Wednesday, October 31, 2007

What's your Passion?

On Sunday we had a typically under-attended church business meeting to go over ways in which we could improve our church. There were many good ideas; it is just a shame that so few attended. One of the goals we came up with was to develop a program that will help to keep the youth/teens/pre-teens in church. I know that this is a problem for a lot of churches. I am not sure if we just don't have a lot of them in my local church--the fact that my youth sabbath school tends to have an average of 1-3 people each week is my basis for this--or if they are all hiding. Anyhoo, I was volunteered to work with the pastor's wife on this project. I know that this was brought about because I am involved in the youth class. But I have a secret: Ministering to the Youth is not my passion. I'm not really sure if I have a true knowledge of what my passion is, but at this point in my life it is not Youth. (I've been spending a lot of time up front at church and church related programs...maybe that is my calling? Scary thought.) Why then am I so involved? While it is not my passion, I still care. I believe that due to circumstances beyond their control the youth are often dumped on, ignored, or spoken down to. I have seen this at the Raleigh church with the former youth leader and his/my supposed assistant leader. That is one reason I stepped up and started preparing a lesson every week instead of just my one week a month. Thankfully, starting in November the Pastor will be leading the class more often than not. It will be refreshing to have a break. I kind of have a hard time relating to Youth. I don't have kids. I haven't been a youth for over a decade and when I was I went to boarding school. During high school and college I thought (and often still do) that Sabbath School class was one of the best parts of the whole church service so I don't understand their current mindset. I am trying to figure out what teens these days want/expect out of their churches. What do they like to do? Are they apathetic about everything at this age? Do they even know what they want?

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