Let me preface this post: it is not aimed at any person or organization, but based upon my experience the past 10 years. This is not meant to be controversial or attack anybody. This post is meant to bring awareness to challenges youth and youth ministry face in the Universal Church. I wrote this in hopes that youth ministry and a teen’s spiritual development would be respected and fostered better by the body of Christ.
Picture this. It is Sunday morning. You are attending your Sunday morning church service, yearning to experience God, working to deepen your knowledge of God, and aiming to deepen your relationship with God. You are in the middle of the musical worship portion of the service when people slam through the sanctuary doors with a ruckus. But it doesn’t stop there. They loudly speak to people throughout the congregation. Would you be distracted? I would be. Would it interrupt your worship? It would for me.
What about somebody comes into the sanctuary during service and starts moving around chairs to prepare for an event happening after service or the next day? How you feel? Shocked? Sure. Disrespected? Absolutely. Would it affect your opportunity to worship God? Without a doubt.
What if you are praising God for a miracle that He did recently? What if you are in the middle of pouring out your heart to Him after a long week? In the midst, people are being distractions. What if, in the middle of his sermon, the pastor is interrupted by somebody in the congregation that just walked through the door because they had something to tell him or confirm with him, that could have waited after service? How would you feel? Confused? I would be baffled. Angry? Furious.
This would be unacceptable behavior at “big church.”
Let me ask you this… Why do people not carry this thought process with youth ministry? Why is this behavior acceptable for youth ministry? Why is it okay to interrupt their worship and time with God? Why is it okay to enter into the worship space of the teens and be a distraction? Are they not important to us? Are they not important to God? Does their relationship development with God not matter?
Throughout my years volunteering, serving, and working in youth ministry, I cannot tell you how many times I have had a righteous anger welling up inside me because of this.
I have experienced people prepping for another event during our weekly youth worship, in the middle of worship, distracting both the students and myself, as the worship leader. I’ve had people try to get my attention in the middle of youth service or a youth event for something unrelated (that could have and should have waiting for another time), distracting me and my students from the lesson the Holy Spirit put on my heart for these teens.
Many times, we have been the middle of service, in mid song, while students are in prayer and meditation, when people knock on the door or barge into the room, breaking up that reverent atmosphere.
This communicates to teens that their relationship with God is not important to invest in. Teens need to be nurtured, not dismissed.
Youth ministry is not babysitting for teens. Youth ministry is not just event planning or lock-ins. Youth ministry is a time of discipleship. Youth ministry is for teaching. Youth ministry is to help develop spiritual disciplines.
These teens are important. They are loved. They are worth it.
Getting teens to feel safe enough to enter into that reverent and calm mindset is difficult enough. Teens are facing broken families, poverty, mental illness, addictions, bullying, and trying to find their identity. They need a place to escape and just get down to raw worship. If this behavior is not acceptable for Sunday service, why can’t we give the teens the same space, respect, and opportunity to worship as we do adults?