Our church is not yet a fully constituted Baptist Church, although it is a Fellowship of a constituted
Baptist Church. Our church began as a Children's Group and a Sunday School class.
It then grew into a teenager group, as the children grew older and then a Sunday morning church
service was started (about 2 years ago). Then a young adults group, midweek Bible
study and senior citizens group were added. About a year ago, I handed in a proposal for our
Fellowship to move towards an inter-generational family worship service on a Sunday morning.
The leaders decided to close the Sunday School, which was meeting during the morning service,
and move it to a Friday evening. They decided to set aside Friday night for age-specific ministry
and Sunday morning for age-inclusive ministry.
Age-Inclusive Ministry:
On a Sunday morning we have a family worship service. We involve children, teenagers, young adults and adults in a family worship event. We do allow the younger children, between the ages of birth and about six to go to a creche, after or during the time of praise. We have an adopt-a-child emphasis where an adult who sees a child sitting alone goes and sits with them. They
become their parent for the duration of the service. We try to include all ages in the worship by involving them in the worship - ie. singing songs that the different groups know and enjoy; involving a person from each age group in public reading or testimony; giving children worksheets to fill in; etc. The sermon is the difficult part - as children cannot concentrate for a forty minutes speech. We have tried to get preachers to limit the length of their message and include all ages in their application and illustrations. I have made a suggestion to have three equal segments of ministry during the morning worship hour: 20 minutes worship; 20 minutes sermon; 20 minutes discussion groups. The discussion groups, divided into children, teens, young adults and adults, focus on how the message applies the different age groups. The service concludes with a brief reports back from each group. Follow this link to an article on Family Worship.
Age-Specific Ministry:
On a Friday night the community center where we meet is used for the children and teenage meetings. These ministries are based on Commitment-Level Programming and include the various aspects of ministry, such as: making contact with new youth; building relationships; sharing the Gospel; discipleship and education; opportunities for service and training for leadership. The groups have different events at different times to ensure that programming is specific. The young adult group is also structured around commitment levels, different events to attract newcomers; share the gospel and disciple believers. We have appointed a Youth Council to oversee the three areas of ministry: children, teenagers and young adults. This will help us to co-ordinate the ministries' curriculums, transitions and resources. A youth pastor will function as ministry co-ordinator with a youth leader responsible for each age group ministry. Friday night also includes seminars from time to time for adults on an issue like parenting; and at present parents who drop children off are invited to a home near the center for fellowship over coffee.
I realize that this approach for most churches would appear too radical in terms of the change it requires. The alternative is to find some way to ensure that the ministry among youth is co-ordinated and that Sunday School and Youth Ministry do not work in opposition to one another.
Return to Model of Youth Ministry