I visited a church on Sunday that I never been to before. Entering into a new church community for the first time can be somewhat awkward. It seems that all churches develop a routine over time that is foreign to anyone who first visits. As my fellow visitor and I walked to the front and found our seats close to the front middle, 3 or 4 different people greeted us on our way. Once in our seats we patiently waited for the service to start. As people began to file in, greet their friends, and find their seats we couldn’t help but notice there was no large section of youth sitting together in the back corner away from any adults who they might have come with. Instead the youth were everywhere: back at the power point station, sitting next to their parents, kicking back among adults who looked nothing like them, and up front in the worship team. As the service continued on it was clear that at this church the youth were not just passive observers. Before the sermon a student got up and read the passage for the day, another prayed a prayer for the community, and a student even helped administer the Lord’s Supper! I could not believe it, I felt as if I had walked into a different church universe.
In high school I was sort of the star kid in youth group, not to toot my own horn, but I was. Anyways, even as the star kid I was never asked to participate in the adult church service, as I was not allowed to, and maybe even forbidden to. Instead every Sunday morning after the youth group, I either ran off to the beach, telling my pastor I could find more connection to God in the water then in a boring church service where I was expected to passively sit and listen to another sermon, when I had just come from listening to one or I sat passively in the back of the “big service” because my youth pastor promised to buy lunch if we went the “big service.” Needless to say, I was very disconnected from anything or anybody in my church other than those involved in the youth ministry. And after graduating from high school I went off to college and I did step inside a church, unless my parents forced me, for 3 years.
Sadly to say, today many youth feel the same way or similarly to the same way I did in high school. Looking back I realize that the reason I hated going to “big church” was because I did not feel like I belonged. I did not feel like the pastor spoke in my language, I did not feel like anyone cared if I was there or not, and I never was asked to become involved in the service at all.
(More to come soon :)
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