The space the youth meet in speaks volumes to them, even though they don’t realize it. What they are looking for is not what you say you value, but what you show them you value, so if your youth space is cluttered and not set up for the worship time, no matter what you try to teach about valuing worship, your space says that you don’t.
This generation of youth has a different concept of what “true” is… “True” is what you live, not what you say, so no matter how much Biblical truth you teach them, if you’re not striving to live into it yourself, then they won’t see it as “true.” This goes far beyond any sort of post-modern denial of absolute truth, and is actually very biblical. I think in fact this concept is an embodiment of what James was talking about when he asks the believers he’s writing to: “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” (James 2:14).
So, if the youth space is full of games, and arranged to make room for those, while the worship space is an afterthought, then the message recieved is that this youth ministry is all about the games.
Don’t get me wrong, games are important to community-building, but you don’t want that to be the focal point of your entire ministry.
Also, simply setting up your space as a classroom takes away from the worship element. I’m not saying it has to look like a mini-church, but churches are set up, when done well, to communicate the value of the sacred in the space. It’s a place where we can set aside the worries of our week and dedicate some time to the worship of our awesome God in the middle of a community of believers, and our youth worship spaces should do the same.
The games is just one example… walk into your youth room and ask yourself what is the focal point of the room? If you didn’t know this was a youth space at a church, what would the room tell you it was used for if you had stumbled across it out of context?
If we as youth workers are dedicated to being on a journey with the kids, to being in community with them, then our spaces need to show it…
4 Comments
I also think space is important in worship, especially coming from a religious background that did not believe in the concept of sacred space. But I also think there’s always a difficult balance that youth ministries often struggle to maintain, i.e. how do we manage the (often limited) space we have in a way that keeps it worshipful, but not too stuffy or uncomfortable.
As I’ve not really gotten to work with youth ministry in the Episcopal Church, I don’t know how we maintain that balance. But I’ve been involved with a parallel issue in men’s groups and small Bible studies in the last few years. You want to have some fellowship without seeming too “churchy” (which is a concept that I can’t define, but I can feel). If you go to the other extreme, though, you have a mens’ club or a pure social gathering, and lose the strengths that Christian fellowship can provide.
So what does that balance look like?
I think I prefer the word atmosphere over space or environment, and I think it probably has more to do with us than with the number of chairs or couches or tables in the room. In some churches the spaces are limited and the youth may not be able to actually have a space of their own, in these situations in particular it us up to the youth leaders to make the space inviting and the kids comfortable. This doesn’t have to mean physically comfortable, so much as it means relaxed and able to share and learn.
In my own experience, I’ve seen youth meet in the sanctuary of a church with the chairs in a circle, I’ve seen kids on folding chairs around ugly brown tables, I’ve seen kids sprawled out on the carpet of a fellowship and I’ve seen kids lounging on couches in a designated teen space. In all of these situations the teens were either comfortable or uncomfortable based on their interactions with each other and the youth leaders.
So, my thought is work with what you have, but be sure to remember all of the times you’ve had meaningful conversations in unlikely places — standing around by a car after a church evening event, sitting in a parking lot with a good friend talking in the front seat, standing in a bathroom or a kitchen somewhere — I think atmosphere is way more important that environment if you have to make a choice!
Getting on one of my favorite soapboxes–sometimes it seems like we get so focused on creating space, worship, experience, fellowship for the kids that we run the danger of drawing them away from the parish/congregation. I’ve heard many times through the years comments from kids along the lines of “Big Church is so boring–it just doesn’t make any sense,” or, “Why do we have to do Big Church, anyway?” Guess why we tend to lose them once their out on their own? How do we make the connection with “Big Church” while creating that space for them?
I wonder if the answer to that question isn’t on some level to use the sacred space that already exists in our churches from time to time to help the kids, and the congregations, make the connection between what youth ministry is and does and what the parish/congregational ministry is and does.
Suzanne - I think that’s a great point. I do think it’s important for the youth to have space that is theirs if possible. But I also think that it’s important to incorporate what we do with young people into the other ministries and worship of the church. We need to make sure the youth ministry is part of the “common life” of the parish.
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