So, I found this article yesterday on The Gospel Coalition Blog called "Teens Want More Than Pizza". You can read the original article if you want, but basically it's about how youth group attendance has drastically dropped since the 90's. Youth pastors all over America are trying to bring the kids in by buying Wii's and Playstations, throwing parties, and other things that will grab the kid's attention, and they have it for a while and then the kids just stop coming. The kids don't need all that stuff at church, they can get that any where. At church, they want/need the word of God! It is that, and only that will change their lives and keep them in church. This is what the authors is trying convey in his article.
Honestly, I couldn't agree more. When I had a chance to work with the kids of my church this past summer, I experienced this firsthand. Sure, they enjoy coming and hangout with one another playing games and stuff, but what really made them think was the Word of God. All of us, especially teenagers, have a void that needs to be filled, and we try to fill it with things that we THINK that will make us happy. We all have this desire, God created us this way because it is what draws us to Him. This is what can fill this void, and this is what the kids need, not the Wiis and pizza parties.
This kind of stuff excites me because this is what I want to work with! :-) I love bringing people to Christ especially teens! I like helping them find the reason why they were created, and help them find someone who cares for them, their loving heavenly Father! :-)
This is so true, Julie. Teens, and adults for that matter, do not need more fun, pizza and video games, American's have enough of that. The Church needs to bring their focus back to the Word and to the relationship with Christ. Although I don't completely agree with all that Jay Adams said in his book. I like the frankness that he wrote with when he spoke of using the Word for correction. But not only is it there for correction, but for encouragement and strength as well. There is no pizza game night that can comfort and strengthen like the Words of our Lord, Jesus Christ when He said, "come to me [not to pizza parties and Wii nights], all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.
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