It’s interesting that the bulk of the Bible revolves around families and groups of people of varying ages living, working and worshipping together. Yet in many modern churches, the children and even the teens are separated from the rest of the congregation the minute they walk into the building.
It’s really a shame. Our children have so much they can learn from older Christians. To really learn from them though, our kids need to have relationships with them. Oh, they may listen to an occasional comment made by an adult they overheard, but young people learn the most from the people to whom they are closest.
If your church does not provide a lot of opportunities for children and teens to interact with the adults in the church, you can make a difference by inviting special guests to class.
Your guests should be brought in to share how God is working in their lives or how they put God’s Words into practice every day or how they share their faith or serve others. Maybe someone in your congregation has knowledge on a subject of interest to your students. We have a gentleman in our congregation who has a wonderful collection of biblical artifacts. The kids always sit in rapt wonder whenever he comes in and shares part of his collection with them.
Make sure the leaders in the congregation are brought into your room regularly. In a perfect world, they would already know your students. Most of the time though, they are so busy and are often volunteers themselves. They get caught up in all of the adults who grab them and never make it to the children.
Yet the children are the ones who need to know them the most. Who better to model how to be a godly servant-leader than someone who is already doing it? Not only will your students learn a lot, but there is a good chance the leaders will learn some things about their congregation they didn’t know.
So the next time you are planning your activities, think about bringing in a few special guests. Studies have shown, the more relational ties a young person has to a congregation, the more likely they are to remain faithful. So if your congregation isn’t building bridges between the young people and the adults, start building a few yourself.