I had lunch with one of the leaders from our Youth Group today. He's a freshman in high-school and an incredible drummer. He loves hip-hop, he's a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and just an all around good guy. Here's my dilema... when I hear him talk about Tae Kwon Do, I get jealous. He talks about how he is who he is today because of what he's learned in his Tae Kwon Do studio. He knows the tenants by heart. He knows more about honor, respect and discipline than any other kid that I know and he learned it all from his Tae Kwon Do instructors.
When I ask him about our Youth Group and what our tenants are, he's pretty much clueless.
That sucks!
Why don't kids talk about Christ with the passion and respect that they have for their Tae Kwon Do studios or their baseball or football teams? There's a lot to be learned from organizations like these! What are they doing that we're not?
1 comment:
I think this is a great post. I believe you're addressing one of the areas of greatest concern I have about the church. My wife and I had the fortune of growing up in a church where expectations of us were high. We were told from the beginning that there was no Holy Spirit Jr., and every calling found in the Word, and every gifting found in the Word, applied to us too. The only difference between us and the adults was our maturity. We became a radical army of teenagers...from 12 to 300 have an amazing impact on local schools. I began leading a group 12 years ago when I was 12 years old. I led group for the next 10 years through Jr. High, High School, and College.
I think one of the greatest mistakes we make with teenagers is building ministry because the parents want it or to give kids something to do, when we should build the ministry because those kids are a part of the church that has to be built. We were given vision on a regular basis, taught that we had to become leaders from a young age, and we were given ownership - leading our own groups, bi-weekly leadership meetings, bi-weekly prayer meetings, our own band, our own prayer team. It's made all of the difference.
Compare that with the ownership, responsibility, and training that's given in martial arts and you'll find a lot of corresponding features.
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