Monthly youth leaders column

Adolescence is a period of change — there’s nothing much more obvious than that, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to cope with.

The pace of any developmental process seems to be in overdrive at this time. The child in Sunday school at eight years old is very different to the 18-year-old about to leave the youth group and it is because of this rapid physical, emotional and spiritual development that pastoral care for our young people is so vital. Change produces questions in people’s minds and young people need to have someone who can help them through these changes.

Prayer

It’s easy to get into maintenance mode in our youth ministry and to forget that we are in a spiritual battle for the hearts and lives of vulnerable people. As leaders, time spent in praying for our young people is not an afterthought — it is a key part of your ministry. If you have a team meeting, give time to praying for specific needs in the lives of your students. Some people carry round with them a list of young people to pray for during the day — pray for them while they are at school and facing many pressures. Are there people in your adult congregation who could pray for young people? One church I knew had some very senior ladies who said ‘they couldn’t do much but they could pray’ — and they did.

Team meetings

As well as prayer it is good to talk about the issues that are happening in the group. What are the young people talking about? We must not spend our whole time dealing with felt needs but we must deal with those needs. Are there habits developing in the group which are unhealthy? If many of them are talking a good faith, but not living it, that needs to be addressed in our meetings. Is there a local issue that everyone’s talking about? If there is, we need to help our young people to a Christian view of that issue. In other words, we are listening to what our young people are thinking and saying. It may also have a bearing on wahat we teach them from the Bible.

Small groups

I would prefer to call these discipleship groups because that is what they should be Ð a chance to listen to our young people’s questions and respond to them biblically. These should be single sex to allow our students to talk freely about how their lives are changing. There will questions about how they cope with the ‘sexual generation’ they live in. How do they deal with pressure to conform to secular cultural values? How do they deal with educational material that appears to contradict Christian teaching? They need somewhere to go when they have these questions.

One-to-ones

Reading the Bible with an individual is such a helpful exercise. We can sometimes get so sucked in to how the group is doing that we forget that a group is a collection of individuals with a variety of needs. One to one work enables you to hear exactly what that person is thinking and how well they are doing in their walk with God. It also gives that person the chance to raise their question with you and talk about it.

We are ‘happy to share the gospel and our lives as well because they are so dear to us’ (1 Thessalonians 2.8) is how we should do gospel ministry. We share God’s truth, but in a way that helps our young people live as followers of Christ in this ‘crooked and perverse generation’ (Philippians 2.15). If we want them to ‘shine like stars’, they need our help.

Caring for the flock - part 2

Prayer

Team meetings

Small groups

One-to-ones

Dave Fenton

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