Youth Group Covenant

On Sunday morning, the Youth Group signed the Youth Group Covenant.

Covenants have been part of our experience as the people of God almost since the beginning of time. In Genesis, God makes His covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth by water, and then makes the great covenant with Abraham that sets the stage for the rest of human history, declaring that He will make Abraham into a great nation, through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed. As time progresses, God makes a new covenant with His people, sealed with the blood of Christ, promising to never leave us and to someday bring us home to be with Him.
But God is not the only actor in the great covenants He has made with us. In order for the covenant relationship to continue, God's people had to keep their end of the bargain--if they kept the terms, then God would bless them, if they did not, God would bring upon them the covenant curses (which is eventually what happens in the exile). Far from seeing this as some sort of authoritarian rule, however, God's people rejoiced that God, who really didn't need them at all, would show them such love as to come down and build up a relationship with them. And this is still the covenant we live under--God pursuing us to build up a never-ending relationship with Him.

So, what does this have to do with the Youth Group? Besides the fact that the members of the Youth Group are also in a covenant relationship with the God who loves them, we also began a covenant relationship within the Youth Group on Sunday morning. Our covenant consisted of me making some promises to the Youth Group, like promising to work hard to provide them with a great Youth Group experience, promising to listen, and promising to love and care for them, while they kept their end of the bargain--treating me, one another, the youth room, and the rest of the congregation with respect. If they keep the covenant, we will have a great relationship. If not, there are some covenant consequences they will have chosen. And while we didn't initiate the covenant OT-style, with smoking firepots and sacrificed animals, we all did sign a copy of the covenant, which I will keep in my office.

I hope that this agreement will help me to have a great relationship with the Youth Group, and I hope it will help the members of the Youth Group build great relationships with one another and with the rest of the congregation. If you would like a copy of the Youth Group Covenant, I would be glad to give you one.