Comments on: My Teen Hates Our Youth Group

By: Courtney Kennedy

Courtney Kennedy — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:25:51 +0000

Me and my sister went through a similar problem. We’ve been going to the same church since we were babies, and we both love it and the people there. However, the church does not have enough teens to have a youth group. In fact, its just me and my sister in the teen age group, all the other kids are between the ages of four and ten. But we have always gone to a youth group. We started out at the kids group at our christian school, then we attended the youth group at my friends church. That one didnt feel right though, so I tried out a youth group my cousin went to. Me and my sister have been going to that youth group for six years now. Its like having two church families and its wonderful! It took us a while to find the right one, but when we found it, it made us a lot happier. Both of us are still very involved with our home church, she is in the choir and I am the sound technichian. We have to compromise on some things, but overall it works great and the youth group really helped me through high school, and is supporting my sister now. We’ve both developed a love for God. Also, I recommend finding a good christian summer camp. We both attended a week long camp every summer and every time was an amazing experiance! Bair Lake in Michigan is a great one!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:25:11 +0000

Hi Bev…I agree that at a certain point it is pretty useless trying to force teenagers to go to church, especially if the church doesn’t have anything that draws the teenager in to want to participate. I don’t agree that it is okay for them not to go to church now, because the Lord wants believers to be in fellowship with one another to accomplish His purposes. Of course you did your job and it is great you took them to church as long as you were able. It is up to them now to make their own choice. Hopefully if they have Jesus in their hearts they will decide to go back to church some day. I went through a similar period myself and after I got married and had children I realized how important it was for them to know the Lord and started taking them to church. That is when my relationship with the Lord really began.

By: Bev

Bev — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:50:37 +0000

Hello: while reading your newsletters, i read this section and i felt i’d write because i went thru the same thing with my teenagers. Basiclly our daughter . . Suffice to say my husb & I were raised Catholic but our families left the church for a variety of reasons, but they never had anything for youths when i was growing up . . maybe it’s different now, i don’t know. Our kids went to Methodist churches with us, until our daughter began hating any type of church . . .and felt left out of some of the youth groups. It got worse and worse to the point of arguments when we’d go to church . . finally in h. school she was in counseling, her counselor let us know if we keep FORCING her to attend Church, things wouldn’t improve, she just made us miserable every Sun . . soooo we let her stay home from Church , it was so much easier than fighting. She’s not a religious person and i wasn’t going to keep fighting with kids, i know how much i HATED going to ‘mass’ when i was growing up. So i couldn’t see forcing my kids to attend any type of church service if they hated it that much . . . . You can’t force kids to like what you like . Both our kids are grown adults now, and are decent loving people, i dont’ care if they go to church or not. They know right from wrong and treat people great , have great jobs and are doing well . . . that’s what matters to me. not fighting about Church.