are. We have to love them right where they are, right this minute. We couldn't wait for them to be "better". I sure know Jesus didn't wait on me to be "better".
We also do not separate the "churched" kids from the "unchurched" kids. We see no difference in their need for caring adult leaders and the love of Christ. We believe that they need to be together. The best way for churched kids to learn to spread the gospel and love their neighbors is to actually do it. And I love them too :) All small groups do the same lesson every week, no matter if they are "churched" or not. All small groups are the same every week, so the teens have a chance to bond with one leader. They all have done an amazing job of coming together and creating a wonderful youth group.
When you visit our youth group, things may seem a little crazy....or a lot crazy. But believe me, there is always a plan in place. We, as a leadership group, decided the best thing we could do for this youth group was to minister to it as it was. Not try to change them, but to let Jesus work in them. To accept and love them for who they are and through that, they would learn about the love of Christ. We have seen some kids baptized recently that I honestly wasn't sure we would ever get into church, much less into the water :) But it is what they wanted to do, because they were so loved by their small group leader that they wanted what he had........Jesus. And isn't that what its all about? Pointing the lost to Christ?
Jesus' ministry was certainly not one size fits all.........neither is our youth group :)