“It’s Not Taco Tuesday, It’s Worship Wednesday”

A few weeks back, on Ash Wednesday, our mid-week youth ministry stuff changed things up a bit by combining all of the generations stuff into a single worship night.

On a typical Wednesday night students in grades 5-12 are on campus but largely meet by age-group. 5th & 6th grade, 7th & 8th, 9th – 12th grade each have their own small group happenings within about 200 yards of one another in their own rooms. These ministries are largely autonomous and each take on their own, age-appropriated formats.

I have mostly freshmen in my small group. But they aren’t the kind of freshmen who have to only be around high schoolers… they were just fine with the middle schoolers mixing in. But there was resistance & downright cynicism by some of the older high school students about the value of giving up their small group night to hang out with elementary and middle schoolers.

It’s Not Taco Tuesday, it’s Worship Wednesday

There were a number of different elements to the night. Some worship stuff, some experiential stuff, some self-reflection, and some brief small group time.

But a funny thing happened as the night went on. The hesitancy and cynicism that all the overall feeling that all these age groups shouldn’t be there… kind of melted away.

In the end, students kind of collectively let go of their we-shouldn’t-be-together-ness and embraced it for what it was: A single night where we came together as a ministry and worshipped together.

During the last couple songs I nudged one of the guys in my small group.

One asked, “This is awesome, right?

The other proclaimed, “Yeah, it’s not Taco Tuesday. It’s Worship Wednesday!

Amen for both Taco Tuesday– a glorious and glutinous tradition. And Worship Wednesday– a glorious gathering of a generation of students offering their night to the Lord.


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2 responses to ““It’s Not Taco Tuesday, It’s Worship Wednesday””

  1. Charles Kennedy Avatar
    Charles Kennedy

    So are you guys going to do more combined ministry events? The narrative I have been told is that combing middle and high schoolers together means that your ministry is a marker that your ministry is dying and will never work in the long term. Do you believe this narrative to be true?

    1. adam mclane Avatar

      Well, we did it once for Ash Wednesday. So it’s not a normal thing we’re doing. And the church itself is growing and doing just fine.

      I don’t think any generalization about what is good or bad for everyone holds any water. In reality, we all just make adaptations that make sense in our context.

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