This is something that baffles me.
I find it hard to believe that in this present day and age, there are churches which are disconnected from the youths and children. They still stick to redundant principles of worship and adopt the same principles in their youth and child ministries. How can a church connect with the children unless it indulges them in a few games? Why do churches frown upon conducting games for the youth and children? Isn't that a wonderful 'Ice Breaker'? On the other hand, I see churches which connect with the youngsters through a fear factor. They preach the message of a fearful, trigger-happy and violence-prone God who would punish them for breaking the laws He laid down. I fail to understand how they can even expect the youngsters of this generation to accept a God who does not sound approachable at all!
Two days back, I had the blessed opportunity of participating with a few members from my church's youth ministry, in an outreach program for kids from 12 to 22 years of age. These members were quite broad-minded so they had brought along two couples who ministered among the youths through the YMCA program (they were not from our church). We split the day between the two groups - we led the worship and shared the word of God, while they conducted lesson-based games for the children. It was amazing to see how the couples got the kids active and pumped up through simple games and activities. I was thrilled to see even the teenagers joyfully participating in the games. At the end of every game, they conveyed a simple lesson for the kids to take home.
In my church, we never have activities like this because such activities are forbidden in the church. Any youth or children's service in our church goes like this -
2 hours of worship
A 10-minute break for coffee/tea
2 hours of group activities (discussions on some issue pertaining to youths)
1-hour lunch break
1 hour of worship
1 1/2 hours of sermon
Half an hour of worship
~End of youth retreat~
A few months back, there was a similar outreach program when some of the members from our team had criticized these two couples for dishonouring the presence of God. These members had the audacity to tell them that playing such games was wrong and that they were violating the sanctity of God's presence. Thank goodness that we did not invite those critics for this outreach program.
So yeah.. I don't understand why churches refuse to connect with youths and children. But, when these youths stop coming to church or these children drop out of Sunday School, they blame it on the devil and on the world. Open your eyes! The enemy is within you!