Whatever happened to the ‘Youth Fellowship’ or, if you go back even farther, ‘Youth Squash’?
Perhaps you’ve adopted more trendy titles like THE GaNG, which, I understand is a mnemonic for ‘The Hyperactive Evangelical Growth and Nourishment Group’. Words for titles can occupy committees for many happy hours, but I suspect youth groups spend less time thinking about the purpose of their groups than they do about their trendy titles.
Why do you meet?
Does your group simply meet because it met last week or it’s been part of church life for many years so somebody needs to keep it going? It’s always met on Friday at 7.30 so it always will, even though the numbers have dramatically reduced without us ever asking why. THE GaNG, despite its length, may be a title that gives us some help. Hyperactivity is rarely a sign of godliness, but ‘evangelical’ may begin to define what we do. Any youth group should be a place where the gospel is proclaimed — if that doesn’t happen, it may as well be a tennis or a rugby club. We teach Jesus, we talk about Jesus, we try to live like Jesus, not to acquire huge amounts of knowledge but to become more Christ-like in character. It’s easy to find very ‘clever’ groups where the message has not travelled the huge distance from the head to the heart and young people are intellectually challenged and love to debate but lifestyle is not on the agenda. ‘Evangelical’ is not just about debating doctrine — it is about following the Son of God who saved us. Our group must reflect that priority.
