> (friends)
> To understand this you likely need to know something about my church Youth Group (aka the Youth types). The group is for highschool students grades 9-13. We have adult leaders and meet officially once a week.
> I think it must have been the adult leaders that started the trouble with youth group. There were geting to be a few too many of them (form my opinion anyway) and they seemed to have a lot of meetings behind closed doors. Last year I suddenly became one of the older youth (being in grage 12). Those older than me and even the one other person my age were not very active in the group.
> Around this time I started attending a christian group at my school. I was very impressed. They had one adult leader but only because it was required by the school that they have adult supervision. All of the activities were run by the youth themselves. The more I became involved with this new group the more my old youth group began to bother me. The heavy leader involvement was the frist thing that got on my nerves. Why did the leaders have to have their secret meetings before each night of Youth? The next thing was the seeming lack of substance in the tuesday night lessons. It didn't seem that we were ever taught anything new or got any deeper than we had before. It became very frustrating
> I realized now that this was the reason that those older than me chose not to participate very much in the group. There is a flaw somewhere in the way the group is run that frustrates the older youth until they cut themselves off from the group in one way or another. I felt like quitting all together
> I didn't want to quit though, for several reasons. Most importantly, the youth group has been my social life for a while now. Everywhere I go and everytime I do something with friends its usually the Youth types. I didn't want to lose that just because I could no longer sit though regular meetings without difficulty. I also felt a kind of debt to the group. I can see how the influence of people in the group in years ahead of me positively influenced my current character. I felt somehow obligated to stick around to be the same thing to those younger than me.
> Unfortunatly I think I have indeed lost my youth group. I'm looking for a new one, I guess, and I hope to continue to go to my old one sporadically. I've found that as the new school year has started there doesn't seem to be any place for me there at all anymore.
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> Rivi "It all seems too simple in black and white" kah


Is is possible the secret meetings by the adult leaders before the event is a prayer & preparation time? (If it's not, then it should be!--and perhaps it could be something students could also participate in.) Did you approach any of the leaders to find out what's up with this?

It impresses me that you feel an obligation/responsibility to the younger kids in the group--that is awesome. Do you think God could be directing you to a deeper leadership role in this group? Do you think God showed you that great student led group at the school to prepare
you for revitalizing your own church group? (Scary thought, hunh!!)

I know just what you mean about the mid-week get-together being...non-challenging. My church has sometimes used the mid-week as a "social" thing for the youth, trying to make it non-threating enough so that you could bring your un-churched friends and they would feel pretty comfortable. That concept has its merits. But, for the regular church goer who wants to mature in their spiritual relationship with God....it's just not filling that need. I think the church leadership has recognized this and are offering this fall a separate discipleship course for "core" youth (with the social stuff on a different night, like every other week). Maybe your leaders need some feedback from you on this...maybe they need some fresh resources....maybe they need to want to deepen their own spiritual life too--maybe all of the above. I really hope you can find a way to talk to them.

I know too what you mean about the "mountaintop" experience you hoped for at the convention, but didn't feel. Guess you are in good company, it happened to King David too--see Psalm 10, 22, & 83--where it seems to him that God is very far off. But look at how each Psalm ends--with David praising God. Something God has shown me this year, is how important our praise is--it needs to be an integral part of our relationship with Him. Even (especially!) when we don't feel like it. It is an antidote, too, when we're feeling flat.

Hope this may help some.

koala"every valley shall be exalted"mom