Fun 4 Fun's Sake

Two things are required to have an impact in urban youth ministry. The first is a tolerance to flaming hot chips. The second is the ability to have fun.

Fun is vital to urban ministry, where being a kid is a thing of the past. Six-year-olds hang with adults, missing out on their booger-eating years, going straight from watching the Wiggles to running drugs for the corner gang-banger.

For those of you who haven't experienced urban ministry, the big difference is that kids aren't allowed to be kids in the city. Their environment forces them to grow up fast. Latino six-year-olds are the go-between between their non-English speaking parents and bill collectors. Many kids can't play outside, due to gunfire or gang bangers. My husband, who works for the infamous Chicago Public Schools, once had a six-year-old share during Show- And-Tell how her uncle OD-ed on heroin. That sure topped the kid who shared his day at Chuck E Cheese's®! Youth group, especially in an urban setting is one of the few places left where kids can have fun for fun sake, and be a kid.

Along with having fun for fun sake, fun helps kids resolve conflict. Kids in highly stressed environments are likely to react to conflict instead of respond. They have short fuses. Instead of talking a problem out, kids will hit, punch or worse. During free time --in a supervised setting-urban youth can develop skills on how to solve a problem with words instead of weapons. A fight over a foosball table can teach lessons in sharing, anger management, and much more.

Also, it's during that fun time-not during your teaching - that you develop relationships with kids. That's what they will remember -- not the lesson you stayed up to 1am to complete. It's you pouring your time into them over a game of hoops, Uno ® , or just hanging' that will help them experience the love of Christ. That goes for kids in the city as well as in the hicks where I grew up.