to devo or not to devo

Interesting discussion over the last couple of days in different youth ministries on whether or not to have 'devotions' (short message about something to do with Christianity and/or hopefully Jesus) at events/'fun' orientated nights or not.

The logic goes something like this:

• we want young people to bring their friends along
• so we won't do anything dorky which might damage their cred in front of their friends
• 'devotions' are dorky and all kinds of awkward
• ipso facto we won't do devo's.

There is a logic to it. And I want to argue with it.

Granted saying anything religious is awkward in Aussie culture - religion in Australia is a private matter, we all feel that. But when we buy into this cultural awkwardness we concur with the sentiment that our faith is private and is not worthy of having a public voice. When we do this we leave the public sphere to pop icons, marketing, secular voices and status updates. This is not a lesson our young people need to learn from us.

I believe the lesson we need to teach is the Gospel is a public matter, it has a compelling voice and offers profoundly valid alternatives to contemporary wisdom. So do devo's. The logic could go something like this:

• We  want young people to bring their friends along
• We want young people to be confident that when they bring their friends along they will not only have a great time but their friends will hear something from Jesus that is interesting, engaging and could change their lives for the better
• we agree bad and poorly prepared 'devotions' are dorky and all kinds of awkward
• so we will prepare and offer not only our best efforts for events but our best efforts for 'devotions'

My first observation is this. For the young person who attends youth group for the first time, "devo's" are awkward. The second time, they are used to it...this is what these people do here.

Second, what's next after the event nights? What is the next thing a young person is to attend...Church services, Camps or home/bible study groups. I certainly hope Jesus gear/bible is spoken out plainly in these spaces. So get the awkwardness out early.

Finally, in doing this we teach our young people that faith is worth talking about, publicly. Because it is.