R e v i t a l i s e t h e c h u r c h
Format of the weekly Friday fellowship for teenagers in the church aged 12 to 17 years – 19:00 to 20:30...
By Andrew Mackinnon
Open up one of the church buildings with all of the seats stacked to one side on Friday evening from 19:00 to 20:30 so that all of the teenagers in the church aged 12 to 17 years at the start of the calendar year can meet to enjoy socialising with each other in an entirely unstructured manner with no set agenda at all. It’s simply a time at the end of the school week for these teenagers to enjoy each other’s company and get to know each other better. They can grab some seats to sit around and chat.
The people who should supervise this time of fellowship for these teenagers are their parents who attend the church. They can supervise it on a roster basis. The number of parents required to supervise this time of fellowship is approximately one for every ten teenagers. The parents can socialise and get to know each other better while their teenagers are socialising with each other. It’s best if the parents supervise in pairs as husband and wife so that they can enjoy time with each other at the end of the week on this Friday evening instead of being separated from each other.
Having the parents of the teenagers supervise this time of fellowship for them on a roster basis means that the pastoral staff and other church staff can take Friday off. It’s simply a matter of providing the parents who are rostered on to supervise the teenagers with the keys to open up the church building to be used and to lock it back up when this time of fellowship draws to a close at 20:30.
The early starting time of 19:00 for this evening of fellowship for teenagers in the church is to ensure that it draws to a close at the reasonable time of 20:30. This allows the teenagers, the parents who supervise them and the parents who pick them up to get home by around 20:45 and get to sleep by around 21:00 if they are in a routine of rising early each morning at 5:00.
This early starting time of 19:00 means that the teenagers will need to eat dinner early between 18:00 and 18:30 in preparation for the evening of fellowship. This early dinner obviously requires advance preparation by the parents on this last day of the working week.