“All my guys want to do is play video games. I need to figure out how to get them off the couch and engaged in discipleship and ministry.”
This lament, voiced by the youth pastor with whom I shared a seminary carpool back in 2009, would have been unremarkable in most situations. His frustration was representative of a myriad of youth workers over the last several decades.
But as we crept along on the construction-laden Texas interstate that early fall morning, two other realities forged with his complaint to create something of a eureka moment for me. First, during seminary I was serving as the associate director to the senior adult ministry at our church. Second, I had just read a news story the day before about how big box stores were having a hard time keeping Nintendo Wii gaming consoles on the shelves due to the high demand at senior living facilities.
“Wait a minute,” I interjected. “This might be crazy, but do you think you could get your junior high kids to come play Wii with my senior adults?”
Fast forward through some brainstorming sessions, and our church’s teens were doing nursing home and assisted living visitations, bonding
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