Below is my response to a question I frequently hear from parents.
At Bridgeway we have services for middle and high school students on Sunday mornings. Those services are the church services at 8am, 10am, 10:30am Connexus service, and Noon. Occasionally the fact that we don’t have a separate student service has caused concern for some parents. Some parents become concerned because their child has lost a separate service that provides care for them. For others their concern rises out of the fact that they don’t believe that their child is able to benefit from the worship and message because it is not geared specifically to their age group.
I understand these concerns and can see why dropping my child off at an age appropriate program might be the easiest route to getting the family to church on a Sunday. We have chosen to go a different route. A route that may be more challenging for a time, but will lead us to have a greater impact in the lives of our children over the long term.
This is an intentional direction we have chosen to take. As we were opening Nexus, our
new youth center, this question about separate Sunday morning programming for students came up more frequently. Through this I learned that their was a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding was that we did not do separate youth ministry on sunday morning was because we did not have the space. The truth is for many years we did not have space. However the reason was that we wanted students to be a part of the church as a whole.
Keeping students and adults together is key because of what is passed down from generation to generation. Students need models. They need to see how to worship and grow together as a body. Bringing students into the main church worship service also involves them in the whole church life at a key formative stage of middle school. For many other churches the kids have a separate church experience, the students have a separate church experience even young adults and/or college age have a separate experience and then when our younger generation reaches adulthood they are expected to incorporate in the main church. By this point they have already formed view of church attendance and involvement and have decided they they aren’t really a part of the main church.
Over the past decade one of the most talked about topics in youth ministry has been how when teens graduate from high school a huge percentage of them stop their involvement in church. I have seen statistics that say 50-80% of students leave church after high school. Some of the more scary statistics include the line “never to return to church again”. It’s frighting to me as pastor of young people to see them leave the church as such a rapid rate.
One of the main ways that church can ensure that young people will stay in the church following their graduation is to involve them in the church as a whole throughout their childhood and teen age years. Because the truth is they are not the church of tomorrow, they are a vital part of the church today.
We start this idea with BridgeKids. BridgeKids isn’t child care, it is ministry to children. The foundation that their faith can be built on is taught and modeled on a weekly basis from an early age. We have an incredible crew of adult and teen volunteers who interact, teach, & mentor children on a weekly basis. BridgeKids also has serving teams where children and adults minister together. One example is the BK worship teams. The worship teams combine adults and children to minister to those attending BridgeKids.
As a church we have church wide service projects where children and adults can serve together to have an impact for the kingdom. We have baptisms all together so that the children can see adults take that important step of obedience and so that adults can be encouraged by the faith of the children.
When a BridgeKid reaches the end of the summer after their 5th grade year they graduate out of BridgeKids and start attending services on Sunday morning and age specific entry level program called Fusion which takes place on Friday nights. As they move into high school they continue to attend Sunday morning services and transition from Fusion to Common Ground which meets on Sunday nights.
In addition to attending Sunday services and Student Ministries programs many middle and high school students are involved in serving in the church. Many students serve within student ministries, BridgeKids, The Missions Cafe, as usher and greeters, serving communion, singing in the choir, acting on stage and the list goes on.
This path that I have described is without a doubt more challenging than a completely separate youth programing. With all the effort of traveling this more difficult path we are hoping that students feel more connected to their church body so that when they graduate from high school and no longer attend Student Ministries programs their whole church involvement continues.
The results have been amazing. I have tracked and informally surveyed 52 students that have graduated from our ministry with in the last six years. I tried to find out if they were still involved in a church. I was able to confirm that 42 were still were. That’s over 80% still attending church. I was also able to confirm that 4 have very little or no church involvement. The other 8 I was unable to confirm their attendance.
As I talk with other youth pastors many are amazed and curious about how we can do ministry with out a separate Sunday morning program wether it be during a service, or separate Sunday School. Some are locked in by tradition or leader preference. I talk with other youth workers who have tried to incorporate students into service; for some it has gone well and for other it has not. Here is why I think it works at Bridgeway.
We have stuck with it for the long term. We have been trying this strategy for almost 10 years. The truth is even when we tried to provide something separate on Sunday mornings for students the response from the students was that they would rather attend the service with adults. Early on it was tougher to encourage some students and families to embrace the Sunday service for their whole family. This was mainly because they knew there was a time when we did separate services. Now it is a part of our culture, it is the way we do things.
Another reason this strategy works here at Bridgeway is that we have amazing and gracious people. Being a part of this diverse congregation we have learned the importance of inclusion in spite of difference that usually divide people groups. The truth is a lot of the important things that make us a graciously accepting multicultural body allows us to more easily be a multigenerational church.
We have senior leadership and elders who genuinely care about students many of who care enough to personally engage students on a regular basis. We have a senior pastor who seeks to understand youth culture and considers students as he thinks through and presents his messages. We have worship leaders and teams that have excellence, artistry and passion that students find very engaging.
As great as the benefits of having our young people integrated into the church as a whole the transition that takes them from BridgeKids to the main service is still challenging. To help with the transition we do a few things. Our Middle School Director Audene Harvey comes to BKX (4-5 grade class) and talks about with the students about what they can expect in service and what they can expect in Fusion. We also provide fill in the blank notes sheets for use at the 10am & Noon services. These note sheets can be picked up at the Information Desk in the lobby prior to the services. These notes sheets can be useful in helping the student track with the message and also be a take tool that can remind them of what they learned.
If you have other ideas that can help to make this vital transition smoother for parents and students I would love to hear your thoughts. Make church a family experience! Thanks for reading.
At Bridgeway we have services for middle and high school students on Sunday mornings. Those services are the church services at 8am, 10am, 10:30am Connexus service, and Noon. Occasionally the fact that we don’t have a separate student service has caused concern for some parents. Some parents become concerned because their child has lost a separate service that provides care for them. For others their concern rises out of the fact that they don’t believe that their child is able to benefit from the worship and message because it is not geared specifically to their age group.
I understand these concerns and can see why dropping my child off at an age appropriate program might be the easiest route to getting the family to church on a Sunday. We have chosen to go a different route. A route that may be more challenging for a time, but will lead us to have a greater impact in the lives of our children over the long term.
This is an intentional direction we have chosen to take. As we were opening Nexus, our
new youth center, this question about separate Sunday morning programming for students came up more frequently. Through this I learned that their was a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding was that we did not do separate youth ministry on sunday morning was because we did not have the space. The truth is for many years we did not have space. However the reason was that we wanted students to be a part of the church as a whole.
Keeping students and adults together is key because of what is passed down from generation to generation. Students need models. They need to see how to worship and grow together as a body. Bringing students into the main church worship service also involves them in the whole church life at a key formative stage of middle school. For many other churches the kids have a separate church experience, the students have a separate church experience even young adults and/or college age have a separate experience and then when our younger generation reaches adulthood they are expected to incorporate in the main church. By this point they have already formed view of church attendance and involvement and have decided they they aren’t really a part of the main church.
Over the past decade one of the most talked about topics in youth ministry has been how when teens graduate from high school a huge percentage of them stop their involvement in church. I have seen statistics that say 50-80% of students leave church after high school. Some of the more scary statistics include the line “never to return to church again”. It’s frighting to me as pastor of young people to see them leave the church as such a rapid rate.
One of the main ways that church can ensure that young people will stay in the church following their graduation is to involve them in the church as a whole throughout their childhood and teen age years. Because the truth is they are not the church of tomorrow, they are a vital part of the church today.
We start this idea with BridgeKids. BridgeKids isn’t child care, it is ministry to children. The foundation that their faith can be built on is taught and modeled on a weekly basis from an early age. We have an incredible crew of adult and teen volunteers who interact, teach, & mentor children on a weekly basis. BridgeKids also has serving teams where children and adults minister together. One example is the BK worship teams. The worship teams combine adults and children to minister to those attending BridgeKids.
As a church we have church wide service projects where children and adults can serve together to have an impact for the kingdom. We have baptisms all together so that the children can see adults take that important step of obedience and so that adults can be encouraged by the faith of the children.
When a BridgeKid reaches the end of the summer after their 5th grade year they graduate out of BridgeKids and start attending services on Sunday morning and age specific entry level program called Fusion which takes place on Friday nights. As they move into high school they continue to attend Sunday morning services and transition from Fusion to Common Ground which meets on Sunday nights.
In addition to attending Sunday services and Student Ministries programs many middle and high school students are involved in serving in the church. Many students serve within student ministries, BridgeKids, The Missions Cafe, as usher and greeters, serving communion, singing in the choir, acting on stage and the list goes on.
This path that I have described is without a doubt more challenging than a completely separate youth programing. With all the effort of traveling this more difficult path we are hoping that students feel more connected to their church body so that when they graduate from high school and no longer attend Student Ministries programs their whole church involvement continues.
The results have been amazing. I have tracked and informally surveyed 52 students that have graduated from our ministry with in the last six years. I tried to find out if they were still involved in a church. I was able to confirm that 42 were still were. That’s over 80% still attending church. I was also able to confirm that 4 have very little or no church involvement. The other 8 I was unable to confirm their attendance.
As I talk with other youth pastors many are amazed and curious about how we can do ministry with out a separate Sunday morning program wether it be during a service, or separate Sunday School. Some are locked in by tradition or leader preference. I talk with other youth workers who have tried to incorporate students into service; for some it has gone well and for other it has not. Here is why I think it works at Bridgeway.
We have stuck with it for the long term. We have been trying this strategy for almost 10 years. The truth is even when we tried to provide something separate on Sunday mornings for students the response from the students was that they would rather attend the service with adults. Early on it was tougher to encourage some students and families to embrace the Sunday service for their whole family. This was mainly because they knew there was a time when we did separate services. Now it is a part of our culture, it is the way we do things.
Another reason this strategy works here at Bridgeway is that we have amazing and gracious people. Being a part of this diverse congregation we have learned the importance of inclusion in spite of difference that usually divide people groups. The truth is a lot of the important things that make us a graciously accepting multicultural body allows us to more easily be a multigenerational church.
We have senior leadership and elders who genuinely care about students many of who care enough to personally engage students on a regular basis. We have a senior pastor who seeks to understand youth culture and considers students as he thinks through and presents his messages. We have worship leaders and teams that have excellence, artistry and passion that students find very engaging.
As great as the benefits of having our young people integrated into the church as a whole the transition that takes them from BridgeKids to the main service is still challenging. To help with the transition we do a few things. Our Middle School Director Audene Harvey comes to BKX (4-5 grade class) and talks about with the students about what they can expect in service and what they can expect in Fusion. We also provide fill in the blank notes sheets for use at the 10am & Noon services. These note sheets can be picked up at the Information Desk in the lobby prior to the services. These notes sheets can be useful in helping the student track with the message and also be a take tool that can remind them of what they learned.
If you have other ideas that can help to make this vital transition smoother for parents and students I would love to hear your thoughts. Make church a family experience! Thanks for reading.
Jared - I think you hit it on the head with your statement, "Being a part of this diverse congregation we have learned the importance of inclusion in spite of difference that usually divide people groups."
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people who think they can fix the maturation of students by getting rid of a student service and having services that are 'intergenerational.' The reality is that unless your congregation has an intentional mindset about investing in the next generation, an 'intergenerational' service will do nothing to serve your students as they mature.
Great post.
Tony you are right. The congregation cannot simply like teenagers, they need to embrace, engage, and involve teenagers as a vital part of the body.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your encouraging words.