‘Fun’ thoughts Vol. 1: When people hear “we have chucked out sport or the silly games in our youth program” why do they hear we have also gotten rid of fun?

I have run or helped run a number of youth groups. Other than my very first experience (where I was committed to a Friday night of games and mayhem in the name of Jesus), I have tried to get rid of the straw in our program and build with gold (1 Cor. 3:10-17). When I tell people that we have “tried to eliminate purposeless games in our youth group” they seem to hear me say, “and we have made our group boring as well!”

I have had this experience many, many times. No matter how many times I try to explain the simple concept of having Christian fellowship where “the fun stuff was Christian and the Christian stuff was fun”. People just keep hearing me say… “boring is better”. In fact, I’ve even had one parent say to me (a few years back) “We are surprised that our daughter loves youth group so much—even though you don’t believe in having fun!”

Maybe I can take a minute or two and try to bring a touch of clarity to this issue…here’s to hoping.

5 Common misunderstandings of running a “Bible-based, we are trying to be a Christian community that has done away will those old purposeless games program”

 1. Getting rid of ‘fun’ means we can be lazy or