Well I am finally ‘caught up’ with my PDYM reading - thanks to the revised reading schedule. :-) It seems like in my reading the last few weeks it has covered a wide range and is somewhat overwhelming. So I will just touch on a few of the ‘highlights’ that hit home with me.
Doug Fields wrote “Nurturing students means faithfully helping them grow in their relationship with God.” I love this statement! This is why I am involved in youth ministry; to help these teens so they are not out floundering in the world. But yet I couldn’t really put into words what nurture meant so I went to dictionary.com and this is what it said: 1. to feed and protect; 2. to support and encourage during a time of training and development; and 3. to bring up, train, educate. The first definition was ‘eye opening’ to me; we need to feed and protect these teens, and to do this adequately we have to be healthy Christians. These teens are in a critical training/development time in their lives. Soon they will be thrust out into the real world of jobs, college, etc, and be expected to have it figured out so they can survive their christian walk on their own.
Of all my reading the last few weeks this chapter on small groups is what seemed to be the most influential on me. I like what Doug wrote about small groups: ‘that in small groups we share our lives with one another.’ I have started thinking differently about our life groups (alias small group); it is not a time for other adult leaders to lead but it needs to be an opportunity for us to nurture the teens and share life with them - theirs and ours - and learn how to do it God’s way together. As Doug said a group of nurtured students in an environment of love will experience a depth of ministry never reached by someone being up front and running the show. I think for myself when leading a ‘small group’ it was just that; I was leading instead of letting it be a group involvement. Those quiet times, those unasked questions, and even the questions which we have been unable to answer are all vital to the teenagers growth; even though it may be an uncomfortable time for the ‘leader’. I also think that through life groups as we develop them more will be able to tweak them to target a certain group, whether it is a core group, a committed group, or a congregation group.
I also liked the chapter on committed students and the H.A.B.I.T.S. The take home journals and studies. Somehow we need to get these young adults to start digging into God’s word and petitioning Him through prayer in their own prayer closets.
I feel like I have somewhat rambled but I have to admit that is the way some of it is in my head; seems like I have read through so many good ideas and statements that I can’t blog about it all. So I wanted to get some of this on paper now, as I review what I have read and as we begin to put it in practice I know that it will become even more clearer. Again it comes down to health not numbers. Because when we are healthy (individually as well as a youth ministry) then the growth in numbers will come. We have to first be faithful with the ones we have been given to feed and protect.
