Start A "Sunday School Youth Apprentice Program"

Teenagers want to be involved in the program of your church and Sunday school. They want to know that they are needed and have an opportunity to make a positive contribution to their church, their Lord and other people. Are you giving them that opportunity?

One way to do this would be to create a "Sunday School Youth Apprentice Program." The idea would be to come up with a list of ways that the youth of your Sunday school could be involved both within and through your church to serve others.

This list might include things like being teachers’ helpers in the children’s department of the Sunday school, Sunday school record keeping, devotional leader for the Sunday school or worship service, nursery helper, PA system operator, etc. Neighborhood activities might include doing lawn work for the elderly, shopping and running errands for shut-ins, etc.

You might even create a new program for the youth to run such as a "Sunday school tape ministry," where they would record different adult teachers each week and take the taped lessons to shut-ins and nursing homes.

When planning a youth apprentice program, there are two important things to keep in mind: 1) Don’t take kids away from their regular Sunday school classes too often. We suggest that they should be required to be in class half the Sundays each month. They need to be learning, too. 2) Don’t just create "busy work." Make the youth and their work a meaningful part of your ministry.

The program might be led, promoted and administered by an adult couple who are especially good with the teens. It is a good idea to have the youth involved in planning the program and, as much as possible, in helping to run it.

Not only will a program of this type help to provide needed assistance to your Children’s Department Sunday school teacher and for other important needs in your church and community to be met, but getting the youth involved will help keep them in Sunday school and church today and help train leaders for tomorrow.

(This article appeared in the "Spring, 1996" issue of "The Herald.")