A PRACTICAL THEOLOGY OF... A MAGNETIC YOUTH ROOM

Group, Jul/Aug 2005 by Surdacki, Walter

IN OUR LAST ISSUE WE OFFERED CREATIVE MAKEOVER IDEAS FOR YOUR YOUTH ROOM IN THE ARTICLE "TOTAL MAKEOVER: YOUTH ROOM EDITION."1 In this issue we explore home base from another angle-a practical theological angle. This is the fourth in Walter Surdacki's six-part series on the theological foundations for everyday youth ministry challenges.

Not long ago I visited a friend's youth room-it couldn't have been more typical of the adolescentius hangoutius species. I sat down on one of several thirdhand couches pockmarked with rips and tears. The walls were decorated with posters and cutouts of slightly less-than-current Christian music groups. And slumped in the corner there was a broken TV tethered to an Xbox.

On this day, for some reason, I asked myself: "Is this what a youth room is supposed to be?" I had no quick answer, and that meant I couldn't let it go.

At my first two churches, I had the luxury of not having a dedicated meeting space for our youth ministry. Yes, I said not. Sure it's challenging to make a common space work for youth work, but it's more challenging to think through a theological foundation for decorating and furnishing a dedicated youth room. My current church gives generously to our youth program, so I'm wrestling through some basic questions. Is our youth room a recreation zone? a sanctuary for worship? a home away from home? a mini Starbucks? a graveyard for freebie Christian music posters?

Here's what I think: Like everything else in youth ministry, theological guiding principles come into play when we design, decorate, or even build a youth room from scratch.

MAKE IT POWERFULLY...HOMEY

Over and over New Testament writers describe the body of Christ as a family.2 We're brothers and sisters in a deeper, truer family than our own family of origin. That means the place where our youth ministry family meets should feel like home. A real home confirms, over and over, that you are an integral part of a loving community.

In that light, a youth room ought to resemble a family room-complete with throw pillows, warm lamps, cushy rugs, coffee tables, comfy couches, coffee makers, and a refrigerator. A family gathers to debrief their lives in a place that reflects their lives. Kids are looking for a place where they can relax, be themselves, unburden their hearts, and fill their thirsty hearts.

* Display lots of photos. Buy or scrounge big collage photo frames so you can display lots of youth group photos-both fun and serious.

* Showcase kids' creativity. Ask kids to donate their artistic efforts to decorate your room. Build a shelf to display their objects, replace CCM posters with their paintings and drawings, and hang a large bulletin board to tack up their photographs and poetry.

MAKE IT OBVIOUSLY...HOLY

When Moses was up on Mount Horeb, God told him to take off his sandals because he was standing on "holy ground." Likewise, when teenagers walk through our youth room door, we're hoping something holy and sacred happens. Many of our kids show up at youth group because, deep down, they're hoping to encounter God. They're hungering to dive into something bigger than themselves. They're searching for how they fit into God's bigger story.

How can your youth room subtly communicate "holy ground"?

* Have kids take off their shoes. Post a sign outside your youth room door that tells your kids to remove their shoes as a sign of respect for the holy ground inside. Include the passage from Exodus 3:5 on the sign. After you first post the sign, teach about that passage prior to your worship time. You're aiming to change the way your teenagers experience the four walls of your youth room. It's not just a place; it's a holy place-set apart by God.

* Decorate with iconography. I grew up Catholic, but I'm on staff at a Protestant church. One thing I miss from my upbringing is all the iconography most Protestant churches exclude from their décor. Icons serve to direct our thoughts toward God, and remind us of his greater story and our connection to it.

* Do a Google search for images of stained glass, crosses, and other religious symbols (or search on Amazon.com for CD-ROMs of religious symbols). Print them on glossy photo paper and use spray adhesive to mount them on foam-core shapes. Then attach them to your walls or hang them from your ceiling. Or simply print large words such as "grace," "forgiveness," "sacrifice," and "redeemed;" then mount and hang them in the same way.

All kids get distracted-why not surround them with images and words that remind them of God's great truths, one of Jesus' parables, or God's created beauty.

MAKE IT WARMLY...INVITING

First impressions matter, and your lighting, background music, and furniture telegraph your ministry's emotional climate to your kids.

* Get creative with your lighting. Install dimmers on your lights, bring in lamps and turn off your overhead lighting, string Christmas lights, or set up floating candles around your room to set a tone that's warm, conversational, and relaxing.

* Arrange every piece of furniture to fuel conversation. Arrange chairs in a circle so kids can face each other, or remove your chairs and replace them with beanbags or large pillows.