Youth Care
Youth Care
Youth care requires us to ensure their care before the stage of youth.
For the young person who deviates in a serious deviation provides a practical proof that spiritual values were not planted deeply in him during his childhood, or that he did not find complete care when he was a boy or a child. It is rare for deviation to afflict him suddenly and to find him ready for this deviation without resistance from firmly rooted principles. Therefore, caring for youth begins from the period of childhood, continues and follows during the period of boyhood, and develops until it reaches the stage of youth.
We must also observe the influences that affect youth.
External influences:
The young person leaves his home to a wider society that contains influences that differ and vary from the atmosphere of the home and family, including the environment of friendship, study, surroundings, the club, the media, and the atmosphere of society as a whole.
1- The influence of friendship on him:
How deep this influence is, especially if his friends have a deeper personality toward which he feels a kind of attraction, so he enters into its scope and may become an image of it. How true are the following words of one of the writers:
“Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are.”
Because we do not guarantee the type of friendships that our youth are exposed to in the wide society, we wish to provide for them friendships in our spiritual society: in the church, in youth meetings, in spiritual activities, in the church club, in Sunday School, in university fellowships. We thank God that these fellowships are under the care and guidance of the church.
2- Here we ask with complete frankness: what is the effect of the atmosphere of Sunday School on youth?
We notice that the number of Sunday School students is large in the primary stage, then begins to decrease in the preparatory stage, and decreases even more in the secondary stage. What are the reasons for all this?
Curricula and speakers:
Perhaps the reason for the decrease goes back to the curricula, or the speakers, or the level.
We may not respect the mentality of youth or their age in what we present to them of curricula and information, as if they are still before us in the stage of childhood.
We must not forget that we are in the age of computers, in the age of the internet, and what technology has provided of vast information that has greatly raised the intellectual level and level of knowledge of youth. What we used to study in the forties about age stages and the characteristics of each stage has become very different from the level of these stages in the nineties. Therefore, curricula and teaching methods must develop to suit this intellectual development.
Youth come to church to find what satisfies their minds and their spirits.
This satisfaction does not suit the old method of rote instruction. They want to be convinced of everything they hear, and conviction suits the method of dialogue. Therefore, leaders of youth meetings should divide their time of addressing youth into a part devoted to the lecture and another part devoted to discussing what they have heard.
The discussion should be free, because even givens and axioms have changed their status. Even mere persuasion by a saying of one of the Fathers, or even by a verse from the Bible, is no longer sufficient. Youth need to perceive the spiritual, intellectual, and logical foundations upon which this verse or this saying of the Fathers was built.
It pains me to say that even principles of virtue—especially in Western countries—are no longer matters taken for granted, but also need persuasion. The Ten Commandments also need intellectual persuasion: why did the Lord command this? What is His wisdom in it?
The boundaries of what is forbidden and permitted, right and wrong, need explanation.
It is not enough to say that smoking is forbidden; rather, it must be proven. Likewise in speaking about television, songs, cinematic films, and all that magazines write. The same situation applies to all means of entertainment.
In all this, we open the field for questions and do not reject them, no matter how strange they may seem, remembering the saying of Saint Peter the Apostle: “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15).
This leads us to move to an important point related to the topic, which is:
The required type of speakers or servants of youth classes:
Not every servant is suitable to be one of the speakers in youth meetings, or one of the teachers of a youth class.
The value of a youth servant depends on his personality, the quantity and quality of his knowledge, his ability to persuade and to answer the questions directed to him, his way of dealing with youth, the attractiveness of his style, and the extent of the youth’s appreciation of him.
If these qualities are not available, how easy it is for the number of attendees to decrease, and the reason for this is that the meeting no longer satisfies them.
Therefore, youth servants must be of a distinguished, selected type. They also need awareness, studies, training, and understanding of the psychology of youth.
They understand the mentality of youth, their problems, and what they need, so that the servant speaks to them in a way that suits what is inside them, not by imposing matters on them from outside that are very far from them. For the servant may be in a certain atmosphere, while the youth who listen to him are in another atmosphere.
It is not permissible for the servant to lock youth within the circle of his own personal conviction.
For example, he may forbid them television, while they may ask him: what about the very beneficial information that some of its programs provide? What about listening to the news? What sin is in this? What about sports programs, when we love sports? What about scientific lessons? And what… and what?
As for the servant who is not extreme in his ideas, he is fair and sound in the judgments he issues, distinguishes between what is beneficial and what is harmful, and also focuses on the element of time that television takes from the youth’s day and its proportion in relation to other responsibilities, as well as the extent of control in watching what is beneficial and avoiding what is not beneficial. Thus, youth respect his knowledge and his mentality.
As for judging that everything youth like is forbidden, this is something their mentality no longer accepts. They feel that the servant does not want understanding, and that they cannot live an ascetic atmosphere imposed upon them.
Free time:
Youth also need to solve the problem of free time.
We cannot say to youth: before you there are only spiritual matters—meetings, the library, lessons of hymns, study of the Coptic language, praises, etc. Not all youth are at this level or have this desire, and not all of them have the ability to focus on spiritual work all the time.
From here, the element of amusement and recreation becomes necessary.
This may be in the field of sports, if the church has a place for a club, or in indoor games. In many churches there are various sports teams that enter into matches with other churches, and cups and medals are distributed to them.
Recreation may also be in the field of acting and theater.
Many churches have been able to present successful plays about some martyrs, heroes of faith, desert fathers, or fathers famous in pastoral work or care for the poor. These plays were very successful, even being recorded on cinematic films or video films and exported to countries of the diaspora.
However, I want here to make an important observation: films of martyrdom should avoid scenes of torture that exhaust children who watch them.
Among the activities suitable for youth are scouting and rover groups.
They exist in some churches and have activities that take much of the youth’s time and teach them seriousness. They serve the church in maintaining order in many celebrations and important occasions, and they are trained in leadership tasks and good dealing with the public, along with good appearance and performing duty calmly and without pride.
We must know the talents of youth, develop them, and give them their scope.
There are youth who have musical talent, and the church can train them on types of musical instruments, accompanying some hymns, chants, and songs. From here, choir groups were formed in many churches and had their success in celebrations and occasions. They are trained that music can be used in the religious field, not only in the worldly way, and to realize that religious music is deeper and more influential.
Some youth also have literary talents, such as the ability to write stories, riddles and competitions, compose poetry, or compose songs and hymns. All these have their field in the church, and they can be given the opportunity to benefit from their talents, develop them, and be given opportunities to show and publish them.
Some youth may have talent in drawing. This also can be given the opportunity to draw in the religious field, drawing that accompanies Bible stories or stories of the saints, or to engage in drawing natural or symbolic scenes. Some can be trained in icon painting, if they have the talent.
Others may have a talent for making models, such as making a model of the Tabernacle, the Temple, or a certain church, or engaging in making gifts for Sunday School. Whether they do this as a group or individually, the important thing is that they feel they have a talent that the Lord can use, that is beneficial to the church, and that also occupies their free time.
We must guide youth to use their talents in a spiritual field without deviation, and that the church embraces them all, helps them, and develops them, without pressuring them to follow one specific path. Rather, each one in his own field, but in a spiritual manner.
Much of the use of these talents is suitable for summer activities, and some of it can be during the academic year on a limited level that does not hinder study, which youth should also be urged to pursue. Many churches hold celebrations for academically outstanding students and grant them certificates of appreciation.
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