Closed for Christmas - Youth
21 12 2005So everyone has heard the debate about churches closing for Christmas this year. I won’t even go into the debate in this post, but I was just wondering about youth ministry. I have found that it is standard practice for most youth ministries to shut down for the holidays. This isn’t just when Christmas or Easter fall on the day of a normal youth meeting, but for a whole week or two during the holidays.
In light of the recent debate about churches closing for Christmas day, I was wondering if anyone sees anything wrong with this. I have heard many reasons that support closing for a season. It gives families more time together. It also gives the staff a much needed break. It doesn’t make sense to have a regular program if the critical mass that is usually there will not be there for that season. All of these sound very much like the reasons for closing churches on Christmas day though. I would love to hear people’s thoughts who work in youth ministry on this.
My youth ministry has canceled all programs and activities for these two weeks, mostly so they have more time to spend with family, so the volunteers have more time, and so it’s not creating more business for crazy schedules. The reaction to this has been mixed: some students are pretty upset that we’re not meeting for two weeks, others are indifferent. I guess it’s a good sign when they’re upset about not meeting together, but not to the point where they’re upset with me about it, ya know? Our church is holding Christmas morning and New Years morning services for those who want to attend, but no Sunday school or anything else for the same reasons I just mentioned. Last year we also canceled youth group for the same time period and no one expressed sadness over it. I wonder what that indicates about the direction our youth ministry has taken over the past year. Hmmm….