For the next few weeks, I want to focus on our different areas of our ministry at Smithton YF. Many of you will have heard of the things we do at Smithton YF, but you have no idea why we do these things. This week, I will be focusing on Office Hours.
Office Hours is our weekly Wednesday get-together at the Eastgate Centre, the Inverness shopping hub. The agenda is very simple: be together. We meet at around 4:15pm each week, giving students an opportunity to make it to town by foot, on the bus, or with a lift from mum. The name “Office Hours” is not original; I actually stole it from another youth minister. But I really like the name, because it tells the teenagers that these are my office hours — spending time with them.
A typical week will see around 8-14 teens, mixed in age and gender and from three different secondary schools, huddled around a table in the Eastgate food court. We usually sit between the burger joint and Pizza Hut and often have to join two tables and snag chairs from other tables to accommodate the numbers. Given the location, most of the teens find something to eat (the KFC Snack Box is the top seller), kick back, and talk about the joys and struggles of their week.
While the main purpose of Office Hours is to simply meet together in the middle of the week, there are other advantages:
1. We learn how to be missional in our everyday activities. Though the students may not realize it, straightening chairs and picking up after ourselves each week is a ministry in itself. The attendants who normally clear and clean the tables in the food court have recognized our efforts and even thanked us many times for serving them. We also become regulars at the various fast food places and are able to get to know the staff members. For example, since many of the teens (and myself on occasion!) buy food from KFC, we have befriended some of their staff, including a Muslim man named Anwar, who has shared his experiences with Ramadan and has expressed an openness to know what we believe as well.
2. It breaks down barriers between schools, gender, and age. The ages of the teens range from 12-18, and they all get along fairly well. Youth groups can easily become segregated, but Office Hours has built a bridge between the demographics. Though I have no statistics to prove my point, I believe youth groups grow much deeper when the older ones befriend the younger ones and vice versa. When the 12-year-old can talk to mum and dad about a rugby conversation with his 17-year-old pal at youth group, it makes him want to keep going. There are no bullies. There is no intimidation from the older teens, because they all know one another through their midweek get-togethers. It is very difficult to keep the older youth at a high level of involvement in church and youth group (especially after they get their driving license!), so it is important to encourage relationships between the younger and older students.
3. It builds leaders. The more the youth worker/pastor/leader meets with teenagers, the more he/she can teach them about what it means to be a Christian in life. I have noticed that the ones who come to Office Hours are the ones who are at just about every other youth group event, activity, or gathering. They’re the ones who participate the most and lead the most. Now, there are certainly other leaders who don’t come to Office Hours, but it seems like there is some kind of correlation between Office Hours and youth group leadership. Again, no statistics but just what I’ve observed.
I’m leaving here in a few months, but I’m hoping Office Hours continues to run with whomever is replacing me. It has been rewarding for the teens, but it has also been very rewarding for me as well.
21 March 2011