Progressive Dinner

Last night was our annual progressive dinner. It's sort of the year-ender for our student ministry...and everybody came dressed up with gag-gifts afoot. They progressed all right. Appetizers in the youth room. Soups and salads in area homes. Main course in our church's cafe/foyer. A good time was had by all.

So, a few observations:

Is it me, or do freshman girls look "older" these days? Even as young as they are, they looked so grown up when they were dressed up...with more make up and hair done up all all that they seem to me that they looked older than their years...in a good way.

Dressed up to a guy means something entirely different than dressed up to a girl. I don't think that changes when you get older, either. To them, sneakers, dockers and a button down was dressed up. All the girls were in nice dresses and shoes, etc.

The food is irrelevant to the experience at this gig.

Some of the college age kids come back to help serve and set up. This year I witnessed two extremes: There were two girls who were engaged and that was very exciting, for them and for me because I think they've chosen well. I think young men are more likely to go in debt for rings these days...very impressive rings for the women they love.

The other extreme was that two of the girls are in their mid-twenties and while the girls younger than they were (in some cases by 5 years) were showing their engagement rings, these girls were jokingly flashing their rings from True Love Waits...a Biblically-based program in which teenagers agree to uphold biblical standards regarding sex until marriage. I'm impressed by their willingness to uphold these standards, even after a decade of going through the course.

Going against societal trends, Christian girls are getting married younger these days. At least in our neck of the woods.

The "white elephant"/don't buy anything gag gift exchange is funny no matter what. It's a slam dunk for teen entertainment. There were belly dancing instructional videos and road cones and SpongeBob toys and trophies from older sister's athletic accomplishments...that teens would actually steal from each other. The hit of the party was an authentic boomerang and a stuffed animal from "Finding Nemo." They were frozen pretty quickly.

It's nice how parents get involved in our ministry...even if they weren't serving, they were attending and excited to be taking pictures of their kids and friends (or their friend's kids) all dressed up. They also knew when to stay in the background.

I'm not sure of the reasons, but college kids serving at this event isn't quite as high a priority as it used to be. Maybe it's the ramping up of communication (namely Instant Message and cell phones), or maybe it's that our college ministry has it's own party now and didn't used to, but there was a time when the kids in their freshman and sophomore years all came back to see everybody and renew their relationships. In fact, we'd have 25 college kids for 40 high schoolers. Last night, we had 10 for 85. It was plenty, and it worked, but it's just the "vibe" that seems to have disappeared.

The days of the RSVP are so far gone it's scary. And I don't think people realize that when they RSVP and tell me they'll pay that night, that we had to turn kids away who wanted to come. Then their kids don't show. They don't pay. And because of their selfishness, some teens didn't get to attend. It doesn't make me mad as those kids who wanted to get in should've signed up earlier, too. But the reality is that youth pastors do indeed keep mental notes on this stuff and do choose not to bend over backwards to help you the next time. You cannot teach class, or manners, or even thoughtfulness and respect...and prestige, money and influence can't buy those things.

You can't have as much for $5 doing anything else. I think everybody had a great time and enjoyed themselves.