Why I Banished Youth Lock-ins (cont.)
4. Youth lock-ins are not healthy.
Staying up all night is bad for your health. Not just for us old guys, either (although as we age, staying up all night increases risks for stroke!). Many studies have been done on the effects of staying up all night, usually in the context of college students pulling all-nighters.
Staying up all night is dangerous. It literally changes the chemical makeup of your brain, at least temporarily. It causes changes in mood and behavior. Your body creates excess dopamine, which acts as a drug to energize you. While one night will not kill you, it does take several days to recover from the night. And repeated nights will start to effect long-term health.
On top of that, youth lock-ins are not known for their fine dining and healthy cuisine. Pizza. Chips. Cookies. Mountain Dew. We dump tons of junk food and sugar in students’ bodies. I once watched a seventh-grader down two whole two-liter bottles of Mountain Dew. Now I cringe, thinking what happened to his insides as that toxic sludge went to work.
5. They set up false expectations of ministry.
Finally, apart from reason #1, this is the biggest reason I stopped doing youth lock-ins. (And I believe the two are connected.) Lock-ins set up a fake picture of what youth ministry should be. People start to think:
- The event should be wild and crazy, with lots of games and food!
- Lock-ins should get bigger all the time!
- Activities should be high-energy, pushing-the-envelope type stuff!
A friend in ministry held a lock-in every month. He was single and stupid. That’s the only explanation. And yes, he grew his youth group. Lots of teens attended—the fun stuff. But his youth ministry did nothing significant. Students didn’t grow in Christ or participate in service projects. Eventually, this youth worker burned out, and students were worse off than before.
We’ve created a false picture of youth ministry. I did my first lock-in on the first day I started at my first church. We had 40 students. I felt stoked! Then at youth group four days later, we had three students. We never grew much above seven or eight. At the lock-ins, though, we could draw 40, 50 or 60. It never translated.
Final Thoughts About Youth Ministry Lock-ins
Youth ministry is not all glitz and glamour. Yeah, we should have fun. But when we focus on that big event and try to top it year after year, we create a ministry idol. And we need to tear it down.
In my early 20s, youth group lock-ins were so much fun. Now that I’m closer to 40, the thought of staying up all night with a bunch of teenagers sounds less appealing than the medical tests I’m soon due for.
Ironically, I’m finishing this article at 2 a.m. It’s not the lack of sleep but the long-term effects for the Kingdom that concern me. I know that some day when I am standing at the pearly gates, Jesus will not ask me, “So, why did you not play Sardines in my name?”
Instead, He will ask what fruit I bore. He will ask how I spent my time ministering to students. And my answer cannot be, “But Lord, did I not plan lock-ins and order large amounts of pizza?”
How about you? How do you feel about youth lock-ins? I’d love to hear why in the comments!
