Attendance

All youth leaders struggle with attendance. When my children were young, I could control when and where they went...what they focused on and whether or not they attended the church youth program. I guess that's been the hardest part for me...having a parent come to me and say, "I just can't convince my child to come..." Perhaps I was wrong, but there was no convincing...they were expected to attend unless there was an unusual circumstance. Imagine how thrilled I was when they hit high school, got their license and chose to be at the youth meetings.

I know that there are other things pulling on the young people...other commitments, other desires but as a parent I felt it was my responsibility to help them balance...after all, they would soon be out from under my wings and making all their own decisions. YouthWorker Movement has a good article addressing this issue:

And on that day that you come to me, wondering why college Johnny isn’t interested in church or God or helping others any more, I probably won’t point out that while we were on mission trip he was doing chin-ups 9 weeks before his next game or memorizing marching patterns for a 3 minute halftime show two months away. Or that while we were doing a youth leadership devotion on the importance of the practice of prayer he was deciding on his favorite scene from “The Hangover” with his buddies in the weight room. But that’s what happened. Or at least part of it.

Read the rest here....