Want to build a stronger youth ministry? Feel like you’re scrambling to put together each week’s youth group meeting? Are you overwhelmed by carrying the leadership responsibilities alone? This resource can help!
From developing a strong leadership team to handling administrative details to working with the church’s other ministries, these ideas from Faith Formation Ministries will help you build a stronger youth ministry. Download this one-page resource for free and share it with your church. Or order printed copies for a small fee at FaithAliveResources.org.
Free Resource for Stronger Youth Ministry
In youth ministry, we often find ourselves reacting to circumstances that demand our time and prevent us from building strong systems and practices. But being reactive rather than proactive can prevent us from investing in the disciple-making opportunities that are crucial to healthy youth ministry and healthy churches.
Build a Stronger Youth Ministry With These 10 Tips
Use these 10 proven strategies for a stronger youth ministry program:
1. Develop a Strong Youth Leadership Team
Your best resource in youth ministry is the youth themselves. They are the ones who know the struggles teenagers are living with and the joys they experience daily. Use this to your advantage!
Find youth who have shown leadership skills, and invite them to help plan a youth group evening; find older youth to mentor younger youth; ask youth for input on study topics, social events, and outreach. Your youth program is a great place to start developing leadership skills in young people and equipping them to be disciples—and doing so will also help build their faith!
2. Develop a Strong Adult Leadership Team
You can’t do it alone, even if you think you can! God has called and equipped many others in your congregation to be leaders and mentors for youth, so find them and invite them to serve the church in this way. Developing a strong adult leadership team will allow you to invest deeper in the lives of youth rather than being spread thin trying to do it all.
3. Make Time for Administration
The word “administration” is like kryptonite to many a youth pastor. Youth ministry leaders are often relational beings who let the administrative side of things go. If that is you, set aside time every day to deal with the administrative things that need to be done in order for the ministry to succeed.
4. Build a Detailed Calendar
In order to have a successful season of youth ministry, it is vital to develop a strategic calendar of events, teaching dates, outings, and so on, so that your leadership team, the youth, and their parents will all be on the same page and can plan their weeks accordingly. When there isn’t a clear path to follow and direction for the year, chaos can and will happen.
5. Communicate in Multiple Ways
While we can plan well, ongoing multilayered communication is crucial for success. Create distribution lists of parents and youth for emailing/texting/calling with ministry information. Find the ways your people prefer to be contacted, and count on sharing the same information on multiple platforms. Youth generally don’t use email, but parents still do. Youth may be using Facebook less and less these days, but parents and grandparents are all over it. Tailor your communication to your audience.
6. Pray Early and Often for Stronger Youth Ministry
Youth ministry cannot succeed without being in the will of God. Bathe your youth ministry in prayer daily. Ask that it be included in the congregational prayer on Sundays. Develop a prayer calendar for yourself, praying through the specific needs of your leadership and teens. Be intentional in prayer. Do not let it become something you do only when you think you have time; make time!
