Monday, February 4, 2008

Youth Are Nice, They Just Don't Grow A Church

In rant mode, it comes across that I am against youth programming. Or at the very least I am making this an either/or situation. That was not my intention.

Let me state this plainly dear readers. I am not against children/youth and their programming.

I say(and continue to believe) that if a church wants to GROW, they must have a substantive ADULT program. No matter what size their children/youth program, a church does not GROW through said children or youth. They GROW through ADULTS.

This my dear readers is my rant.....there seems to be a backwardness about this that infuriates me. UUs run around in circles talking about wanting to grow then do everything that is antithetical to that growth.

But I shall shut up now before I start another rant.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, Christian churches that are planning to build a new church focus on the nursery first. They know that bringing families and having children's programming is central to growing a church. I have always thought that the UU was slow on the uptake on that one.

Real Anonymous said...

That is still growth by adults. The adults bring the children.

Most research shows that growing churches are growing because they have something that keeps the adults involved.

About the nurseries.....are we talking about actual nurseries? Or proramming for very small children? Because you are right in one sense, a church that doesn't have a good nursery doesn't grow either. But I'm talking about the physical space and professional childcare.

I would argue about bringing in families....but I don't think we're talking about different things.