I've read and heard so much about what is to be done to attract young people to attend youth groups or church or even CFs. It seems that every youth leader is cracking their brains to think of something to be done.



I'm not saying that activities are wrong; in fact there are pretty good stuff to get people together, but maybe it's time to give young people some real stuff?



I guess a lot of activities, though may seem interesting at first, will not attract young people after a while. But I have one suggestion, why not bring youths into the throne room of God?



I believe that two things draw young people: the manifest presence of God and His love. We've seen so many youths joining us from diff churches and denominations, all giving these same reasons why they stayed on.



As youths begin to worship God and as He manifests His presence and touch lives, maybe that is a more effective tool? Young people are hungry for the presence of God, they want a change.



Here in my youth group we have Praise and Worship, sermon and altar call every week. We did not want to change coz God has been doing wonders every week ad so many lives have been turned around. Hearts filled, healed and transformed. Each time we can see God doing wonders. People falling under the Spirit, groaning and screaming when the glory and fire of God hits, or when God decides to be gentle and have fun He'll send His river and send people laughing like drunkards, or when people are hurting He'ss come and people will weep. And as God is present, everything comes together with him. Nothing much needs to be done to make people feel accepted, because God is love. Yes we do have other activities such as leadership training (Million Leaders mandate by John Maxwell), bible studies, parties and other fun stuff, but all at different times.



God is doing wonders among youths of this generation, and the only way is to get them connected with God. Revvival sparks from within.



I'm not saying that you must follow what we do, but maybe young people need something more than just activities? Can anyone identify with that? Please reply.

They just started a bible study in our lunch and the cool thing about it is the school is sponsering for it!

They just started a bible study in our lunch and the cool thing about it is the school is sponsering for it!

They can do that?

Yes, why not?



I know it's probably unheard of, but isn't that what young people want?

redhead,



There seems to be a lot of interesting activities organised by western churches. I'm serious and I'm not laughing at you guys or anything, but you guys do have interesting ideas



But what is bible study during lunch? Sorry for my dumbness



Well if it's God's idea then why not?

A Bible Study is a group of people studying and discussing the Bible during lunch at school.



I think religion of any kind should be banned from school. Religion belongs in the home and church. School is time for science, math, history, and learning how to be a productive member of society. I beleive school should be a secular place.

I believe that God is a creative God..He has great ideas on how to bring people to Him, but I still think that the best thing one can to with young people is to bring them into the presence of God so they will be satisfied.

I think you misunderstood me. I'm merely asking the question to get more information on this because it was laid on my heart to do so not because I'm trying to have more "activities" for the children to do. We must try to reach ALL people where THEY are unfortunately that's not always in church.

huh? I wasn't even replying to your message?



Whatever it is, I'm not against activities. Like I've said, God is a creative God and dances and other creative arts can be great means to bring people to Him.

I'm sorry, I received an email telling me I had a response on my forum. I just clicked on the link and it pulled up your response that was talking about youth groups. I assumed it was in response to mine. Forgive me I'm new to this stuff.

It's ok

The way I was attracted to Christ was a guy at asked me if I wanted to learn about spirituality. When I talked with him about God it felt different, it was awesome, and I kept wanting to talk more and more about God.



So I think just be willing to spend quality time with them and answer any questions they have.



I'm not sure if this answered the question, but I read submition's post and thought it was cool and felt like sharing some info.



I need Jesus,

Greg W

Amen

Nothing can cause a person to totally surrender their lives to God exceept when He Himself is involved. When God is present, you don't even have to strive by your own will to think of what to do. The funny thing about my youth group is that we never spent a lot of time organising things, as we do the same thing every youth meeting, unlike most (if not all) youth groups. Even our bible studies or other activities on other times are made so simple it requires little preparation, partly because we allowed God to take control, and also because, well, they are not really our main focus. And as for our annual youth camps, well, we are busy only because the crowd will be rather big (for us), which is about 80 people (highschool students only) excluding adults so a lot of things have to be done properly. Other than that, our camps are also simple as we focused a lot on God's presence..even our games do not play a big part as we do not want to tire up the campers so they can worship God at night..and we do not have any other activities than that. Yet, people still come, and the number is increasing by year. Again, I'm not saying that activities are wrong, but in whatever that we do, God must be in it. Young people are hungry for the REAL THING. They know that if this God that tehy've heard about is real, then there must be something more, something that can satisfy them. And the only person that can do that is GOD. So when God is present during a meeting or manifests His presence in a youth group, you will find that young people will just come week after week, month after month, year after year, without much effort on our part. These people are the hungry ones and they are coming to the breadhouse for real bread. They are sick of coming to loook for bread only to find that all is left are crumbs. These people are hurting people. They come because God is present and wherever the Lord is there is love. These people arte in bondage for wherever the Lord is there is liberty. In short, we don't even have to do anything else when God is present, because God will be in charge then. So why not let go and let Him?

Greg, you're right. You see, the more time we spend with God, the more He becomes part of us. The bible says that we then carry the presence of God, and others can see that. There is never a more effective way to share the gospel than to allow God's presence to flow through you. I believe that you knew and you knew that it was the presence of God that made the deifference when talking to that guy. The presence of God satisfies that longing, it heals the deepest wounds, and it changes every life that is open to Him.