'He's Only Fifteen?'

We are always being asked this about Jack. On his way to his Maths exam in Oxford last week, the bus driver insisted on ID to prove he could have a child's ticket. We don't normally carry ID in this country, though most of us have a photo ID if we have driving licences. You can't drive here until 17 though. So ID can be a problem when you are only 15. Fortunately, he had his passport with him to show the exams officer and so was able to prove his age to the bus-driver.{g}

He has a lot going on in his life right now. EVERY SINGLE evening has some sort of commitment. Actually, some have more than one, which necessitates a quick transition from one activity to another. Band Practice, Athletics Training, Lads' Group, Youth Group, Rehearsals. And none of this is anything we've mandated. They are all things which have arisen more or less naturally, from his interests and abilities. We felt he was At Capacity.

But, this past few weeks, two more commitments have come his way, which we've had to think hard about, pray and make decisions about. A group of local kids, not associated with any church, because the churches round here don't 'do' youth, have got together and now put on their own youth services on Sunday evenings. This has come about totally spontaneously without leading from adults. It's been going for a few weeks and Jack has been asked to lead worship once a fortnight at these. Grace is singing there regularly too.

What I LOVE about this is how counter-cultural and counter-intuitive it all is. They all met at the Costa Coffee evening which is facilitated by a team of youth workers in our town. They decided that the 'missional community' this team had started what too nebulous for them. They decided they wanted a regular worship event to which they could invite their non-Christian friends to which was uncompromisingly Christian.

They decided they did not want to work with adults who would tell them what to do. Brimming over with confidence, they approached a town centre church and asked to use their building on a Sunday evening. This church, to my amazement, said yes, which was very enlightened of them. They provide an adult to lurk in the background, and another youth leader from a different church hangs out that night too, to keep an eye out, but is generally redundant. The kids book their own preachers to give talks, but apart from that, they organise everything. As this develops, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they do their own talks soon. They've already begun a Bible study on a Weds evening.

The context of this is that in this town there is no single church which has more than 2-3 teens who come regularly. Most ministers/church leaders in the area have no clue how to reach or retain teens and don't seem that bothered about it. This whole groundswell movement of Christian teenagers to form their own church and reach their own friends, in the absence of the churches' ability to tackle this effectively, is absolutely gobsmacking to me. The meetings regularly attract about 40-50 kids and at least half of them do not come from Christian families.

Has anyone come across this phenomenon before?

The other major commitment Jack has taken on is as a new member of a rather good local band. It's a kind of Jazz band, so we are pretty astonished, as his interest in music resides mainly in bands with words like 'death', 'plague' or 'blood' in the title, ie NOT jazz bands. Anyway, this band has a couple of gigs coming up, playing for the parade of returning soldiers from Afghanistan to our garrison town and some Mayors' event.

The problem is that he's only one person and I don't know how he is to fit all this into his life AND continue to study for his exams AND help around the house AND have a reasonable relationship with his family. Thank goodness he isn't going to school! {g} I suspect that, strong though he is, committed as he is, something will have to go. His Dad and I are both serious overachiever-type personalities, though we have the wisdom to reign ourselves in a little better these days. {g}

So, do we protect him by curtailing his activities for him? Or do we let him find out for himself how far the elastic will stretch before snapping?

Parenting, eh? Never easy.