Question for everyone

[Ron Davis]

What is your church doing to impact teenagers in your community. I'm not asking just about what weekly events you have available for your attenders to participate in which is usually educational in nature. What are you doing for teens that may never come to your church.

Here is what we are doing.

Thursday night is an unstructured come and hang out night. We play ping pong, watch movies, listen to music, sit and talk or create our own games.

I advise a high school student organization that is working to reduce underage alcohol and drug use. I also participate in an adult organization with the same mission.

I serve on the Mayor's Commission on Children that is charged with making our community a better place for children.

Our church also hosts a high school club meeting once a month that is purely recreational in nature.

Those things are in addition to Sunday School and our Sunday night teen meetings.

In Sunday School we normally have six teenagers. Through these other activities I come in contact with sixty to seventy teens. I also have regular contact with the Superintendent of Schools, the mayor, and other community leaders.

Now it's your turn.

[Gary Swartzlander]

Ron, I'll get things started. My wife and I just got home from our usual Friday night routine of hanging out at the church with several hundred middle and high schoolers.

For a number of years our church has had a Friday evening program called RIOT. It is designed as a safe place for kids to hang out. Some weeks we have as many as 300 kids in the building from 7:00 - 10:00. A very very small percentage of the kids are kids from our church. Most are kids who are from non churched families. We have several activities available for them. Our gymnasium (It's the sanctuary on Sunday and Wednesday) is open for basketball, dodge ball, and hanging out. We have built a teen center in our church and many kids hang out there. It's designed with the look of an old soda shop (ie, Arnolds from Happy Days). It's equipped with several pool tables, a fooseball table, and 6 or 7 TV's with video game equipment attached. Kids can check out controllers and games at the teen center counter. We offer pizza and bread sticks for sale and have pop and snack machines available for the kids. When weather permits one of the side parking lots is opened for skateboarding and as a place for kids to hang out outside.

We also offer after school mentoring programs (called IMPACT) for kids from the local high school who need special attention with studies and who can benefit from group activities under the direction of the teen center staff. We have complete and unqualified support of the local schools. Our mentoring program is currently limited to about 10 or 12 students due to financial limitations.

We have worked at RIOT either weekly or everyother week for a number of years. Sometimes I think I'm getting to old for it, but I consider it one of the most important ministries that our church offers. As co-chairman of the church board I often attend membership classes that our church offers. One of the first things our pastor asks is "How did you and your family begin to attend our church?" Without exception nearly 50% of the membership candidates say they started coming because their kids started attending RIOT on Friday nights. The parents come to appreciate that their kids are being cared for during these hours and decide to check out our church.

I also get great satisfaction from feeling that on any given Friday night I've been able to give some personal attention to some kids who we know are from very unstable home lifes and who's parents at the very hour are perhaps at a bar or someplace.

We are very low key regarding presenting the Gospel. We present it through the way we love the kids and through the guidelines that we have regarding how the kids should act while at RIOT. We attempt to teach respect for each other, use of good language, anger control, etc.

As with most programs like this, volunteers are the biggest need and challenge. Programs like this are the type of thing that unless you can grasp the vision and importance of what you are doing, it's hard to convince someone to spend a few hours with 200 or 300 adolescents.

I will post a few pictures in the next day or so, to help show what we do.

[Joel Merrill]

I go to church in Oskaloosa Iowa. I am not a Nazarene but I have many friends who are Nazarenes :basic01 The Nazarene Church in Osky owns a building next to the church that used to be a car dealership. They turned it into a youth center. It changes every few years. For a while they had it set up as an indoor skate park as an outreach to the local teens. My oldest daughter and her husband were one of the leaders. It was called Skate Church and it averaged 80 teens a night. Then the church decided to close it and Osky has had nothing for a couple years.

I don't know many details yet but the Assembly of God Church has bought a building in town. My 2 son-in-laws and probably some others are going to convert it into an indoor BMX bike park. My son-in-law, Donny, is an experienced BMX biker and has an expensive BMX bike. Right now they are raising money to build it and already have some sponsors.

The church we go to is too small to do something like that on it's own but when churches work together, they can do great things.

When I was a new Christian back in the early 70's I got involved with a coffee house called "The One Way Inn" in Clinton Iowa. It was run primarily by the Four Square Church and a Baptist Church. I think it is great when churches can work together for the good of the kingdom. :fav18

Joel

[Mark Doble]

What we do and have been very successful at is we are preparing our own church kids to evangelize their friends. We are now seeing 4th generation friends coming out to youth group. We have gone from 6 kids to about 45!

They witness to friends, who bring friends, who bring friends, who bring their friends, and so on...

[Floyd Laabs]

Good Afternoon!

I am the pastor of a small church and we have no youth. However, the Lord placed and provided away for us to start a group with other churches that meets on the 1st Saturday of the month. WE did bowling, had 8 show and mostly adults, had movies and munchies in our partially made over garage and had almost 30 show up and we are going to do a repeat this next month. The fellowship time was great, we had some kids there that had only attended church once in their lives. The movie choices were pre-selected and then they got to pick out of the stack and room was monitored. THe comments were that they could not believe we would open our home and extend past our church. I know that this may not be much, but it is our effort to reach into the community along with other Nazarene and non Nazarene churches to meet the youth. As the post above said, when we come together we can accomplish much. I would go a step farther and add to that and say it is not about us, but about building relationships and earning the right to speak into the lives around us with the love and voice of the Lord.

[Mark Doble]

One of the most important things we do is preach God's word to them every Monday night. Do not be afraid of scaring some of them off because of God's word!
We started with 3 kids 4 years ago. Now we have influenced 15% of Sutton High School. About 150 kids. We usually have about 35 come out each Monday night to study the Bible. They love to come and learn about God! They bring their friends and are not shy about it.

12 teenagers have accepted Christ in the past year! Every Monday night a new teen shows up to hear about Jesus.

Ok, if you preach God's word and are not afraid of doing so, now listen to this, God will send the kids TO your youth group because He knows the ones that need to accept Christ! We do not go looking for them, God sends them to us to hear His word... Fantastic!

We empower our mature in Christ teens to evangelize kids of their own age within the community. They are now leading others to Christ.
During study time you could hear a pin drop! They listen and ask those hard to answer questions.

This Saturday our NYI Leader, Heather, has been asked to give a talk at a Nazarene annual meeting as to how we have become the most active and large youth group on the Dist. O, and just how have you led 12 teens to Christ?
Give all the praise to Jesus eh!

Another new initiative we have just done a couple of months ago is bringing all the Churches with in the Township together once every third month. 5 Churches bring their youth groups together for a time of worship. Each Church brings a youth band and we jam it out for 4 hours! First time out we had 140 show up! Waaaahoooooey! Tonight we are having another event we call, "Coffee House" We set up the gym as a coffee house comphy cozy style setting. Different kids will give testimony, play a song, sing, etc...

The teens are evangelizing the community! Praise God eh... :)

[Floyd Laabs]

One of the most important things we do is preach God's word to them every Monday night. Do not be afraid of scaring some of them off because of God's word!
We started with 3 kids 4 years ago. Now we have influenced 15% of Sutton High School. About 150 kids. We usually have about 35 come out each Monday night to study the Bible. They love to come and learn about God! They bring their friends and are not shy about it.

12 teenagers have accepted Christ in the past year! Every Monday night a new teen shows up to hear about Jesus.

Ok, if you preach God's word and are not afraid of doing so, now listen to this, God will send the kids TO your youth group because He knows the ones that need to accept Christ! We do not go looking for them, God sends them to us to hear His word... Fantastic!

We empower our mature in Christ teens to evangelize kids of their own age within the community. They are now leading others to Christ.
During study time you could hear a pin drop! They listen and ask those hard to answer questions.

This Saturday our NYI Leader, Heather, has been asked to give a talk at a Nazarene annual meeting as to how we have become the most active and large youth group on the Dist. O, and just how have you led 12 teens to Christ?
Give all the praise to Jesus eh!

Another new initiative we have just done a couple of months ago is bringing all the Churches with in the Township together once every third month. 5 Churches bring their youth groups together for a time of worship. Each Church brings a youth band and we jam it out for 4 hours! First time out we had 140 show up! Waaaahoooooey! Tonight we are having another event we call, "Coffee House" We set up the gym as a coffee house comphy cozy style setting. Different kids will give testimony, play a song, sing, etc...

The teens are evangelizing the community! Praise God eh... :)
WOW, Mark thank you for testimony and I am excited to see God moving there and even more excited to see what God has in store for us as we move in the direction he leads. God bless and have a great weekend in the Lord!!!

[Mark Doble]

WOW, Mark thank you for testimony and I am excited to see God moving there and even more excited to see what God has in store for us as we move in the direction he leads. God bless and have a great weekend in the Lord!!!

I forgot the most important part! Our leadership fasts and prays for the youth group. There are a whole contingent of grandmothers and moms who pray for us as well. People we dont even know are praying for us. hehe

[Scott Hilton]

Ron, I'll get things started. My wife and I just got home from our usual Friday night routine of hanging out at the church with several hundred middle and high schoolers.

For a number of years our church has had a Friday evening program called RIOT. It is designed as a safe place for kids to hang out. Some weeks we have as many as 300 kids in the building from 7:00 - 10:00. A very very small percentage of the kids are kids from our church. Most are kids who are from non churched families. We have several activities available for them. Our gymnasium (It's the sanctuary on Sunday and Wednesday) is open for basketball, dodge ball, and hanging out. We have built a teen center in our church and many kids hang out there. It's designed with the look of an old soda shop (ie, Arnolds from Happy Days). It's equipped with several pool tables, a fooseball table, and 6 or 7 TV's with video game equipment attached. Kids can check out controllers and games at the teen center counter. We offer pizza and bread sticks for sale and have pop and snack machines available for the kids. When weather permits one of the side parking lots is opened for skateboarding and as a place for kids to hang out outside.

We also offer after school mentoring programs (called IMPACT) for kids from the local high school who need special attention with studies and who can benefit from group activities under the direction of the teen center staff. We have complete and unqualified support of the local schools. Our mentoring program is currently limited to about 10 or 12 students due to financial limitations.

We have worked at RIOT either weekly or everyother week for a number of years. Sometimes I think I'm getting to old for it, but I consider it one of the most important ministries that our church offers. As co-chairman of the church board I often attend membership classes that our church offers. One of the first things our pastor asks is "How did you and your family begin to attend our church?" Without exception nearly 50% of the membership candidates say they started coming because their kids started attending RIOT on Friday nights. The parents come to appreciate that their kids are being cared for during these hours and decide to check out our church.

I also get great satisfaction from feeling that on any given Friday night I've been able to give some personal attention to some kids who we know are from very unstable home lifes and who's parents at the very hour are perhaps at a bar or someplace.

We are very low key regarding presenting the Gospel. We present it through the way we love the kids and through the guidelines that we have regarding how the kids should act while at RIOT. We attempt to teach respect for each other, use of good language, anger control, etc.

As with most programs like this, volunteers are the biggest need and challenge. Programs like this are the type of thing that unless you can grasp the vision and importance of what you are doing, it's hard to convince someone to spend a few hours with 200 or 300 adolescents.

I will post a few pictures in the next day or so, to help show what we do.
Gary,

That set up sounds almost exactly like ours. The one thing we do have on top of that is some skating equipment we set up out side. It's heavy equipment we made last summer that has wheels on it, so it gets wheeled out every Friday and put together. It is worth it though, the kids dig it.

The one thing we are having an issue with, is keeping the high school kids entertained and plugged in. Any ideas or thoughts from your experiences on things we could try?

blessings