We did at least one pretty horrendous things in my youth group growing up. Whenever there was a newcomer on a Sunday morning, we would force them to go to the front of the room, sit in an uncomfortable chair, and one of the leaders would ask them some questions (name, school, grade, color of your toothbrush).
Can you imagine being forced to sit in front of a group of peers you didn't know and get grilled like that? How humiliating! What if a student just wandered in and wanted to remain under the radar? Maybe they were just checking it out. And then you shove them into an uncomfortable position. How unwelcoming. How un-Christlike. Do you think doing something like that would ever make a student want to return? Highly doubtful. I would not have returned if that had happened to me.
And this practice was not limited to my youth group. I visited another youth group one time, and they did nearly the exact same thing to me. Except instead of being forced to go up front, I just stood up where I was sitting. It wasn't a problem for me because I was familiar with youth group culture, and I expected it to happen. But imagine if this was a student's first time at a church event. How humiliating.
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