We are taking a
more realistic direction with our Youth Group.
We know life is hard for teens, but in the last year, the reality of
those difficulties, the real stresses and dangers and betrayals of life have
come to the surface. And as a church,
one of the uses of a youth group is as a place of safety for our young people
to be honest and seek answers (and advice-if they ask) about what they deal
with on a daily basis.
Take one example,
bullying. I was bullied growing up. I was the ‘new kid’ a few times in my
life. I also moved into situations where
I did not know the ‘proper lingo’, the right titles for things. Get to be around fourth or fifth or sixth
grade boys and their interest in human sexuality, mix it with really bad
information from our parents, and we make up our own slang. If you don’t
know the slang, you will be targeted.
And I was. Mental intimidation,
emotional manipulation, and physical assault were part of a well-rounded bullying experience.
And it didn’t
make me a tougher person. I just learned
how to take more than most.
Our church response is
two-pronged.
We are using “Inside
the Mind of a Teenage Killer” by Phil Chalmers as the basis for our
response. He has a chapter where he
flips things around. What are the ten
things a parent can do to set his kid up as a killer? He is doing it to intentionally shock the
reading parent into looking at what the life situations look like for kids who
end up violent.
One of the
statements he makes, which we confirmed with our youth group, is this: “You know which kids in the lunch room might
come in tomorrow carrying a gun and shooting up the place.”
So here is how
our neighborhood is responding. We are
going to take each of the ten steps in turn.
First, we pair it with a Scripture against which the truth of Mr.
Chalmer’s statements is measured. The
reality of Mr. Chalmers’ arguments are not in doubt. Pairing it with some of the more painful
passages of Scripture lays out for our youth that their Bible does address the
c**p that they are going through.
Then comes the
second Scripture, the one that we hope provides real answers, provides a real
basis in Christian hope and faith for them to equip themselves with.
Then we change it up for a few weeks. One of these per month is more than enough.
The second part
of our response is to provide an alternate situation. A place where the youth can connect with each
other, have fun, push the edges, experiment with what it’s like to ‘grow up’,
but in a safe, supervised, and-most importantly-a carrying environment. A caring neighborhood. We are creating that here.
On Sunday,
October 20, all the parents of our youth will be invited to join us, with the
youth, to sit in on the next piece of the study from Phil Chalmers. It will be an opportunity for you, as
parents, to see what we are doing, to see how seriously we take this subject,
and how we, at First Church, respond.
Peace.
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