Tuesday, July 14, 2009
AYs are not Youth Meetings
For those who know what AYs is, you may have attended or still do attend these Saturday afternoon meetings at Adventist (mainly ethnic) churches. AYs - as in 'Adventist Youth' meetings - are not meetings for Youth. They never were, and probably never will be. They are family meetings. So? So we need to do the whole deal differently.
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3 comments:
Very true & valid comments. Just, how do we do it differently?
Even though we plan AYs with youth in mind & the media/music/message delivered reflects that, we still get 35+ age group accounting for half the congregation. We've resorted to dropping the name/term "AYs" and calling it "YouthChurch" to no avail. Suggestions include running a separate program for the older ones at the same time.
Any other ideas?
I find this post so true. While they are called "AY"s they are actually a afternoon program-me for the whole church family. While some think that its mainly confined to ethnic churches the truth is that other churches around the world also have AY programs. From little pacific islands to large American cities.
While it is not a Universal Adventist program-me it still is present within the church.
As a youth i think the problem is with the distinctions being made between youth and Church. This has led to the Youth being more involved in the Youth Society stuff rather than the church as a whole. While this is good, i believe that churches must give youths a sense of ownership in the church and of the church. The AY programme is one such gateway.
I think that instead of planning AYs with the youth in mind, It is the youth who should PLAN the AYs with the church family in mind.
For it is a Family programme run mainly by the youths.
Also we seem to be stuck on only one format. The are a hundred different ways to spice up the AY programme and still maintain the interest from both young and old.
I think it was the Trans Pacific Union that recently came up with a booklet on AY programmes. A must read it has some very good ideas on how to run AYs a little differently.
AYs are a wonderfull time to spend with the church family. If done well AYs sometimes deliver a massage more clearly than a sermon!!
Further more they are not meeting but a time for fellowship....adding variety will spice it up!!
AYs Never were and never will be a Youth Meeting.
the only way to maintain AYs is to add variety to the programme and get more people involved, from the young ones right up to the old guys.
Dividing the congregation and creating a "youth-church" may look good at first but in the long run i see that it will degrade the church of some of its most precious values.
I agree with the points presented. AYs for me has always been a time during certain Sabbath afternoons (fortnightly or once a month) to have less formal programs for the Church and encourage the Youth to organize, participate and lead out. Another aspect was it allowed our young people to develop their skills and talents in providing a programme for Church, Spiritual and Fellowship purposes. This gave an opportunity for programs to be presented in a less formal, more interactive and interesting format not only for young people but for the Church at large (patience permitting). AY's was also a way to invite or be invited by other churches and fellowship together.
On the other side, there are some challenges which our church will need to address in the coming year. These include:
- lack of interest or commitment from parents to bring their Teen/Youth aged kids for practise, run thro's or the actual program.
- lack of ownership or willing proactive participation from the church at large to ensure the success of the program. A program which helps to minister to our Youth and make church more interesting for them and us.
- Nurture more (young) leaders and growth in our church.
I am not sure what challenges you face, but I hope we can share these and the resolutions found.
This 2009 year has been a year of initiation and foundation building for our Youth services in our newly adopted church that has been very traditional and conservative, predominantly European, middle aged and has had only a handful of youth & children (combined) for a long while. This year it has grown significantly largely due to migration of families with children & Youth. While there are a few more Youth aged people now, there is a large number of kids that will start to become Teen & Youth age in the next few years - including my daughter. It is my hope that the foundation we lay today will result in those new up and coming Teens & Youth seeing church as a special & joyous place, and because of that, they will readily embrace and lead our church into future. I think this is something all of us want to see.
God bless & Christian regards.
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