Entertainment in Youth Ministry Meetings
Apparently there’s a “greater” debate out there between whether today’s teens are the smartest or the dumbest generation America has ever seen.
I’m not going to lie: There are a lot of things to worry about. To put it plainly, this is the most ADD generation we’ve probably ever seen. Attention spans range from 3-5 seconds, and if they’re not entertained, they’ll leave you in an instant.
How should that affect our youth group meetings? Many times we scramble to keep teens’ attention and draw them into the message or Bible lesson with games and other entertainment. But let me warn you: Entertainment is a slippery slope.
When you entertain a young person, they only want more. One video game, TV show, movie, or iPod is never enough. It’s always about the next one, the latest and greatest, what’s hot and what’s new.
The same happens in youth group. Make them laugh this week and they will ask for more next week. When we use “entertainment” to draw them in, to some degree, that’s what they’ve come to expect. Then they fall into their usual cycle: That was fun, but what’s next? I want something better!
The truth is that we just can’t keep up. We’re competing against MTV, Apple and Hollywood. So many teens leave youth group because it’s just not cool anymore and there’s more fun to have other places. We tried to keep them entertained didn’t take them deeper.
Entertainment cannot be our foundation. It must be something more: The forgiveness and peace of the Lord, and the excitement, passion and purpose that comes only from Him. Now that’s something the world can never compete with! When a young person truly catches on, they’ll never leave. (Dear Lord, help us! Work in our students’ hearts!)
Entertainment is a great seasoning, but it’s nothing without meat. This can be the greatest generation in history to make a stand for Christ, and we’re in the perfect position to help them get there.
Originally posted on www.effectiveym.com.
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Student ministry needs to keep its focus on that… ministry. It has been my experience that students want something authentic and meaningful that is worthy of their time. Besides, I’m not that entertaining… I can’t create enough “material.” If we reduce ourselves or the gospel to keeping kids entertained, we’re diminishing our God. Let’s have great confidence in our Message that we don’t need to “bait and switch” with Xbox 360 giveaways on Outreach Night.
Great thoughts Ryan. Thanks for sharing. Although I don’t think it’s intrinsically bad to give away an Xbox, we do tend to emphasize those things a bit more than we probably should.
Obviously Jesus Christ has to be the foundation of any ministry inside the church. But when it comes to entertaining, it is definitely a priority. The definition of the word entertain is hold ones attention agreeably. There are many ways to entertain someone. But entertainment doesn’t have to be a game or a funny story. We can entertain people by presenting the gospel in a way that is relevant to them. I believe that if were are plugged into our source, Jesus Christ, we will be able to entertain our students with the message that changes their life. God will provide the things we need to accomplish what He wants to accomplish.
We are His instrument to be used by Him!
Great post and I couldn’t agree more. The frustration for many a youth pastor is that although we resist the temptation to entertain, we know that the church down the road is probably offering all sorts of entertainment as a way to attract youth.
first of all what a great blog.
How would you define entertainment in our YM? Video games? Games? events that are fun?
If we are really relying on entertainment, how does a youth pastor slowly take entertainment out of the program? It seems like the students will need a huge re-culturing.
In the past I have found that students are pissed when youth group is focused on the fun and games.
Lastly, I think our kids need to be untaught the entertainment theology that is very present in many churches and youth ministries across the nation. And this is where the hard part comes in.
I must also say that the more I do youth ministry the more I hate the entertainment side to it because I think how much difference can it make plus how many budget dollars are being spent on it and can we really compete with all the cool stuff out there?
This also ties into how you view reaching the lost in your ministry philosophy. For example seeker churches tend to want to draw people in with some sort of event. Other churches are more focused on the current believers and training these believers to go and reach others for Christ.
The question that should always be asked is: What does the Bible say (our ultimate authority) and if it is silent on the issue – I do believe there are liberties, however, we have all we need from the Bible to do what we need to do.
Personally I would love most all of the youth ministry budget to be equipping and training adult leaders so that they become experienced adult mentors for the students that have a passion to see the students discipled. These adult leaders would “adopt” a student or two when they reach middle school and stay with them in a spiritual mentoring role until they graduate high school. How cool would that be? What kind of impact could there be if you were able to duplicate yourself in ministry like that and really make some life long connections for these students with an adult willing to disciple them.
Yeah, I think youth ministries think they are doing something right when lots of kids are coming. However, that’s really not the case. I am 22, and I only know two other people from my youth group who are still in church because everyone was going for social hour. They never truly learned how to follow Christ. Many of them went to summer camp (with all the smoke and lights), and were “saved”. But where are they now? They are out with the rest of the world. I would rather have a youth group of 10, where they are learning to become better disciples of Christ and growing deep roots and being challenged in their views, than a youth group of 50 where maybe 2 of them become true disciples of Christ and stay faithful in college. Obviously, the ideal would be to have a huge group where every student is being discipled into a true, deep relationship with Christ. But that just doesn’t always happen.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with having fun, it’s good and healthy to have fun. But we shouldn’t keep things light and shallow to keep them “fun”. It’s like we try to shield them from the reality of the hard things of faith. Hmm… and the idea of giving away an xbox is a little weird to me. I’ve always gone to smaller churches which don’t have much money. And my dad is a pastor of a mid-size struggling church. I just think that money could be used for something more productive like helping another church in need (unless it was donated by someone who doesn’t want it anymore).
I agree with You, some time entertainment become a trap for Youth ministry. Youth leader think all that stuff become the purpose of their ministry. They Forget about the core of Youth Ministry.
I think we must put entertainment to the right place.
Entertainment just as a tool to explain or illustrate the Word of God.
But in other side In my country Indonesia many youth leader not know how to use entertainment to reach and to teach their students. example, they not know how to use Movie, game or music to illustrate their message even they have a projector or multimedia in their church. I think some youth leader have a poor knowledge of how to use digital stuff in their ministry.
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