Crazy weekend: Youth Seminar Reflections.
I must find time for rest! My schedules are crazy, especially the weekends. I’ve been out of the house on an average of 15 hours a day — and it’s usually from 8am onwards. Too crazy. I went for a Youth Leader’s training seminar at Toa Payoh Methodist Church on Saturday morning. It wasn’t too bad even though half the time I was fidgeting, trying to stay awake. Tired lah.
(The American speakers with us coaches.)
The topic of tailoring worship to the younger generation stirred me quite a bit. Being brought up in a Presbyterian church, I’m quite a traditional worshipper at heart. I struggled a little with this rather ‘radical’ message but after much deliberation, I came to terms with the fact that my generation may require a different style of worship to properly engage in one. Not that our worships have to become like that of charismatic churches; I see that it boils down to carefully balancing doctrinally-sound worship with one that our youths can identify with.
However, I thought that this particular speaker was too scanty on the topic. There was too much to talk about and too little time, and I felt uncomfortable with the lack of contextual support. Perhaps I was being thick, but he seemed to be a bit incoherent at times.
On the whole, I found the talks enriching and useful, especially the part on encouraging theological reflection. What distinguishes church fellowship from social gatherings is exemplified by our bond in Christ. And in order to up this crucial factor, the Word as the foundation of fellowship is essential.
But wait, there’s more! (ha ha.) Ahem.
We shouldn’t discount adults from the Youth Ministry. They have a wealth of experience that we can learn and tap from. I’m glad that we’ve done something along these lines — we’ve started a ‘I pray for Youth’ project, where adults each ‘adopt’ two youths (not just those in the Youth Fellowship [YF], but all the youths in Glory) to pray for. All the girls have been ‘adopted’, and we’re encouraging more men to step forward to ‘adopt’ the remaining boys. Baby steps, but it’s a start. And it’s been heartening to see some of the adults take one step further to actually write encouragement cards to them!
After this seminar, some discussions among the YF coaches are definitely in order. I’m supposed to write a report about it anyway, so this will be it! Heh. +)
NB: This report is from pure memory and what spoke to me most during the seminar.
