ktgrok Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 So, on top of being on the comittee working to get our parish's congregation's website/social media updated (a lifetime spent in Episcopal and Catholic churches means I will NEVER not say parish as my first instinct!), I am on the education board. I help out at some youth activities, help with set up clean up and brainstorming, and may be a chaperone on this summer's social justice youth trip. I think the youth director would like to see me more involved in the middle school youth stuff, but for various reasons with my mom's health and stuff that hasn't happened. (me not being able to be reliable, basically) I LOVE some of the things our youth group does - or more broadly, love WHO they are. It's not huge, probably 20 kids is a big night. But they come from all over the metro area - we drive 30 minutes and we are not the only ones. Not more than 2 kids from any given school. So it isn't cliquish. These kids are amazing people. Some are SO mature beyond their years...others are um....not. But I adore those kids too - they are good, but some have a lot of energy, lol. We also have several LGBTQ kids, and it is a safe, fun place where they feel fully welcome. My DD has made some close friends there, even though they all go to different schools and only see each other at church events (although now they get together for mall hang out time and such too). We have an amazing Our Whole Lives program and run 1-2 age groups each year. This year it is 5th-7th and 10th-12th. Every other year we do confirmation classes for kids in 7th and 8th. Right now the 10th-12th are in OWL for part of youth group time, and on confirmation years many of the middle schoolers are in confirmation during much of youth group time (but not the 6th graders or kids not doing confirmation). We overlap because frankly, when people are driving 20-30 minutes each way, having too many activities is just not feasible - especially if they have kids in sports and such. They do great youth group lock ins, retreats for kids in confirmation, retreat for older kids doing OWL, a retreat once a year or so that is for all UCC churche in our geographic area a few hours away, and every other year a road trip/pilgrimage type thing. What I think is maybe lacking is more structure/fun/anything at just regular youth group meetings. These are twice a month usually, from 5pm to 7pm. Parents take turns bringing dinner, and the kids all eat together (grades 6-12) then the 10-12th graders who have OWL go upstairs for that, and we are left with the other ones. Mostly the middle schoolers, I don't know if we even have 9th graders right now. We do something that usually feels a bit thrown together - last time we walked over to the college associated with the church and walked around there, and they play manhunt or sardines or whatever, then the older ones come back downstairs and we have a time where we all stand in a circle holding hands and each person says something they want to pray for (or can skip) and then we say our group prayer before leaving. Honestly, kids were BORED last time. It's not "fun" other than the games they do which are never planned in advance anyway, and they spend as much time arguing over which game to play as actually playing it. And I don't feel they are getting much spiritually out of it. I DO feel they are making friends, and that they feel the adults are trusted people in their lives, which are our main goals. But...I think we need to move beyond that and our education director and one volunteer (who is a mom of a toddler) just do not have the bandwith to do much more this year. Part of the issue is being a very progressive church the normal stuff doesn't often work - need to be careful of this. But I know there IS stuff I can find/use, but it's been so long since I was IN youth group I don't remember what it looks like, lol. My thoughts right now are to play some music in the background or something to add to the fun, to PLAN games (I was googling and found "extreme spoons" which they will LOVE), and to have something more for in between. Maybe adapting some sunday school resources, or finding some videos, or having a service project they can work on, or??? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 I would say service projects and Bible study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 I found myself leading middle school youth for a semester. With the constraints that we had - we met for an hour - I found that spending 20 minutes each on social (snack, maybe a game, maybe just social time), Bible lesson, and service project worked pretty well. For service, we made cards, packed food or toiletry bags for the blessing box, braided old shirts for toys for an animal shelter, assembled things needed at the church (VBS decorations, luminaries for the Christmas program). Our church serves several distinct groups and has something of a culture clash (one of my kids quit going to certain things because they were tired of being cursed at - the cursing kids desperately need the influence of the church, but traditional church kids get tired of the behavior...it's a challenge that we are dealing with). But, as we deal with that, part of the conflict is that some kids just want a social time and don't want to have to 'work', and they see Bible study as work. It's kind of settled out so that different activities at the church draw different crowds and have different agendas to accommodate that - some kids only come for Sunday school, which is mostly a lesson, while others come for social time on Wed. Not much service right now, but that will come once we get the behavior under control. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted February 7 Author Share Posted February 7 13 minutes ago, Clemsondana said: It's kind of settled out so that different activities at the church draw different crowds and have different agendas to accommodate that - some kids only come for Sunday school, which is mostly a lesson, while others come for social time on Wed. Not much service right now, but that will come once we get the behavior under control. Back when dinosaurs roamed and I went to youth events, we had it separated out. There was a youth Bible study, which was at someone's home with dinner, which was attended by a smaller group of youth. Then there was the big youth night that was a big group with music, games, etc. I think there was always a short message and prayer, but otherwise mostly fun. Man, that was a long time ago! I really only remember a few things, like having a crush on one of the older boys, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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