Christ Presbyterian Church Youth Cell Phone Covenant
Parents, please go over the form below with your student and complete the e-signature section at the bottom of the page. Parents and students must BOTH sign and submit before November 10th in order for students to attend CPYC 2023.
The Christ Presbyterian Church’s Cell Phone Covenant*
At CPYC, students are permitted to bring their cell phones. However, they are only allowed to use their cell phones for 15 minutes a day and only in their rooms. While cell phones are permitted for use, they should not be used during devotions, electives, meals, worship, or service times (ONLY IN ROOMS). Church staff and chaperones reserve the right to take up cell phones if they are being used in inappropriate ways or at inappropriate times. If parents need to contact students during the day, chaperones will have phones available for parents to contact their students. Parents, please partner with us and encourage your student to take full responsibility in this covenant (staff and chaperones cannot fulfill this covenant on our own). Please talk with your students about this covenant to ensure EVERYONE adheres to it and knows what is expected.
Teaching God’s Word
One of the primary purposes of CPC youth trips is for the students to grow in their knowledge and love of God through the preaching, teaching, and singing of God’s Word. The Bible teaches us that God uses the means of grace (His Word, prayer, and sacraments) to both bring non-believers to faith and to grow the faith of believers. Also, more often than not, cell phones are a distraction to the user and bystanders during these times. We want our students to be able to receive God’s Word and spend time in prayer without the distraction of their cell phones or other’s cell phones. We take up students’ cell phones every week during youth group. This policy will not be a new practice, but only a more extended practice of what we already expect, so they can grow in their love and devotion toward God and towards each other.
Relationships
Part of our vision for our youth ministry is to “nurture godly relationships.” While cell phones can indeed be a tool for nurturing relationships, they are more often a tool students use to disengage from the people around them. We want our students to be fully engaged with other brothers and sisters in Christ, so they can learn to be in relationship with each other—a fundamental biblical principle. Youth trips have great potential for students to grow in their relationship with each other and with God. The CPC youth cell phone covenant exists to help students fulfill this relational potential.
Safe Place
Cell phones and many other electronic devices have access to the internet and therefore have access to endless content—some of which is detrimental to the students’ spiritual and emotional development. It is impossible for our leaders and chaperones to monitor all these devices. The maturity and curiosity levels of students, combined with unmonitored access to the internet, factors into our policy. The CPC youth cell phone covenant will help protect students from being exposed to harmful content.
Also, while cameras on cell phones are great to capture memories, they can also be dangerous. The living situations (changing clothes, showers, using the bathroom) and the (sometimes) thoughtlessness of students can lead to inappropriate pictures or videos being passed around or posted online. There are several cases where teenagers have been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography because they posted inappropriate pictures of their peers. The CPC youth cell phone covenant exists to protect our students.
There have also been issues in the past of students taking other students’ phones and inappropriately using them. This can be true both of our youth group or another youth group. Therefore, cell phones are only to be used inside the students’ room. These policies, again, are for the safety of our students from themselves and others.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our covenant or would like to discuss your student’s use of the internet or cell phones, please do not hesitate to contact me: Rev. Tyler L. Kenyon , cell: 901-616-8668 , email me
* This covenant includes any electronic device that is used to access the internet.