So a couple of weeks ago, we didn't have our Sunday morning large group gathering. Instead, we encouraged students to go to church. As an incentive, I did open up the youth room and have snacks available about 30 minutes before the service. But once the service was about to start, I locked the doors, and we all headed up to the auditorium. I was pleasantly surprised how many students ended up coming. Not only were they worshiping with believers of all ages, but most whose families attend our church sat with their families.
We will definitely do this again some time. During a conversation with another youth pastor in our community, I even started to wonder if we shouldn't just shut down Sunday morning large group all together. However, that's an idea I'll need to pray over for a while. We get lots of guests at those gatherings, and we try to cover some tough and deep subjects in our teaching. But for the long run, I'd rather have all those students in the large worship service than in our youth group, if I have a choice between the two. Ideally, the two wouldn't compete for the students' time. Priority one should be worshiping with other believers of all ages, and priority two should be our large group gathering. It's a journey I'm on, and I can't wait to see where God takes us.
