Persevere, our Teens are Worth It!
9/30/2008
Starting a Youth Ministry in a small country church is certainly challenging. I was voted in as the Youth Minister in July of 2007, with the support of the whole church, or so I thought.
I was waiting for the Chair of the Board of Christian Education to call a meeting so we could discuss details. Meanwhile, the church agreed to pay for me to attend The National Youth Ministry Conference in Cincinnati in 2008. I looked forward to learning the right way to start our Youth Ministry group on a firm foundation.
Two weeks before the conference the chair of Board of CE announced the first youth meeting would be the following Friday. Well, this was news to me. It was a Meet-N-Greet. We were having pizza, watching a movie, and families were invited. One of the teens wrote me a suggestion to split the group up because they didn’t want to come and be with the little kids. I certainly agreed.
I arrived home from the NYMC brimming with ideas, books, games and much more. The instructions from the speakers and teachers was unbelievable.
At the second meeting, we did allot of waiting for teens to show up and she had her four children there, all under the age of 9. Her oldest brought a friend.. I was asked to bring a Bible Game to the next meeting of which the date was already set.
Third meeting I was asked to read something already prepared, and we (her children were there as well) worked on decorating our prayer journals and more waiting. By now I am getting the feeling that I was present only so they could say they had a youth minister. Well, I was pretty sure that wasn’t why I was voted in as Youth MInister at all.
I showed up at the fourth meeting with a devotional, object lesson and a lesson about smoking. I let the chair know I came prepared and if she wanted me to do one, to let me know. She asked me to do two of them while we were waiting. I did the object lesson and talked about smoking, but I wasn’t allowed to mention the other kind of smoking because her kids were there.
This wasn’t working very well. Let me be honest, this wasn’t working at all. I didn’t think I would get opposition form the Board of C. E. Chair and her hubby who was helping her. I discussed this with my Pastor and tried to discuss this with her. We had a meeting with the Pastor, his wife, the chairperson and myself. She didn’t feel the need to separate the groups into two, Children's and Youth.
A meeting was called with the Board of C. E. and Evangelism. I brought my thoughts about youth being junior high and high school age. I also asked to have a youth Sunday School class. She said she didn’t think we needed to split the group up. It was decided to have two groups and I was to do the youth group and she and hubby would take care of the children’s group. The Sunday School class idea was tabled.
Now I could get to work on establishing the Youth Group. We have had struggles establishing the day of the group, because the teens are so busy. I finally set it for Wednesday evening, and if they don’t show up, I go to Bible Study instead.
I have certainly done lots of praying in the past year. With the devil working hard to stop God’s work, we need to persevere, our teens are worth it!
Things are looking up and the 3:6TEEN Youth Group is doing great. We may be small but we are mighty! As for the Youth Sunday School Class, the J-Walkers meet every Sunday. Praise The Lord!!
I am once again looking forward to attending The National Youth Ministry Conference in Columbus in 2009. I still have a long way to go and this is a wonderful place for awesome training. Hope to see you there.
Rev. Tami Wenger Youth MInister at McKees Creek Chapel
I was waiting for the Chair of the Board of Christian Education to call a meeting so we could discuss details. Meanwhile, the church agreed to pay for me to attend The National Youth Ministry Conference in Cincinnati in 2008. I looked forward to learning the right way to start our Youth Ministry group on a firm foundation.
Two weeks before the conference the chair of Board of CE announced the first youth meeting would be the following Friday. Well, this was news to me. It was a Meet-N-Greet. We were having pizza, watching a movie, and families were invited. One of the teens wrote me a suggestion to split the group up because they didn’t want to come and be with the little kids. I certainly agreed.
I arrived home from the NYMC brimming with ideas, books, games and much more. The instructions from the speakers and teachers was unbelievable.
At the second meeting, we did allot of waiting for teens to show up and she had her four children there, all under the age of 9. Her oldest brought a friend.. I was asked to bring a Bible Game to the next meeting of which the date was already set.
Third meeting I was asked to read something already prepared, and we (her children were there as well) worked on decorating our prayer journals and more waiting. By now I am getting the feeling that I was present only so they could say they had a youth minister. Well, I was pretty sure that wasn’t why I was voted in as Youth MInister at all.
I showed up at the fourth meeting with a devotional, object lesson and a lesson about smoking. I let the chair know I came prepared and if she wanted me to do one, to let me know. She asked me to do two of them while we were waiting. I did the object lesson and talked about smoking, but I wasn’t allowed to mention the other kind of smoking because her kids were there.
This wasn’t working very well. Let me be honest, this wasn’t working at all. I didn’t think I would get opposition form the Board of C. E. Chair and her hubby who was helping her. I discussed this with my Pastor and tried to discuss this with her. We had a meeting with the Pastor, his wife, the chairperson and myself. She didn’t feel the need to separate the groups into two, Children's and Youth.
A meeting was called with the Board of C. E. and Evangelism. I brought my thoughts about youth being junior high and high school age. I also asked to have a youth Sunday School class. She said she didn’t think we needed to split the group up. It was decided to have two groups and I was to do the youth group and she and hubby would take care of the children’s group. The Sunday School class idea was tabled.
Now I could get to work on establishing the Youth Group. We have had struggles establishing the day of the group, because the teens are so busy. I finally set it for Wednesday evening, and if they don’t show up, I go to Bible Study instead.
I have certainly done lots of praying in the past year. With the devil working hard to stop God’s work, we need to persevere, our teens are worth it!
Things are looking up and the 3:6TEEN Youth Group is doing great. We may be small but we are mighty! As for the Youth Sunday School Class, the J-Walkers meet every Sunday. Praise The Lord!!
I am once again looking forward to attending The National Youth Ministry Conference in Columbus in 2009. I still have a long way to go and this is a wonderful place for awesome training. Hope to see you there.
Rev. Tami Wenger Youth MInister at McKees Creek Chapel
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