This weekend we held our annual youth group progressive dinner. I’m not really suggesting that as an activity for your group. It’s an old idea and maybe not very cutting edge. But, the key word for us is ANNUAL. Our kids look forward to this annual chance to wander from house to house stuffing their faces and talking to their friends.

If you think teenagers aren’t interested in traditions, you have misunderstood them. They love traditions. Why?

• Traditions create memories. They get to talk about what happened the last time you did the activity. The things they do over and over again will likely be the things they will talk about when asked about their youth group experience.
• Traditions provide security. You may have a much better idea for what the group could do, but kids are probably going to prefer to do things they have done before. The world of teenagers is changing so quickly that having some traditions they can count on provides a bit of security.
• Traditions give students something they can invite friends to. A giant water war may be lots of fun, but if your kids think it might flop, they probably won’t invite their friends. However, if this is the third year you have done the water war, kids will have some sense of what is going to happen and will feel more confident about inviting their friends.

So, should we ever kill a tradition? Yep, but we should have a good reason to kill it. If a tradition becomes destructive, kill it. If the tradition eats up too many resources to justify it, you might want to kill it. If a tradition seems to lose its appeal to the kids, kill it.

Think about the traditions in your group. What are they? What makes them fun? What do they do to help your students connect with each other? Connect with you and other leaders? Connect with God?