Judi Cheah is the mother of two daughters aged 16 and 12. She has previously worked as a secondary school teacher. She leads the Christian Fellowship at the Alice Smith Secondary School Campus, and has been a speaker at various Christian Fellowship (CF) and Girls Brigade (GB) camps and events. In this article, she highlights 3 things you need to know about youths in church.
As we seek to love the youth in our church, here are three things to remember.
First, they are young. This means their energy levels are high and sometimes they will be rowdy and loud. Sometimes they will be childish; it’s not long since they were only children. They will not always act appropriately, but with all our experience at our age, do we always do so? Rather than a scolding, a gentle explanation of better ways is a loving response.
Our young people are in the process of working out who they will be. They are still trying out different versions of themselves, and at times this will find expression in dyed hair, piercings, and adventurous fashion choices. Patient, loving guidance from people they know and trust will best help them make choices which most honour God.
The second thing to remember is that they are people. Our youth are not visiting aliens, nor members of another species! There’s no need to fear them, but they will know if you do. They are people with the same needs and rights as you. Please show them the respect you want them to show you. They have their own language, but they do understand ours. They know when they are being spoken down to, and don’t appreciate it.
Our young people don’t need a dumbed-down version of Christianity. They are asking the big existential questions of meaning and life and they need to know that the Bible has robust answers. They need to know that the God of the Bible can meet their needs, and they need to be shown what their greatest needs actually are. But they don’t just need to listen, they need to be heard. Our young people have ideas and opinions they would like to share if given the opportunity.
Which brings me to my final point: these young people are in the Church. What a blessing from God to them and us! These young people are part of our community, and therefore should be evangelised, established, nurtured, trained, and given opportunities to serve just like every other member of our church. Our team of youth fellowship leaders (Marianne, Daniel, Keith and Andy) are already doing a terrific job of this, but we shouldn’t leave it all to them. We each need to play our part in helping the young people of our church build networks of relationships and service that will last beyond their years of youth. The impact of godly role models who are five to ten years older is profound; the example of saints who are five times their age is priceless.
Let us be praying for and loving our young people so that when they reach independence they will want to continue being part of God’s Church and, if their circumstances allow, part of St Mary’s too.