78 comments (+ Add)
Youth Pastors
Youth Pastors (or Student Pastors… or whatever you’re called in your context) are often overworked and under appreciated. You have a tough, yet very important job.
Can you give us a glimpse into your world?
I’d like to know answers to the questions from previous days, plus a few more.
What are your biggest challenges? What is your biggest joy? How can we pray for you?
Also, what is changing about youth ministry? What would you love for your senior pastor to know?
Visit 
I left a comment the other day in the small church pastor post; however, about 6 months ago, I was serving as an associate pastor of youth at a larger church.
The greatest joy that I had as a youth pastor was seeing some of these youth grow up right in front of me. There was one youth in particular that did a lot of growing in the 16 months that I was there. It’s awesome to see God at work in a young person’s life. It’s also incredible to see the Spirit at work at particular events as well. We had a major movement of the Spirit at the end of one of our mission trips. Simply, awesome.
The biggest challenge is trying to change the face of youth ministry in a context that isn’t ready for it. The youth group I worked with was a small group when I got there, but there were high expectations that it would become a very large group; competing in size with some of the other sizable groups in the area. Most of that pressure was from people who had some experience with large youth groups in much larger churches. After about a year, it was clear that there was a fundamental difference in vision for youth ministry. The group did grow, but not at the accelerated rate that was expected.
Big event, party-style youth groups are not what is going to make a difference in this world. There needs to be a healthy focus on evangelism, but throwing big events that are intended to compete with other entertainment options are not the answer any more; it may have worked 20 years ago, but not now. Let the entertainment industry focus on doing this. As the church, we need to focus on evangelism and discipleship. It’s pointless to have a massive youth ministry if the discipleship component is weak or non-existent. That’s what the church is for - “to make disciples.”
You can never guarantee that a youth won’t fall away after graduating from high school, but you can do everything possible to prepare them for life as a Christian in the “real” world, and a party-style youth group that focuses on getting butts in the seats isn’t going to do that.
(Youth Pastor in the North of England.)
CHALLENGE:
The expectation of having to create a “full-service” church for youth with big events, small groups, music, discipleship, mission, pastoral care, leadership development etc.
For adults these areas are handled by different people yet for youth I am supposed to oversee everything.
I am the only staff member for youth, young adults and media. Plus I have a role in events and teaching in the wider church.
JOYS:
The obvious… seeing young people living Jesus’ life and transforming their worlds.
Stories of those stepping out to be missionaries in their schools and families is just the best.
CHANGES:
I’m glad the emphasis is switching from entertainment, babysitting and clubs to doing and being church.
Teaching young people how to worship, grow, serve and live out their faith.
Matt, Thanks for your insight.
You said, “Big event, party-style youth groups are not what is going to make a difference in this world. There needs to be a healthy focus on evangelism, but throwing big events that are intended to compete with other entertainment options are not the answer any more; it may have worked 20 years ago, but not now.”
I totally and completely agree. I’d love to hear from others on your thoughts about the “big event” model.
We can’t neglect evangelism, but if our kids don’t have a strong biblical world view, they won’t survive spiritually for long.
Biggest challenges? Apathy. “Church Kids” that have the potential to be world changers, but ride on mom and dads faith.
Biggest Joy? Watching someone accept Christ for the first time. Seeing them “get it” Answering their questions at 3 in the morning because they can’t put their bible down.
How can you pray for me? Strength and endurance. Also, more compassion. Sometimes I am too hard, or cold.
I am blessed to have a Sr. Pastor who has a heart for youth, and allows me freedom to do what I feel is necessary, keeping it within his vision for the church of course.
Event based student ministry is most certainly a mode of success that was from the past… but as the East Coast (and student ministry around the country) is finding out… it’s time to put personal motive into submission to God’s direction.
Young leaders are energized by the creativity and magnitude of large youth groups from larger churches… therefore, feeling overworked by the weight of passion they have to cultivate this “mega” student group at their local church…
they feel the pull of the adults/parents to keep “rockin’ out” with what they’re doing (i.e. their own student worship gatherings on either a midweek or friday night) without seeing the growth desired…
Student Ministry w/o question is seeing a shift. Over the past 3 yrs of Student Pastoring i’ve preached, taught, and played music at venues as large as 20k to only 10 students… and i’ve found that it’s much harder to be in front of the 10 than it is the 20k…
i believe that the student ministries that are large (on a weekly basis over 75) are starting to find it crucial to develop a discipleship process… The POINT Student Ministries in Newark, DE is finding that life groups are a huge success…
No longer is “ok” to have a “Youth Service” with the a pizza party hang out once a month… this generation of students is ready for MORE… they want to go deeper… as much as we don’t want to admit, they are ready to start establishing roots… this generation resembles our grandparents… they are the materialistic that is tired of the materialistic… they want experience and depth…
this cannot be given to them 90 min on a Wednesday night with a LOUD worship band… and a Student Pastor with a cliche message about being EXTREME for Jesus. It is happening as i did 2k yrs ago… in a home… over some food and rock band and wii…
hope this helps.
nathan
Easy to bash the big event model, because it is so hard to do it right and really involves a lot of key resources, but I say if you have it, go for it!
The key is in the answer to some really important questions. Why are we doing this? Stay focused on the why and you may get the intended results… I don’t think that we can do something to compete with worldly entertainment, we just won’t win… did you see american Idol last night?
Next question, What’s next? If we have a reason for doing it… what will a student do because of the big event. We can’t leave them waiting for the next big thing. We do a huge Reach lock-in event where we focus on telling students about Jesus, but we also place a huge emphasis on making sure that are staff and small group leaders are there to connect with students, in order to form relationships that will bring them back to are regular stuff.
This question should be answered first… is my “regular stuff” working great. If you don’t have a plan that is going to connect students to scripture, other godly students and godly leaders, that is probably where you should start. Having a crowd is only going to make this part harder to accomplish.
Activity based youth ministry is dead. Sadly, many churches still have it on life support. That’s one of the biggest challenges that student pastors face. Many times the student pastor has to re-educate, retrain, & reculture not just a student ministry but an entire congregation. Sounds hard, well it’s even harder than it sounds. The reason activity/event based youth ministry is dead is because most churches simply cannot “outentertain” the world. We simply don’t have the resources. What the church can offer teenagers is exactly what this generation seems to want: meaningful, impacting lives. Student pastors must seek the vision that God has for their ministry. Then they must give students a compelling picture of what could be if only we would begin to follow Christ & serve those around us.
Giving students & volunteers a God-sized vision of what our youth ministries are all about is our best weapon versus apathy. When people latch on to what God is doing around them, lead them to keep pressing on & understand that not everyone is going to come along.
The greatest joys in youth ministry are watching students come to faith in Christ & watching students take ownership of their faith. When a student begins taking responsibility for his/her own growth, that’s a huge win.
Biggest challenges:
- Doing ministry in a context where a lot of people (adults at the church and parents) want nothing more than a fun, safe environment for their teenagers. My new favorite answer is, “I’m not running a Chuck E Cheese.”
- Believing in a group of people that it seems no one else believes in.
Biggest joy:
The ones that get it - that go after God no matter what.
Prayer request:
Wisdom
What’s changing:
What’s NOT changing? Every time a society goes through a world-view overhaul - and I think we are - young people are the early adopters and the ones who jump in because they don’t have old paradigms to work through.
I imagine student ministry has always been challenging because it’s the nature of high school students to be challenging. Now, though, we’re working with the first generation to grow up without much Christian influence at home, and with a staggering divorce rate among parents. Their world has never been without radical (”religious”) terrorism and the ability to casually chat with someone on the other side of the world via the internet. The wisdom of the world is at their fingertips, which means they don’t have many questions, and their identity is on Facebook, which means they think they know who they are already.
Student ministry in the past has been structured to reach young people raised on teevee, but the difference between being raised on teevee and raising yourselves on the internet is staggering. They don’t want to watch; they want to participate. They don’t want to consume; they want to create. They don’t just assume that you know what you’re talking about; you have to earn the right to speak into their lives. They don’t want more friends (they’ve got more than they can keep track of online); they want - they need - mentors. They’re not interested in 21st century American discipleship classes; they’re interested in first century discipleship lifestyles.
Pastor,:
I’m trying. I don’t hang out with the students for hours on end ’cause I have no friends, but because they need a different kind of connection. I don’t want to bribe them to bring friends, and I don’t want to throw a lot of time and money into events that don’t make disciples. I’d rather have 20 students that can stand up to their liberal college professors in a couple years, than 100 who all fall away. It doesn’t look like what you thought it would, but we are winning.
The challenges remain the same as they’ve been for decades. Over bearing parents, Dead beat parents, lethargic students, uncooperative volunteers, Detached leadership, lack of self-confidence, “Youth Minister stigma”
Biggest joy continues to be kids taking steps. That doesn’t always mean salvation. Seeing non-believers take steps toward God sometimes seems more exciting than the actual moment of salvation. Sorry if that seems blasphemous. Also seeing believers living outside the “Christian Ghetto” is an incredible joy.
I’ve been praying for an older, local leader to learn from intentionally. I think solid purposed leadership on a regular basis would revolutionize Student Ministry. 95% of Student Pastors are doing the job alone and without helpful leadership. I’ve been there before but thankfully have great leaders in my church.
I believe the future of Student Ministry is contained in a “Family Ministry” effort. Not that parents should be small group leaders but that we as the Student Pastors should consider ministry to parents as, if not more, important than student specific ministry.
I’d love for my Senior Pastor to understand the negative potential that exists when our students are hearing multiple messages inside the Student Ministry spectrum of a church. Not to mention the burn out potential for Pastors who are preaching two or three different messages each week. The idea of “throw a lot at the wall and hope that some sticks” isn’t the best course possible. Intentional, unforgettable experiences in irresistible environments combined with consistent volunteer and parent partnership makes a much bigger long term difference.
Biggest Challenges?
• Not trying to do to much. Finding that balance between what is a good thing and what is a great thing. How can we maximize our efficiency without maxing out our time and resources inefficiently?
• Our youth ministry models the church, the church has someone to do (life groups, media, worship, speaking, etc…) learning to delegate certain areas and still maintain a high quality program when there is one person doing all those areas on a smaller level.
• Getting parents to see the value of youth ministry. Sports and jobs always takes precedence over church.
• Funding. If the statistics are true that 85% of people receive Christ before the age of eighteen then that should be a huge priority in every church, but not the only priority.
• Youth pastors who don’t stay put and leave a wake behind as they jet to the next opportunity or run from the previous problem. Because of a youth pastors immaturity or fear it leaves distrust in several key people like parents, students and the lead pastor.
What is your biggest joy?
• Watching a student get it, that Jesus does love them, and watch them hand their life to Christ.
• Watching a parent get it because of their student.
• Seeing a kid take that next step in baptism and going public with their faith.
• Seeing students serve the church. They are not the future of the church, they are the church now. I love seeing adults work along side a teenager and say, they are nothing like I thought they were.
• To watch students serve on the mission field and then come back and rock their community.
• To watch students get so pumped about a friend they invited who comes and wants to come again.
• To watch my leaders become pastors to their kids and pour into their lives.
• To watch my children get so excited about a kid receiving Christ, yet they themselves are not believers yet…still very young.
• To watch my church staff come along side and support the student program and vice versa.
How can we pray for you?
• Wisdom. Been doing this nine years and I am still learning everyday.
• That I will remain pure and faithful. We don’t need any more pastors to fall.
• That I will model Jesus in every aspect of my life.
• That I will continue to be creative and passionate about what I do.
• That I will never forget that it is about Sunday morning.
• That I will never forget I am here to support the pastor and whatever is best for the church.
Also, what is changing about youth ministry?
• Students are still students and they are dealing with the same things I did 15 years ago. The difference is that it is more readily available at their hands.
• Technology is changing, don’t fear it embrace it and use it to engage students.
• Students are willing to make sacrifices more than ever before if they see that what they are doing is making a difference.
• Families and youth pastors are working together not fighting against each other.
• Students don’t want to be fed, they want to dig. They want to know the truth. They don’t need things sugarcoated, they want to hear it like it really is and be treated like adults, difference is, many of them can take it now.
What would you love for your senior pastor to know?
• That I love him, I have his back. I’m not here to use youth ministry as a stepping stone to his job. That I am here to support the church and the pastor and do what is best for the church not necessarily what is best for me.
• Could use a little bit more funding.
• Thanks for giving me full reigns and trust to develop the vision that God has given me.
Just by reading these comments it seems the issue of discipling the students you have is starting to take precedence over trying to reach the ones you don’t. Of course, both are always there, however the emphasis on discipling the ones you have seems to be growing. If this is indeed true, that is a massive paradigm shift in student ministry.
I am not a youth minister right now, but I teach Bible at a private school for Jr High Guys. I feel like it is about the same thing. I am 22 and am a year out of college and am struggling to follow God’s plan right now.
I think the biggest in the area of prayer is energy. Not physical energy, but energy from the Lord on the days a cup of coffee won’t do it. I just finished up a blog post about relying on God and not coffee (momentary happiness) to get you through the day.
As well as prayer for the students I think is even bigger. Especially with Jr High guys. They seem to want to be a lot older than what they actually are, and yet they still display a lot of child like actions. We finished up a unit over being a man and excepting these responsibilities of what God has called a man to be. These guys are stepping up to the challenge, but are also facing pressures from girls, tv, and other outside sources, specifically the devil.
My biggest challenge is changing the church itself. If the service isn’t anything they want to go to, and they won’t go to, I feel like I’m wasting my time.
It also difficult for people to understand what is going on. They don’t seem to understand that in about 5 years, these teens are going to be the pastors, deacons and leaders in their church. When they aren’t investing in them as teens, these teens aren’t likely to invest in them as senior’s in the church when they become in charge. You reap what you sow.
As a youth pastor in NH in the Assemblies of God, my youth group is technically one of the top 20 largest churches for our denomination in our area.
In our church, we have more teens in small groups then the church does. We are also the second largest service. We also have triple the amount of salvations the church does, and we invest the same amount of money (through fundraising) towards local outreach that the church does. The youth budget is less then 1% of the churches budget and that only started this year (I’ve been here for 6).
I’m the only staff member for the youth ministry and 40% of my time is spent on things not directly related to youth ministry.
I love NH though, and I believe in the church I work for. As frustrating as things can be some time, I have no doubt that I way better than some of my friends do here in Northern New England.
The biggest change I’ve seen is that because students do not have a church background, it is very easy to show them the Gospel. I feel like I’m eradicating the belief that God is bad. These teens will know that God is good and that if they experience a bad church or a bad pastor, they will leave that church, not the Kingdom.
I would have to say the biggest challenge is balance. Learning how to not let the ministry creep into your family life. I know there are seasons where you really need to push, but learning to keep family first in a tough thing in a growing ministry.
Biggest joy is seeing students growing in their relationship with Christ. Nothing stokes my fire more then seeing a young person saved and then growing and maturing. Just awesome!
I don’t want to be a stat in youth ministry, just another youth pastor that burnt out. Want to keep my family first in everything I do.
I am blessed to be in a great church with an incredible lead pastor who understands that youth ministry needs to be a partnership with the senior/lead pastor. So many youth pastors I know are left to fend for themselves and get no support.
Just some thoughts,
Robin McKee
Student Pastor in Ottawa, Canada
http://www.lifecentre.org
Craig,
You said:We can’t neglect evangelism, but if our kids don’t have a strong biblical world view, they won’t survive spiritually for long.
I understand the evangelism part, what do you mean by strong biblical world view?
I agree with Matt(2) and Craig(3) that the “big event” style of ministry is dead, but I don’t think it should be just thrown out. I feel it’s the Focus behind the “big events” that need to go. To me this is the biggest challenge to youth ministry today. I think we need to replace recreation and games with prayer and service. Then we can see our students not only gain a biblical world view but live one.
I feel student ministry needs to be led as a church within a church. If we structure our student ministries as a stand alone body with in our churches then we will see a huge shift in student ministry.
Personally I am a bi-vocational youth pastor (I teach/coach in our high school). It is increasingly hard to lead students in our society with all the distractions that they face everyday. About 6 months ago our student worship leader graduated and we have been with out music in our weekly gathering since. We have seen our group double because we have students who simply want to live what they read in the bible. All I try to do is read what senior pastors are doing in their churches and apply/modify it to fit my student ministry. I don’t know if this in a new approach but it works for me, which my be the most important shift in student ministry: Find what works for YOU and then don’t stop until something else works better.
I think the biggest challenge over-all is balancing the expectations of teens, parents, and pastors. They all want different things and they are all usually very demanding. Generally, my day to day challenges involve rallying the right people I need to be able to do my job.
My biggest joy comes in seeing someone, parent, teen or pastor (or me), understand themselves the way God does. I live for that moment.
How is youth ministry changing? It’s not universal, but I think teens are getting more honest with their needs. Back in the 90’s, I used to spend a lot of time programming and doing events. Now I spend most of my time thinking about individual students and what they need to live into what God created them to be. I guess it’s just more organic and that might be more of how I have changed than youth ministry.
I have a great sr. pastor right now. He is able to free me up to do what I do, he understands what I am doing, and is able to challenge me and encourage me. He regularly meets with teens one on one and is a part of the youth ministry.He’s a great guy and I really love serving with him. He already knows all of this.
Personally, I think with the shift in “relevant” churches (meaning the senior pastor is current, hip, modern) the job of the YP could ajust into more of small group care. If the Sunday morning services are already meeting the need for spiritual training/disciplship/etc…..then the “point” of a youth service seems to be “babysitting” or “entertaining” with large events as mentioned above.
But to get teens connected in meaningful relationships, disciple, service is still apart of the goal, then perhaps having a YP who does more overseeing of those groups rather than another preaching service would be the way to go.
I’ve served in youth ministry for 15 years, 8 of which was full-time, staff churches.
I feel the pain of many youth ministers who feel like they’re running in circles with a lot of energy with little results.
I’ve heard one mentor of mine (youth pastor 20 years) say “youth ministry is the armpit of the church, and sigles minstry is the buttcrack”…..hard but there may be some truth to that.
If Pastors could clarify the win for youth ministry in their church, many YP could say No to a lot of extra things and narrow the focus for that ministry.
Blessings!!!
Very helpful info! Thanks!
To clarify, I am not opposed to the big events. We’ve done big evangelistic events for years at Life.
As of today, we are tweaking our student ministry. We are still going with a big event outreach once a month. Then we’re focusing more on small group discipleship three nights a month.
It seems to me that many students are hungry for more genuine spiritual development than hype. I also think we may do better evangelism in smaller groups with deep discussion than big events that don’t promote dialog.
Keep the conversation going. I am learning from you all.
1st to all you youth workers - THANKS! You have one of the toughest assignments in the church and am grateful that your investing your lives in the next generation for Christ!
I was on YL staff for about 10yrs (high school & Middle school students)before I becoming a church planter. Just my observation, but I wonder if statement of extremes are totally fair? Are large group “entertaining” events really dead? Or are strategic strategies based on our target audience and what we feel like God is wanting to accomplish? A very wise person once asked me which wing of a plane do you want when your flying on it, the answer of course is both. Kids want spirituality and to give their lives to something bigger, but they also want to enjoy life and have fun in a safe place where they can just be teens without all the pressure. I believe more is caught than taught through OUR incarnational living and that without relationship it just becomes religion. It seems that maybe we have to ask God for wisdom on the kind of students He’s given us and pray for the appropriate strategy to both “Make disciples” and then “teach them to follow-Jesus”. Keep the faith!
@Craig
“It seems to me that many students are hungry for more genuine spiritual development than hype. I also think we may do better evangelism in smaller groups with deep discussion than big events that don’t promote dialog.”
Amen to that. I have experienced incredible growth through discipleship alone.
I have only been in youth ministry for about 7 months so my perspective of what the challenges are and what the joys are and how things are changing is alot different from some of these other guys.
Challenges: I believe that a successful youth ministry isnt the one with the largest number of kids saved or the largest number of kids attending. I believe you are only successful when 5 to 10 years out of your ministry those students are still in church.
SO my challenge is how do I create a youth ministry that is centered on the future of its students. Statistics are all over the place with kids walking away from their faith after school, but why? I believe that in our society education and knowledge is KING, however Christianity doesnt want to rock the boat with the intellectual aspect.
Joys: Since I have been here I have seen students go from resenting God, to falling deeply in love with Him. Seeing students surrender their lives to do whatever in full time ministry. Seeing other students live out their faith and share it with their friends.
Changes: Not really sure since I have only been here for 7 months and this is my first job. The changes that are taking place from the last guy to myself is that we are getting away from pointless activities and having a rhyme and reason for all the we do. If it isnt in our purpose of why we exist then we dont do it.
Prayer: I am in desperate need of youth counselors, and good ones! Our church has pretty much started from scratch and over half of them are new believers and the other half go to bed before 8pm, so my options are limited.
We just held our Disciple Now weekend which is our biggest event of the year and it was a huge success. We reqach students that weekend that we would never had reached with out it. One thing I always struggle with is shifting the hype of the weekend to every day life. Maybe that’s why “big events” in the past have had vision of having a shallow impact, but maybe its the programing following the “big events”. I would love to have some help with that.
I’ve been a youth pastor in the same church for 10 years, and continue to be. Here are some thoughts on…
THE GOSPEL: youth ministry must focus around the salvation of Jesus and His call to follow Him. Social justice, small groups, and activities are all pointless if we are not preaching the gospel of repentance and salvation in Christ alone by grace through faith.
BIG EVENT STYLE: It all depends on your resources…a youth ministry of 10 should not pretend to be a youth ministry of 1000 and try and put on a big weekly service with lights. What students DO need is ownership and vision to be a part of the Kingdom of God. Big events can do that (we do it), but so can small groups.
The WHAT NEXT dilema: so kids are actually showing up…what next? There must be a pipeline strategy to get students to grow in their faith and become rooted in the Kingdom. The reason so many students don’t follow Jesus after high school is because they loved the youth ministry more than they loved Jesus.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Churches must make youth ministry a high priority - it is the ministry of Harvest so to speak. If we push it off to the side, do some “care-taking” small groups and never facilitate a “harvest” mentality, then churches by and large will be forced to grow primarily through transfer growth of the “already-saved.” Don’t neglect student ministry because they don’t tithe - pay attention to them because the decisions they make now will form their future and because they are the energy and lifeblood of tomorrow.
Not much more I can add about the first three questions, great answers everyone. I do think we should be praying for some prophetic voices in youth ministry, ones who understand history through the eyes of sociology. As youth ministries, I think we were late to move when the modern way of thinking began to break down, many of us are just getting around to dealing with the postmodern mindset and the kids I deal with in New Jersey are already by my estimation post-postmodern. We haven’t exactly named this framework but I am finding it to have a couple of interesting components. Just my take in the Northeast:
Students seem to be very interested in justice issues and serving people, even if it is from a secular standpoint. We grow through service projects.
Students seem to be drawn to a relational model of youth ministry more than ever. Programs are never going away but they need to be used to leverage relationships. Our small groups are rocking and our “youth group” seems outdated.
Students don’t want the watery version of the gospel, they are looking for the deep things of the Lord. They seem to be asking the questions that have no answer more and more.
Evangelism is a foreign concept, my students don’t want to impose on their friends and if they do, it’s usually because they see them struggling. Outside of the one or two students who have the gift of evangelism, its a struggle for our students. It is happening, but not at youth group, we are seeing more students get saved and introduced to the church through our small groups than anything else. Especially in our gender specific small groups.
I have been reading and meeting regularly with some local youth pastors here discussing what is changing and how we should be dealing with it. It has been fruitful, if anyone is interested, I think this blog is saying some good things about this issue. Just a youth pastor from Westchester County, New York. He has a good reading list and a heart for relational youth ministry.
http://emergingyouth.wordpress.com
I think the biggest challenges for me in a “small town” area are:
1. Trying to work around big churches. They seem to have more of everything…resources, funds, bigger things, etc.
2. Attendance. For me, our town has about 15 or so churches in a 2 mile radius, including one larger church and a bunch of medium churches. Teens in my area also like to “youth group hop”. They don’t stay in one place very long.
My biggest joys are:
1. Watching teenagers grow up. It is such an exciting thing to see.
2. We recently had a girl come to know Christ! That never gets old!
3. Being able to serve a loving, caring God and trying to model that in my every day life!
What is Changing in youth ministry? I feel like culture changes so quickly and without notice. I also see youth ministry as more hands on instead of a babysitting affair, which is great! I also see a huge shift towards serving others which is also great!
My Senior Pastor is great! He gives me a lot of freedom which is awesome. I have no complaints about him and we share stories all the time!
What are your biggest challenges?
-Developing relationships outside the church. In most other local ministries (not including children) the people you are called to are pretty much in your culture, but Youth are really a cross cultural ministry. More than that many of the doors are hard to open if not shut all together. Once youth start coming to the church it is easier to build a relationship with them but making that connection before is difficult. I’m working on building relationships with other student focused groups like the PTA and other local groups that are already in the schools.
What is your biggest joy?
-I think it is when I am able to push some of my youth into sharing their testimonies because I love hearing what God is doing in their lives and it impacts the other youth more than anything I can ever say.
How can we pray for you?
-Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he might send workers to the harvest. Seriously my group has been growing faster than I can get workers in place. The other night we had 50 students (a few months ago we had 15) and 3 adults including myself and everyone agrees I don’t count.
Also, what is changing about youth ministry?
-Youth ministry is always changing. That is the simple truth. I think the thing I’m most excited about it the push for unity. It seems to be something that I’m hearing about everywhere and it is awesome that God is doing this great work at the same time all across the country. I’m overwhelmed when I write about what we are doing and other ministers in another part of the country chime in that God is calling them to the same thing. This will change the look of the church and it can’t happen soon enough.
What would you love for your senior pastor to know?
-My pastor knows this because I talk to him and he is pretty awesome and very supportive. Pastors you have to get this. Youth and Children are not the future of the church. This is a lie that causes division in the church. They are the now of the church. We are one body. The future of the church is the harvest. Everyone else is part of the church and need to feel part of the church. Otherwise they will never integrate when they make the move from Youth to church.
Craig,
We’ve been wrestling with the 1-3 model [ 1-big outreach event & 3- small group settings monthly] for sometime now and believe it could work well. One question: are you planning to do your small group discipleship in homes or on campus?
Kevin,
I think what Craig meant about a Biblical worldview is that God is the CENTER of ALL we do, not another category of things we do in our lives. Also, God–not our job, our family, or our government–is our source for EVERYTHING.
I’m the associate youth pastor at the NW campus of LifeChurch.tv.
What is our biggest challenge? We don’t have enough adults to help!!!!! Our students are HUNGRY, they are searching and seeking and asking questions about Christ, and we have a LOT of students! But it always seems like there are too many of them, and not enough of us–the mentors, the leaders, the ones pouring into their lives! I agree the big party model won’t work in the long run, but neither will small groups or discipleship if you don’t even have enough leaders to lead them! Or if the leaders who are leading them aren’t being spiritually developed themselves. If you live in the Oklahoma City area and have a heart for leading students, PLEASE come and help us!
How can you pray for us? Pray that people would come to help lead. People with a heart to serve Christ by loving students!
What is my greatest joy? When a student “GETS IT!!”
How is youth ministry changing? It is more difficult than ever to be a Christ-following student in this world right now. Very few students believe in an absolute truth. Even fewer care less about consequences to their decisions. They have no thought toward the future and are only living in the here and now. Not only that, but over 50 percent of the parents of our students are abscent or non-existant. They lost control of their students early and now pretty much have just given up on raising them. This provides a problem for youth pastors as well as teachers because we’re running into the fact that not only are we trying to teach them about Christ or give them an education, we are also teaching them the things that SHOULD be taught at home!! Like personal hygene, respect, manners, etc.
All of that to say: Student ministry is difficult. But God calls and equips those He knows can do it with the right heart.
What do I want my Sr. Pastor to know? I’d like him to just come to ONE Wednesday night at the NOC campus. To see how hungry our students are for Christ, for answers, for direction. I’d like him to know that the only reason students act the way they do is because they haven’t been taught, or loved in the right direction. I’d like him to know that that’s all we’re trying to do, is provide a place and an atmostphere to the best of our ability that shows them that love and acceptance in Christ. I’d like him to know that we are trying to train and equip our adults to pour into our students so we can compound our influence–but often feel inadequate and unsure if we’re doing a good job because it’s so hard to measure! I think that’s all!
Criag–Thank you for taking the time to hear from us!
Challenges: My own spirit of complaining. Being told over and over again what is wrong with the church but not being loved and encouraged to perservere. Looking to others for approval and esteem rather than to God for love and grace.
Joys: When God breaks through all the muck and mire that seems to surround us. When a student is 23 and is still resting in the arms of the Father.
Prayers: Pray that we all would be more bold, confident, and assured in Christ.
Changes in YM: Students from Christian homes are deists. Parents are less committed to relationships and more committed to activities.
For Sr. Pastor: We need a clear sense of direction and purpose.
Craig,
I’m a FUSE leader at NWOKC. You said:
Craig Groeschel Apr 8, 2009 at 7:52 I totally and completely agree. I’d love to hear from others on your thoughts about the “big event” model.
But then you later said that we do the BIG SWITCH once a month and then focus on small groups. I was just wondering more as to your thoughts on “BIG Switch.” I think the FUSE and Switch needs some overhaul from what I’ve seen. I’ve noticed FUSE attendance go way down and the room get tore up more in 6 months time than it did in 2+years time as Studio 45. I agree with the preaching and worship format for FUSE, but think some major tweeks, training and disclipeship need to be implemented. Thoughts?
I’m a youth pastor and have actually been thinking about this for a while now. There are a couple hard things about youth ministry and it’s future.
1. The pressure is to perform — have big events, lots of kids involved in activities and bible studies. Having trained sr. pastors in the past about how to work with their youth leaders, I know sr. pastors often feel the same pressure to perform. Sometimes the pressure is self-inflicted, sometimes not. Youth pastors feel it, too, and unfortunately it’s the teens who feel the results of it.
2. The adults and parents who pay my salary are looking for a youth ministry like they experienced when they were in grade school, even though that was 20-40 years ago. Today, sometimes youth ministry means doing very “non-performance” based things, like not coming into an office and spend the day with a kid instead, or taking kids deep into the Word as the group shrinks because it’s not just entertainment anymore. I’m not sure why people think that having kids involved in programs somehow equals spiritual growth.
3. Perhaps my biggest frustration is that parents are often not taking ownership of their kids’ spiritual growth. They outsource it to the “experts” (i.e. church youth leaders), expecting us to make their kids grow. I’m not sure how that can be possible, though, when parents are just as spiritually apathetic as their kids are, except they hide it at church on Sunday mornings. Their kids, on the other hand, don’t feel as much of a need to put on a church show each week. Then, when they graduate and are finally on their own, they decide that church and a relationship with God isn’t worth their time because they never saw it at home. I feel like I’m fighting an uphill battle that cannot be won until parents own up to their own responsibility to grow and model Christ for their kids, and to initiate spiritual conversations with them.
My biggest joy, though, is when I get to see the spiritual light-blub turn on for a kid, when they’ve heard that God loves them 1,000 times, but that 1,001st time it finally clicks and they get it, and it transforms their life. I also love it when I see teens sharing their faith with their peers in some way, whether in a personal conversation, on Facebook, or even by text messaging. That’s what keeps me in ministry.
For my sr. pastor, give me the freedom to fail, to think outside the box, to not follow the performance-driven ministry model that leads to nothing but frustration. Thankfully, my sr. pastor does support me in all this. Actually, based on my suggestion, all of the pastors in my church meet every week to pray and help me think through some of these youth ministry issues. We’re going through “Ministry Mutiny” by Greg Stier together right now, then we’ll read “Youth Ministry 3.0″ by Mark Oestreicher, followed by “Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors” by Mark Riddle. The best part about it is that the entire church is starting to think along the same lines about how we do (and don’t) do ministry. Essentially, it’s not as much about doing something as much as it is about becoming something, a community of believers.
Biggest Challenge? Really? Only one? I think most of what everyone has already said is correct. Running a “mini-church” with one staff member is tough, trying to be culturally relevant in a culture that changes by the minute, working with over-programmed kids (I’m not going to say apathetic, because I don’t think they are…I just think they are not sure what to direct their passion toward), parents who are over-reactive and haven’t taken responsibility for the spiritual growth of their children…must I go on?
But, all of that being said, this is the greatest job in the world. We get to (not “have to”…”get to”) walk alongside students as they navigate this ever changing world. We get to be a consistent voice in their lives as they ask big questions. We get to see God do the miraculous in the hearts of kids. What could be better?
Of course there will always be debate about the “best way” to do youth ministry. But I serve a God who loves these students way more than I ever could, and who will lead and guide us in our method if we are willing to put our own agenda aside for His. This is what I’m learning…there isn’t a “best way” to do youth ministry. Different kids and different places call for different strategies…but one thing is consistent across the board…relationships with students. Period. Being able to live alongside of them and allow them to see your life and more importantly Jesus in your life…and to allow them to see your struggles in life and how you deal with those…that’s where the rubber hits the road.
I’m a 19 year old who leads small groups. I know that at my age (still somewhat youth-aged) and for my generation (all current teens) - small groups is where it is at. Students need a mentor-type person closely leading them. It is vital. Big youth events have never really touched me like small groups have - and I think that is God saying something about what my ministry needs to be doing.
Our vision is completely small group focused. I lead leaders who turn around and lead small groups that lead leaders. That’s the whole vision. We eventually want to have the big everyone-gets-together event, but that is just an event, not the main dish. Our vision, here at the Univ. of OK, is to have a small group available every night at every time.
I think this is very honorable to God (especially since it is His vision)! College students (and all students in fact) seek the close-friends atmosphere with personal talk. That is why so many college students are in frats and sororities.
Small groups are what God has put burning in my heart. He loves them. Heck, even Jesus had a small group!
Real quick: I love seeing students make little changes in their life to honor God! I also love seeing students come to know Christ!
God is good! Praying for you guys today!
I’m excited! We’re having communion tonight!
I serve in a church of 400ish and have a youth ministry of about 60 students that is beginning to grow and develop spiritually. My biggest challenges are helping my staff understand the real purpose and methods of discipleship. I have seen 2 students come to the Lord in three weeks! Pray that my time is well-divided between my family and my responsibilities. I hope that a change on the horizon is a deeper and more real youth ministry than what has been taught in the past - I want to students to know and do, not just play. My Sr. is pretty good about things - but the world needs to know that when we aren’t in the office we are often still working (Facebook can be a blessing after hours for us)
Pastor Craig, its funny you did this post. This is actually the thought process I’ve had in regards to youth ministry. My thought has been “I want to know what you know. I want to know what’s on your mind.”
For me, the biggest challenges are:
1. Cracking the cultural divide. I live in the heart of the church molestation scandal so people view youth ministry with a huge amount of distrust. Also, evangelical Christendom is held in an even lower regard because here evangelicalism often a characature. New England culture youth culture hasn’t necessarily been wide open to church leaders.
2. Stability - I live in a transient community and people struggle to make long lasting connections because of the thought “they’re going to leave soon.” Its the state with a constant population decline (RI has declined in population every year for over 20 years) and its heavy with Naval and tourist influence. So stability is a tough idea to sell. I’ve been in the same church as a youth pastor for over 6years and its STILL a tough idea to get across.
3. Balance - I struggle to do what I know would draw a crowd but I know would only produce Christians with as much depth as a puddle of spit in parking lot on a hot day!
Biggest joys:
1. The incremental growth! The kids who stopped selling drugs, the people who go on to lead others to Christ. The kids who go start Bible clubs at school.
2. The embracing of other churches - We network with about 6 or 7 other churches in our area ALL from different denominations. Its been awesome to see that kind of unity.
Changes I’ve seen in youth ministry:
1. They want us to know what they know. When we hear them, they open themselves up to your words.
2. The rise of the skate culture’s influence. Atleast here where I live. But then again, its the birthplace of the X Games (Newport, RI - Pastor Craig you gotta come here, its beautiful!) so maybe I just never noticed until recently.
3. Teens are becoming more disconnected through their various ways of connection. Its almost like people have to learn how to be humans again.
I could write more but I think this post added with everything else here might overload the server or something. Either youth pastors are REALLY long winded or we’ve been waiting for a chance to get some stuff of our chest.
Pastor Craig, we’d love to bring you to New England if you’re open to it! Its not the preacher’s graveyard like they say…us tough one’s strive!
Challenges:
Communicating to parents that my goal is to help students trust Jesus with every aspect of their lives, not to make them into “good people.” Convincing various groups around the church that the youth aren’t a clean-up committee and just because they have a lot of energy does not mean they should have to clean up after a potluck, especially when they didn’t organize the meal/event in the first place.
Joy:
Getting a Facebook message from a student I’ve never talked to before because they knew I’d give an honest answer and the reasoning behind it. Watching students wrestle with Scripture and deciding what they know vs. what they actually believe. (As in, I know 2+2=4 but I wouldn’t necessarily say I believe it. My students KNOW the Bible, now they have to decide if they believe it.) Seeing students following Jesus, looking at the world around them and saying, “Let’s try to make it more like God wants it to be.”
Changes:
Everything. I’ve been at the same position at the same church for 6 years, since graduating from college. I don’t focus on big events or conferences any more. Instead, I let the local school district events work for me. I go to basketball games, football games, etc. and sit next to the student section. The kids know where to find me, and some kids will strike up conversations with me at games but will never attend our church service because “church is lame and full of liars who will stare at me if I show up because I’m new.” (To quote a student) I’ve realized students don’t trust adults, and I can’t say I blame them. They’re used to being manipulated so Dads can relive their glory days on the football field, so Moms can complain about their busy lives and how stressed she is trying to keep it all organized, so Teachers can get better test scores from the students and earn more money for the school district, so Coaches can win and move on to bigger and better teams….It’s rare to find adults who care only about the students and not what the students can do. (Chap Clark’s book, Hurt, is phenomenal at describing this feeling.)
What I Wish My Pastor Knew:
Those people who join the church and “want to help with youth group” are probably lovely people, but I want to know that they love the students and aren’t simply adults who refuse to grow up. Don’t give me a volunteer just because you want them to get involved in the church and youth group is an “easy place to start.” If it’s not their gift/talent/passion, they’ll hate it and the students won’t like them either. Grumpiness will happen instantly.
What to pray for me? Jesus’ heart for those within our building who see teenagers as Crazy People instead of members of the church family. I want to shake them instead of love them.
What are your biggest challenges?
Our biggest challenge is getting the parents involved (especially the Christian parents). Parents are not talking up the responsibility of being Christ following parents. Students being over committed/ busy.
What is your biggest joy?
Seeing students and leaders get ‘it’
How can we pray for you?
For students to understand that they are loved by God. For students to understand that they are gifted. Personally, our church today they decided to let go of one of the two youth pastors. The students do not know yet.
Also, what is changing about youth ministry?
Students desire more than ever to be in a true community, a community that is putting their faith into action. They want to be more known for what they do. They want to make a difference.
What would you love for your senior pastor to know?
That youth ministry has great ideas not just for youth ministry, but also for the church at large. Just because we are most of us are young does not mean that we do not have anything to offer the big church…. Do not over look the passion of the youth. Believe in the youth.
I did this work for a while and it almost killed my faith and family. It is truly one of the most difficult works in the church.
Joys -
//The life change you see in students when they really give God their WHOLE lives, not just accept him as Savior (i.e. addicts kicking the habit, homosexual students giving up that lifestyle, students serving, students committing to purity, etc)
//Seeing our high school students serving and leading junior high students in our junior high environment.
//Relational time with students after our weekly programming!
Challenges:
//trying to connect & partner with parents. not from a “parents are annoying and they complain” aspect. I find it’s difficult to engage parents, and help see the growth continue to happen in the home.
//budget. our youth ministry has a very healthy budget, and yet like any ministry, there are always more ideas than money to make those ideas happen.
//staff. currently, we have 3 services each week (2 junior high coinciding with our main weekend services & a senior high service). We have myself and another full time staff person in the youth department (however, her responsibilities are to the main weekend services on Sunday mornings). So essentially, i run 2 services and have help running a 3rd every week. It’s doable, but not ideal.
Changes.
The comment above that “big events don’t work” is so true. I think the change though is that the new thing is the “big family.” Students today, more than anything, are looking for acceptance and something to be a part of. When you provide THAT, you have their hearts, and that’s where life change begins to happen in my experience. Relationships are EVERYTHING!
Working & connecting with technology is also a new but exciting challenge.
love the discussion.
i’ve volunteered with students for most of my adult life - it’s truly challenging but incredibly rewarding. besides my family, it’s been some of the most fulfilling things i’ve spent time doing.
one thing that is changing is the world in which our students live. the generation gap has always, and will always, be there. but i think from our time forward, our students will be dealing with more pluralism, more diversity, more world cultures, more technology than any other generation has dealt with before. so i think it’s going to be more challenging than ever for a senior pastor to understand the context that a youth pastor is working in. in light of all that - and because of it - our students are living in the most amazing moments in human history. and that potential is absolutely thrilling.
What a loaded question yet one I constantly address in my head and in discussion.
I have been doing youth ministry on and off for 13 years and boy have things changed.
One thing I have noticed is 90’s style youth ministry modeled after the boys and girls club and with tons of big and fun filled events create large numbers with no depth right now.
Of course you want to reach everybody, but at what cost.
We revamped our ministry here in RI going towards less “play” and more real.
In RI there is such sadness here. Cutters, druggies, drinkers, divorced parents, molested, sleeping around etc etc…and honestly here it’s almost the norm.
I hurt for these kids so bad and realize my time with them is short that I struggle with the fact that they need to know God “now”. We have such limited time with them. Do we really want to waste it playing chubbie bunny with marshmallows or sucking jello thru a straw?
I want them to realize the full power of Christs grace, but here that is a very difficult task.
We started a youth service…we dont do icebreakers…we do worship, prayer, multisensory worship like incense etc…and just get real with them. They know we arent fake thats for sure, but they also know by how we handle this how important the decision to choose CHrist is.
We plan on as well starting youth cell groups where they can get indepth in the bible in much smaller groups.
I dont really know the answers with youth…but I have noticed something.
Like david we are given smooth stones…we need to throw them out and then let God guide them to where they need to go.
AS far as joys…I love seeing change…love seeing kids finally get it…We had a girl start a bible study in the school. we saw a church of 80 people in RI have youth services with 12-60 kids and most not christian…
we have athiests that come every week…
We have been working with other churches..meeting with youth pastors not to create events, but to pray for the spiritual climate in RI to change.
We have seen and are a part of a group of people here that want to see real change…thats God breathed.
I am not a big “comment leaver” but thought I would give this a shot!
I think the greatest description of a teenager today would be “accidentally independent.” Although they don’t mean to, their culture itself has isolated them from the rest of the world. They are the most liberal, worldly minded people in the world because the “world” i.e. Hollywood and media are the only people that have figured out how to enter into their world. They are accidentally independent from their parents because texting, chatting, social networking, and instant messaging has made them social retards. (BTW I love special needs children) They can’t relate to or heed advice from their parents because they don’t “know” how to communicate with them. They are accidentally independent from others because they have found themselves sucked into a virtual world. Actually had a girl in our youth ministry start dating a guy on facebook, talked to him on facebook, they broke up through texts, and she was crushed because of it. He lived over 1000 miles away in NJ. They NEVER talked on the phone. But they fell in love in their accidentally independent world. Worst of all, they have become accidentally independent from God. They have a desire to grow, but don’t know how. %80 of teenagers leave the Church after HS. Why? Accidental independence. They have connected themselves to a person, and a program. When they graduate, their entire “spiritual life” (the person and program) has gone out the window and they are left wondering why God abandoned them.
(Ok, so I just read what I wrote and said to myself, “Dude, you should just quit. There is no hope!) So this is my next attempt at becoming a “dependent” ministry.
If teenagers are going to be reached today a youth ministry needs to become dependent on three things:
Dependence on the Church. Too many youth groups operate as “parachurch” ministries. If teens aren’t interacting AT ALL with the “main Church”, expect this dependence to grow stronger and the Church to continue to shrink. When youth ministries “plug into” the Church (as weird as that sounds) the accidental independence form parents is broken. They worship together, learn together, and grow together.
The second dependence must be on relationships. There are two things that WONT build a great youth ministry, preaching and entertainment. (We are good at both and don’t grow a bit from it) RELATIONSHIPS grow a ministry. A text message doesn’t offer a shoulder to cry on, a hug can’t be felt through a wall post, their is no LIFE in a virtual world… I LOVE TECHNOLOGY, but it CAN’T replace relationships. Recruit leaders and tell them to just LOVE KIDS, have a relationship with them, call them, talk to them, remember their name, seek them out in the crowd, pray with them, encourage them, relationships crush the accidentally independent world.
Last, a total dependence on Jesus. If your kids come to Church because of you, their friends, or fun, you are only increasing the statistic. Make sure your students know what your ministry is all about. Make sure you know what you are all about. Where there is no vision the people parish.
I think too much “drama” is placed on big events vs. small ones, emo services and jock services, etc. There is no one way to do ministry.
Continue your Kingdom work!
Reading all the comments, it’s easy to see we’re, for the most part, are saying the same thing.
I personally believe we have not had a “youth ministry” revolution since the “Willie George 180″ awakening some 12-15 years ago.
While the church has made great strides (thank you Pastor Craig, Andy and many others) they youth ministry has and is still operating the same “activity” mindset. Which let me say I think has it’s place (we need to have big front doors) But I think if we (Senior Pastors) looked at the scripture….turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, children to the fathers….more personally. I personally think if the Pastors had that mindset towards their youth pastors, we’d see less burn out, less leaving, less spinning……because of that relationship more YPs would truly catch the heart beat of their Pastor and more would be accomplished by doing less.
We tend to preach and tell people to get involved in small groups but don’t invest our lives in the very people who should mean the most to us.
(just my opionion)
A great read on closing the back doors is the book, “Sticky Church”
Blessings! Love the comments on here!!!
Youthministry Yea!
Biggest challenge:
1. Not to beacome a para church movement - we are one body.
2. Getting older guys and girls (30 somethings) to be roldemodels for the younger generation. You don’t need to be cool or hip - just real, honest and caring.
As I read the thoughts and opinions about student ministry, it is exciting to see what others are thinking.
You asked what we thought of the big event. I read some of the comments to your question and the cynical side of me laughs. Those who claim that the “big event” doesn’t work, most likely struggles to pull off big events (and when they do, it is not as big as the church down the street). I think big events work. Billy Graham packing out stadiums and thousands of people accepting Christ - big event. 3,000 accepting Christ in one day in Acts - big event. 5,000 men (not including women and children) being fed (it is okay to give away free pizza) listening to Jesus speak- big event. Junior high students going to school dances - big event. High school students going to football games - big event. Me spending $200 to see U2 in concert - big event. The big event works if you do it RIGHT.
However, I agree, the big event can’t be the only tool in your toolbox. That is like only having a hammer. You can do lots with it, but in order to do most projects correctly, you need more tools.
In my opinion, in order to keep student we have to take the next step and connect them relationally with other students and leaders. Does this mean small groups should be the next step? Not necessarily.
I agree with Anna above. Leaders are the most important part of student ministry. If our focus in student ministry is on students, we may have missed it. Everything rises and falls on leadership.
Craig, how do you see this move away from the big event model affecting Big Church? Do you foresee churches (those like life church) making a move away from a weekly big crowd event on the weekends in the future?
Matt (the first post) From all the youth pastors I know, and me, you are 100% on
craig! thanks for everything you do in church leadership. i want to learn more from you.
…just felt God calling me to say that.
Challenges: Running a ‘community group’ of unchurched kids. We struggle with how much grace to offer and when as these kids have no foundation in Biblical truths. Its tough to see them make poor chioces throughout the week, still using ugly language, being mean to peers, etc.
Joys: We are blessed to have a ‘zero budget’ ministry that partners with the LifeChurcht.tv, the local churches and the YMCA. We are so grateful for the shared resources of time and talent. These kids are so hungry to know Truth and our prayer is that they see their community supporting them on this journey.
Prayers: We are about to open the doors to the entire community. We pray for guidance, wisdom, and committed adults to lead the kids to Jesus.
i used to long for this as a youth pastor, and now that i am a senior pastor, i can say it even more…senior pastors, please give your youth pastors, whether they are full time, part time or volunteer, freedom to try things that you wouldn’t do. give them a budget to work with and never ask them to do a fundraiser. most crave direction and accountability but they need the freedom to do their jobs.
I just spent some time reviewing some of the other comments. First off, I’m glad to see that my experience wasn’t atypical. I’m glad to see that so many people are on the same page.
I do think I need to clarify what I mean when I say “big event.” I mean something that is specifically designed to draw people in and is set up like a party atmosphere. I think a big event that is centered around worship or service is a great idea, but to make it strictly about having a fun place to get a bunch of students together is not going to accomplish anything worthwhile.
Week after week of games, food and a 10 minute devotion are not enough to make disciples, especially when you have these youth for 1-4 years in a high school group. Showing them how to live the Christian faith and teaching them how to read and understand Scripture has to be the priority; otherwise you’re just running in circles. Doing it every once in a while as an outreach event certainly has its merits, but basing an entire program around it fails to catch the larger mission of the Church.
Some great discussion going on here about the real joys and pains of youth ministry.
Stastistically, youth ministry is a waste of time and money. When kids graduated our high schools, statistics tell us that they are done serving God. I think because so many people realize that they have nothing more than a big event, an emotional experience, or some illustration or gift that they were given or took part in. Let’s face it. There are many philosophy professors in college who understand the thing that youth pastors don’t. Kids are going to need something more than hype when they are done with HS. They need proof. They need evidence. They need knowledge. They need wisdom. And they aren’t getting it. We just want to grow our youth programs with gimicks, give away iPods, iPhones, iMacs (all because that’s what is in right now) and grow our youth group to be as huge as possible. We have good intentions, but we’re not intentional.
I’ve often told people that my goal in youth ministry is NOT to have the biggest group in the world. My goal is that 10 years from now these students that are in my group would be great husbands, wives, and parents. And they’d be teaching their kids the things that we are teaching them. They’d be in church, and plugged in to what God is doing in their local church. I want to equip them with that in mind.
What are your biggest challenges? I was talking to a church in our region who is doing a great job of reaching kids, and their biggest issue is the same ours is. Everyone will come the first time. They’ll come check it out, even give their lives to Christ (we call is fresh start). But they don’t come back. Getting them to come a second time is difficult. They won’t come back because of a gimick, a cool series, or because they liked the music. They’ll come back because of relationships. We’re working on this. (AND: it is NOT impossible to develop relationships in a big event style atmosphere. You just have to be more intentional).
What is your biggest joy? Seeing the kids that I poured into in my first years in ministry serving God today. Some are in ministry, and many are still serving God today. I thank God for it everyday!
How can we pray for you? Pray for our team. We have never had a problem recruiting people to help in our youth ministry. They get it. Keep praying God would strengthen them. Pray for me to continue to see the God-sized vision that He has. The stuff that will make a difference today, but make a difference tomorrow. The Bible says that a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, and I don’t ever want to contribute to the little leaven that jacks the rest of it up. Pray for open eyes, hearts, and anointing. We can’t do it without Jesus.
Also, what is changing about youth ministry?
I can’t think of anything that isn’t changing. All of it is. For all of the people who said that we’re dealing with the same challenges that we were years ago are dead wrong. Culture is changing. Problems are getting worse. People are finding new ways to rebel against God’s plans. It’s sad that as much as everything is changing the church isn’t. Kids want to be challenged, and want someone to SHOW them truth. We must never force truth down peoples throats. Let’s show them Jesus, give them a space to bump into Jesus, and let Jesus do the rest.
What would you love for your senior pastor to know? I love my senior pastor. He’s one of my great friends. He already knows everything. But here are some things that we need our senior pastors to know:
-If we’re going to tell everyone that we want to reach teenagers, put your money where your mouth is. Many youth pastors are running their ministries out of their pockets. Senior pastors, shame on you.
-Your youth pastors knows your mission statement. Do you know his?
-Pour into your youth pastor. Speak life into him. Tell him you appreciate him. Tell his team you appreciate him. He has the toughest job in the world. He needs your support.
-If your youth pastor is bi-vocational, and he comes to the church after his other job, sacrifices his family time, and you give him a to-do list a mile long while you’re out playing golf, you need to quit the ministry and do something else. That just pisses me off.
-Go to the youth service once every quarter. See what’s happening. You might learn something. Your youth pastor needs to see you there. The kids need to see you there. Parents need to see you there.
-Talk about the youth ministry from the stage. Support it PUBLICLY.
-Pray with your youth pastor before service. My senior pastor prays with me every Wednesday before we go on. It’s huge.
-Let your youth pastors focus on what they are good at. Taking the freaking kids ministry away from them, stop giving them mailer duties, stop telling them to make videos (they really don’t know, and they’re stressing trying to figure out how to do it), stop putting them in charge of big events church wide, and let them focus on youth ministry. They don’t have time to do much else. Youth ministry is a FULL TIME endeavor. It’s sad that most youth pastors dedicate less than 30% of their time to youth ministry.
These are the RIGHT QUESTIONS to be asking, Craig! Thanks for letting us youth pastors have a place to talk. There’s not anything else like it in the world.
The biggest challenges we face is breaking the perception people have of the youth ministry. People tend to think that what was happening several years ago is still happening.
Biggest joy for me is to hear an adult volunteer connecting with a student and impacting their life.
Pray for our students. We are shifting from a strong evangelistic approach to a discipleship structure. Change can be difficult if you don’t see anything wrong with the current model.
Sr. Pastor - Change the way we think about student ministry. Student ministry is to support the family and not replace the parents as the spiritual leaders of their home.
Challenges:
My biggest challenge as of recently (I’ve only been in the lead role for about 6 months) has been parents who won’t talk to me.
About a month ago we had a church wide meeting, and a woman stood up and made highly critical remarks about the student ministry. She’d never come to me in private to address her issues, and I think she’s left the church since that meeting.
Then over the last two weeks, I’ve heard rumors from different sources claiming that we don’t teach the Bible or have lessons in the student ministry, and we just play video games. Two families are threatening/planning to leave the church over me being on staff. The problem is that their claim is completely unfounded. Not only do I teach them, I record them and put them on our website. If they’d simply come and talked to me I could have set the record straight, but instead of talking to me they spread untrue rumors and gossip which have hurt my family personally and our ministry and church as a whole.
Joy:
Changed lives. I’ve thrown some big events and preached some great sermons, but it’s all pretty short-lived joy until I see that people are growing closer to Christ. It’s also much easier to take heat from parents and face frustration and failure when you can see changed lives. I can over-work myself and take a beating if people are growing closer to Jesus.
Biggest challenge - leadership’s kids
Hi. Not technically a youth pastor, but I lead the youth at our church. I’m age 23, only been in the game for 7 months after serving at my church for 7 years so I can’t take credit for our current model as I, with the help of 3 others are sort of transitioning into overseeing the youth, after our former youth pastor has become our lead pastor.
Biggest Joy
Our current model is proving to be fairly successful. We utilize big events, small groups, 1:1, individual bible reading plans and encourage the young people to develop relationships with their friends and invite them. This links the big events with the smaller ones and we have seen a lot of fruit of late from the young people doing the evangelising. Our leaders roles are to somewhat guide this process and invest in the core group of young people who are reaching more young people and teaching them how to do this. So whatever the event, the goal is to get whoever is there closer to Jesus if they already know him or don’t.
We like to convert people to the mission of Jesus and not just the man. We give people as young as 14/15 the chance to be part of outreach teams to teach them its about serving as well as attending etc.
I do have to defend big events here, it would be very hard for me not to as the majority of our youth have come through the door of our big outreach events (including myself 7 years ago). They may not be a place for an in-depth study of Romans 8 but they are a place where ‘kids can be kids,’ where they can go nuts and introduce their friends to leaders and be proud to say ‘my church hosts this youth club’. If young people see we want them to be young and mental I think they are more likely to be open to our message. These loud and manic times have lead to conversations off a quick gospel message and people have become Christians at these events or had meaningful conversations, (who would think the holy spirit would be able to work at a youth club!).
However, I think there would be a serious problem if this was all we did. I think they are important as long as there is intentional development of disciples in small groups and 1:1s. I think it is important for teams and leaders to know that big youth club times are specifically designed to engage with people, chat, get to know them, invite them to church and chat about Jesus. It seems to be a matter of having both big and small to complement each other, it might just be our location and a season we are in.
I think Jesus had a heart for large crowds and also individuals. There are young leaders at our church who have a great ability to lead a large amount of people in fun activities whilst shouting the gospel and on the other hand, we have some leaders who are great at leading small groups and caring for people and sharing the gospel. It would be a shame to make either neglect their personality and ability to do the other ministries.
Biggest Challenge
Getting 30+’s to serve the 18-30s by mentoring or leading small groups is extremely hard as they just don’t want to, which can leave a bit of a gap between the youth and the adults. Which means as young leaders are serving and serving, they very rarely get served, fed and accountability themselves. Leaving them getting tired and worn out with not much support. I think this is often seen as youth leaders jobs but then who serves them and so on. A lot of our young leaders between 18-25 have learned to be self feeders and look out for each other, I do think there is room for the older generations to serve them more though.
So, I would like to see a shift from the older generations, from looking after themselves in small groups to asking how they can serve the generation below (who are probably serving their children in youth activities!). As this is always going to be a problem, I think its vital that young people don’t just learn about Jesus, but learn HOW to learn about him, not just reading the bible, but HOW to read the bible. There are lots of bible studies around, that study the bible, but not many that allow you to study HOW to study (hope that makes sense).
Thanks everyone, good to learn from other people doing the same job.
I’m a deacon member as well as a youth directory (or whatever title they give me). I have been in a Vietnamese CMA church my whole life. I’m frustrated at how we do church and do ministry in general. Enough of that venting… here we go…
Challenges:
-Working amongst a culturally confused group… in a way Vietnamese American is a brand-new, rarely explored and thought upon… At home parents forces them to be Vietnamese… at school they are to be Americans… at church they’re supposed to be Vietnamese American.
-Working amongst a spiritually a spiritual-culturally confused group. At church we speak of love… their parents act loving… at home it’s stuff like “I’ll hang you on the bathroom door…” kinda love.
-Working with traditional parents that throw around the phrases “That’s our culture” and “That’s tradition” only when it serves their benefits. Good example is us picking up their kid(s) and having to ask permission everything (even though s/he is over 18) but them never having to call us to ask for permission and thanking us for picking up, dropping off, feeding, and growing their kids. As far as tradition goes… I think they’re not very traditional… BUT… we have to be.
-Most churches don’t place a strong emphasis on the youth (luckily this church we’re at is a bit better). “The Youth is the cornerstone and foundation of our church” but their actions show differently. Actually… it should be God… but, cliche, what can I say.
Joy:
-Our kids grow and bond
-Our kids consider this their second home
-Our kids love one another. When one cries they all are distracted… partly b/c they’re ADD… but I’d like to interpret it as love… but yes, they really do love each other
-Our kids look forward to seeing each other on weekends
-The kids are beginning to trust and obey us as we become consistent in loving them and telling the truth about Jesus’s greatest commandment… Love God and Love others
-The church begin to see that our unorthodox methods and teachings are reaching the youth.. it’s an eye opener
-Light at the end of the tunnel for us… a hope that the youth will actually mold the future of the church… we’re loving to reach the youth, the youth will love to reach the church, the church will love to reach the neighborhood… then city, state, nation, and world. (That’s my hope and passion).
Changes:
-Ministry, in general, is changing. And I’ll be preaching to the choir… but it’s all about relationship. You can only have permission to speak into someone’s life when you gain their trust… and that can only be done through relationship. And then there’s the importance of what you teach must go hand in hand with your actions. When relationship, teaching, action, and passion come together… you’ve got it made.
Teach passionately and boldly… that’s what’s changing around here… youth won’t listen to water-down Christianity. They want good food… the best… and they deserve the best - Christ.
To reach people for God… YOU have to change.
Lastly… the most important of all… can’t do Christian Ministry without Christ. I’m still learning =)
*******************************************
Shout out to Craig & Lifechurch.tv … for months I’ve been listening to your redundant sermons about “Fear God and not man”… blah blah blah… same message every sermon. *wink* I finally caught it =)… what you taught impacted me, my ministry, my leaders, my youth, and now… my church (that’s what changing). GREATEST LOVE AND RESPECT FOR YOU AND THE LIFECHURCH.TV.
HOLLA!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. Got a picture with you(Craig) at C3. If you want it… $5 … I’ll even frame it for ya.
The hardest thing for me personally is seeing the homes that these students go home to…..For the most part they are broken dis-functional homes that go against most things that Jesus preached….It is heart breaking to see students come in to a service experience God and then have to return home to a hurtful/dangerous place. I remember my youth pastor growing up could always look me in the eye and tell me you need to always honor your mother and father because they have what is best for you in mind….It isn’t that easy anymore….Parents sometimes don’t have the best in mind for their kids….
The biggest joy I have is seeing leaders come into their own as leaders of students…..When I see a leader pull a student aside to pray with or see a leader go that extra mile in a students life….Recently I had a couple of students get in trouble with the law and have to go to court, the awesome part of that was that there small group leaders were at there court dates as support to them and the family….THAT MAKES ME HAPPY
A couple of things I’ve learned are:
1) Churches need to let the Student Pastor minister in his or her areas of strengths.
In my early years I thought I needed to be so well rounded that I did everything. No more. I do what I do well, and let someone else do what I’m not good at. Some of your church systems demand that you do everything, but don’t compromise. You may pay for it as I have in losing a job, but one day you’ll reap the rewards. Today our student ministry has went from a depressed group of 10 to an excited can’t wait to bring my friends group of 60 in 6 months.
2) Empower students with ministry. In my early days I had adults do everything because I didn’t want to ‘rely’ on teens, or I was worried they would mess up too much. Not anymore. I have a team of students that do everything form the media to the worship to leading children’s worship!
Challenge: The transition of students after High School. Maybe some of you are like me out there…You work so hard to create an enviroment that is relevant to Students, then they graduate from High School and there is nothing in our church for them. Somehow the transition from David Crowder Band to Choir Robes, Organs and Southern Gospel music doesn’t come naturally.
Been in Student Ministry for over 13 years and there are several constant challenges:
1. The challenge to be seen as a legitimate pastor and not be treated as a junior staff member.
2. The challenge to be relevant, but not pursue that at the expense of biblical truth, soundness of speech and honesty.
3. The challenge to stay true to a vision or philosophy for Student Ministry when parents and sometimes pastors tell us we need to change to suit the tastes of students who don’t think we are “fun”. This one irks me more than anything. A student doesn’t like our youth meetings because they aren’t fun, so we get a call from parents, asking us to make changes so their child will want to come. How many of those parents would ask a lead pastor to change his style, vision or philosophy so they could have more fun?
Greatest Joys
1. Seeing students make good choices.
2. Watching urban teens abandon the pseudo-masculine tough guy routine and embrace humility, gentleness and grace.
3. Watching students minister to their peers.
Prayer
That we would fall in love with Jesus more and love fads, entertainment and “relevance” less.
if you read the latest blog that i just posted i somewhat go over the things you asked.
[...] a great way to know what’s happening in the world of youth ministry everywhere! check it out. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)I laughed out loud…Spectrum of Youth [...]
My biggest challenge as a Youth Pastor is balance. Trying to find that place of being a leader, but yet still being enough of a friend for students. Balancing speaking the truth, but loving students where they are. I never want my words to turn them away from God, but I also must speak truth to them. Also, my biggest challenge is learning to “turn off” youth ministry. I have work-a-holic tendencies and it’s hard to shut down.
My biggest joy comes from seeing students know Christ. This goes beyond just salvation. I’m not trying to discredit the great gift of salvation, but I get as much joy from seeing a student develop as a disciple.. I don’t want to be one to just have them “say a prayer, make the walk, join the church, or whatever” but see them grow and stay close to Jesus.
What I want my Senior Pastor to know is cast vision. When I have the vision to guide us, it makes student ministry easier. I want to develop our team and ministry in unison with my Pastor’s vision for where God is calling our church to go.
Mike Conner
challenges?
it’s funny but I’m not sure the challenges in ministry really ever change.
joy?
seeing people saved! That never gets old.
How can we pray for you?
Pray that God makes us effective.
changing about youth ministry?
Connection with disconnection. For example, teens to call each other, they text. They don’t hang out, they facebook/myspace/twitter. Youth are more connected than ever, but in a way that is less connected. Another change we have been seeing is that we have more teens bringing their parents to church than we have parents bringing their youth to youth group. The tide has shifted and our young people are making a big impact on their parents and even grandparents.
Next week we are going on a missions trip with 82 youth and we are taking radical to another level we are starting a mission trip called the 36 hour tour and what we are going to do is go on a trip and stop at every single pueblo from Tepic Nayarit mexico to prt. Vallarta Jalisco and do servant evangelism prayer for the sick and give food and clothes away… We won’t sleep for that day and a half or have much food to eat we need slot of prayer
I know this isn’t what p. Craig asked but I just thought what a better way to aak for prayer…
I will write back here if you would like to know how it went and we will probobly post a video on YouTube but that doesn’t matter I would just really appreciate any prayer or even advice if your youth group has done something similar
Muchas gracias
Jesse
I feel like I should be commenting on every post you have. I am on staff at a church of about 400. The church was planted 6 years ago and I have been here for 5 of those years. I came on as a children’s pastor. About a year in the youth pastor left and I was running Nursery through College. A bit o large gap.
Currently I am the Student Ministries Director. I have since built a team to over see these areas. My main focus is High School.
Along with those I also oversee our Adult Discipleship - which works closely with our small groups. When I am not doing those things I oversee our media and if I can breath after all that I teach to our adults about once a quarter.
I feel some of the challenges I have seen are finding the right people for the job. In a small church - especially just starting out - you tend to grab whoever is breathing and just throw them in. I have recently discovered that even staff sometimes are not that passionate about what they do.
When is the right time for change?
Can you wait it out?
Is waiting worse then acting on change?
In a small church setting, I see people get very comfortable with how things are. Even for a good thing - people are very hesitant for change.
In our youth ministry (High School specific) I have seen that relationships are the backbone. When we create environments where students and leaders can build relationships - they love it and grow.
Challenges:
Parents. I have been a student pastor for 12 years now, and I think the parents are getting worse. They focus more on their student’s happiness than on teaching them how to live according to God’s word.
Board Driven Churches. My church is run by the board. They make arbitrary decisions without facts or research. Usually does more harm than good.
Time. We only get so many opportunities to invest the truth of God’s word into a student’s life. Cannot waste a moment.
Joys
Students ministering to other students. Its like watching the body of Christ function the way it was intended.
Anytime a student says thank you.
I am really struggling with what the church in America has become. I thought we were coming out of “fun events” but parents just seem to want their kids to have a fun place to go. I guess it is their desire to keep them off the streets. I feel they are desiring the wrong thing. Because youth ministry is “not important” as adult ministry for they have wallets to fund the church, adults don’t seem to see the importance in serving in the youth ministry. This is a shame. I have been around long enough to KNOW that Children, Youth, College, and Adult ministries are equally important. What has created this separation? Why have parents totally neglected their duty of leading their children spiritually and started pawning their kids off on the church to make an impact in 1-2 hours a week? What a shame! Did Paul and Peter preach to families? Did the parents learn from the Apostles and teachers and go home and teach their children? I don’t see “Youth Ministry” or “Children’s ministry” anywhere in the Bible. When I was hired, I was asked to put on a “Big Event” once a month. The win was numbers. The events were not pressured to have any sort of purpose, but only to give parents ease that the youth ministry was “Alive and working”. This made me a little angry seeing that time, money, and resources could be better used to feed the spiritually anorexic youth.
My greatest joy has been watching the kids “get it”. I asked the youth if any of them had devotion time at home or talk about God at all. ALL of them said they did not. I taught a lesson that night and asked them to go home and start a devotion with their family and lead it themselves. I had a 7th grader come back that Sunday so excited that he did it and loved it! Now that had me pumped. I used him as an example to the rest of the youth and celebrated it! Northpoint ministries says “what happens at home is more important than what happens at church” and I totally agree with that.
I am sad that we are more concerned with the sign in our yard than the Kingdom of Heaven at times. I guess that is because we have to report to our boss and give the roster showing the percentage of growth as we hope to keep our job or get a raise. It is sad. I have been working with 4 local churches asking the youth pastors to join with me doing a joined youth experience. This will allow us to come together in worship, teaching the youth to not take pride in our church but THE church. This will also allow us to use our talents as youth pastors and youth groups to create a great experience in worship, drama, and preaching. We are starting this by just getting together for service to get to know each other. Pray that God uses this in our kids lives!
Craig - I am a BCM director which is a ministry to aid churches with college students. I work on the USF campus to reach students as well.
What are your biggest challenges?
- Support: not financially but from churches to buy in to what we are doing. We are a funnel for the local church. my heart is to get college students from the campus into a church because after college, they are gone.
- Apathy: my best students are not the ones who grew up in church. These students are passionate. Church kids see this as a “YOUTH GROUP” which just makes me scream inside everytime someone says that.
- Time: with college students relationships are everything. Events do nothing if no one knows you care for them. Listening is the best way to reach someone here. The number one problem on college campuses is loneliness. I can only hang out with people so much without degrading my family.
What is your biggest joy? Seeing students get it. A former student took me out to lunch (and paid!) on wed to encourage me and tell me that he is thankful for the bcm’s ministry. We butted heads many times while he was here because he could just not understand what I was doing sometimes. But now he understands! Plus he is going into ministry! Woohoo
How can we pray for you?
I’m burnt out and recovering. Please pray that I recover quickly and I spend more time with my family.
Pray that I don’t get frustrated when results don’t happen on my timing, but on God’s
Also, what is changing about youth ministry? Everything! Holy Crap it’s hard to keep up. I’m a big tech nerd but when it comes to students I am so far behind! Events have gone, the biggest change is that people want to be heard. They are being preached to by screamers telling them they are going to hell. Professors telling them what and what not to believe. Parents griping at them to get a job/life/education. They just want someone to be real and authentic with them
Thanks for listening to me rant see you next week Craig - at exponential in Orlando, I’ll be at the Catalyst booth as a rep!
First of all, I’m blown away by how many youth pastors have responded. Obviously there are a ton of men and women in youth ministry who are seeking to learn from others, which is AWESOME.
As I’ve read through these comments, I totally agree with the comments concerning the produced “big events”. I’ve been in youth ministry for over 10 years now and I’ve always felt that big event youth ministry wasn’t going to produce disciples. However, as was often mentioned above, that is often what churches and parents desire/expect. I’ve just recently come to grips with the fact that I’m not a big event producer, but I can be a mentor. Right now, I have three young adult men (two of which came through our youth ministry) who desire to serve in ministry, so I am meeting with them weekly for mentoring. I feel this is the sweet spot of youth ministry. Relational mentoring that can be reproduced over and over. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did with his disciples?
Challenges:
- changing a mentality from “bigger is better” to truly making disciples
- trying to figure out what connects with teenagers in a rapidly changing culture.
Joys:
- seeing young people give their lives fully to the Lord and being open to go and do whatever the Lord leads them in
Prayer Request:
- the ability to stay the course in discipleship mentoring for long-term fruit for the Kingdom
Craig, what are the patterns you see in the posts here, if any? I’m excited that lifechurch is continuing down the road of dialogue with teens… good stuff.
I’ve been a youth leader at SOKC for about 3 years now. It’s been awesome to see how Switch is evolving. One of the greatest joys is pouring into one of my students, and then watching them as they pour into the lives of younger students.
After 3 years, there have been challenges. Our teens are dealing with issues I’ve never dreamed of a 14 year old having to face. Listening to them and counseling with them is emotionally draining. As a leader, I have to keep myself filled up in order to have something to give. I agree with Anna that more leaders are needed. But at the same time, they can’t be lukewarm leaders. I would rather sit with a group of 20 girls than have 10 of those girls go off with a leader who really doesn’t care that much.
Craig
- I’m a youth pastor in Cumming GA. Right beside 2 mega churches or mega youth groups for that matter (one being a branch of North Point). We’re a plant of ARC that’s been going about 2 1/2 years. I like most, wear multiple hats. I run sound, do the graphics for the church and youth, and the website. I work for a website company during the day and coach a high school team in town to connect with some of the kids.
I didnt read every post but Ive got some challenges I havent seen in other posts.
CHALLENGES
- Kids dont have loyalty. There are a couple youth groups in the city which offer something pretty cool and it seems like they are all options. Whoever has the “coolest thing” that week or the “coolest series” going on at the time, the Christian kids go there. No matter how much you try to get them plugged into a small group they still won’t stay. They love it and see the need but there is no loyalty. I’m wondering if anyone else is having this problem???
( There’s not a competition between youth pastors either. I play basketball with the Browns Bride staff once a week and love those guys)
The other problem that comes with that is when you do start the God conversation with a kid who has never had a God relationship and they start a brand new relationship. This is the loyalty they see and therefore they stay for a few months then hear there is a cool event going on somewhere else and they jump. They stay in touch and still love you and they’ll come back and hangout every few weeks. But no loyalty.
THE BIG EVENT MODEL
I think there is room for the big event. Even with the challenge in our city I still think its a good idea because this is where we see most “nonbelievers” show up. The Christian kids are more open to invite kids who aren’t in a relationship with Christ to these events. But I think they should stay events. Not the whole youth group based as the big event but have one a month or every 6 weeks. Its true we cant reproduce what Hollywood can or movies depict. But I dont think they expect it as long as we dont act like thats what we’re giving them. We have to act like the “big event” is just something fun we’re doing and not hype that it’s mind blowing.
We are currently switching to one big service a month for youth and 3 weeks of small group driven nights. We are going to implement this in June. I would love to hear how that is working for your guys at lifechurch.tv if possible.
I Have a question? I’m the Youth Pastor at my church and the Youth are saying they are bore, but everything that is put out on the table they turn down. And when they are ask what are the thing they would like they say I don’t know. What can I do to turn things around?
They don’t know what they want. They don’t even know what they need. And that’s where you step in. Giving them what they need regardless of them wanting it or not. Plan, execute, and they’ll follow suite. Be open, honest, and transparent.
The cons:
-they don’t know what they want
-they seem hard to please
The pros:
-once you define what they need they’ll crave more of it
-this is a teachable environment… harness the opportunity
We have committed in the youth area to share the Gospel every week. Since November 5th we have seen dozens come to Christ…not like 10 or 20 at a couple of events but we are seeing these commitments almost every week…this is our biggest joy
Biggest challenge is connecting them to the church, a small group, a mentor…something. We are trying to be faithful with what we have been given…we see fruit but praying for depth.
Thanks Craig, I love your dedication to empower and equp the wider body of Christ.You are true a servant leader, thanks for being so helpful and open, you have taught me so much. Thankyou