When I was a teenager, I attended a fairly large number of youth group events. Some were hosted by the church I grew up in. Some I attended because friends invited me and they seemed like they’d be fun. Unfortunately, a lot of them ended up following the same script.
We’d play some games. Maybe we were there to watch the Super Bowl, or celebrate a holiday or the start of the school year. One time it was a birthday party for the church. The flyer that drew most of the kids there promised food, games, and prizes. A 2 or 3 hour event included mostly hijinks… and a 10-minute presentation about Jesus that was over before most of the kids even realized what was happening.
Especially to the kids in the crowd who hadn’t yet come to know Jesus, it always felt like a sort of bait-and-switch. They were brought in for the fun, and they got hit with a suddenly serious presentation of the Gospel that never quite seemed to get past surface level. I am sure the intentions were good, but it didn’t hit the mark.
“They were brought in for the fun, and they got hit with a suddenly serious presentation of the Gospel that never quite seemed to get past surface level.”
I’m also sure some kid, somewhere, credits one of these rapid fire Gospel presentations for their coming to know Jesus, but most of the time, it just lead to bored kids who were anxiously waiting for whatever game or dessert comes after the message. Worse, students subconsciously believe that the adult leaders at those events only went through the effort of throwing together all the fun so they could shoehorn in that quick talk.
That’s why we don’t believe in the bait-and-switch approach.
Sometimes, we just get together to have fun. Whether it’s a movie night, or video games, or a competition, we want to always be transparent about what a youth event is going to look like. Many of them (like our weekly gatherings) will have a balance of fun and teaching, but we always intend to communicate that. We don’t want to bring students in the door promising everything except the Bible and then blindside them. We’re pretty honest that most events will include teaching and a direct beeline to the Gospel. A few won’t, and that’s okay, because we’re called to build relationships.
So if you get an email for a Student Ministry event at CrossWay and you’re wondering what the underlying intention is — sometimes we just have fun. It turns out, students trust leaders more when they know they enjoy spending time with them, and we do!
- Justin