When originally planning my blog ideas I suggested ‘how the church can help our young people’. The more I have thought about this idea the more I questioned how do we view the church and who’s responsibility is it to support our children?
The first thing I feel needs shifting is how we view the church. Do we view the church as a building with people who have roles and responsibilities or as a family. Solely relying on our church staff to provide all the teaching within a few hours on a Sunday morning isn’t enough to sustain our young people. However, Sunday church and youth groups are a great and fruitful place for our young people to be. This just shouldn’t be their only source of church within their life.
By switching our perspective of how we see our churches we can then build relationships within them which are different to outside of church. So how can we help our young people as Christians and within a church context?
We need to build connections with the young people in our church, get to know them and pray for them. If you have your own children look for moments within the day to day which you can bring a conversation about faith into. Having time off over the summer with the young people in our lives provides a great opportunity for time we wouldn’t normally have in our day to day. This provides more opportunities for us to be an influence in encouraging them to seek God. Time off over summer also provides opportunities for our young people to have more time to seek Jesus for themselves.
Pray for and support our children and youth leaders. Pray for rest and that they will be refreshed. I’m sure many of you do but please thank them as they are mostly volunteers and show your appreciation.
A prayer for our children and young people:
Father God,
we just thank you for the young people in our lives,
we pray that their time off over the summer will be fruitful,
that they will seek you,
and that I will help to facilitate conversations about their faith and you,
I pray that they will encounter you and your love in a new way,
Amen.
A prayer for our children and youth leaders:
Father God,
we are so thankful for our youth and children’s workers,
we pray that you will energise them and that they will be ready to inspire our young people,
we just want to thank you for them and their gifts that you have given them,
please provide them with time to rest and to spend time with you,
I pray that they know how much they are appreciated,
Amen
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