Successful Youth Ministry Illustration (cont.)
Then he smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time, the class was onto him. “Probably not,” one of them answered. “Good!” he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”
“No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good!” Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”
One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”
“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
Why Priorities Matter
What’s true of rocks in a jar is true of priorities in a youth ministry. If you want to make prayer a bigger priority in your youth ministry, you must program it in first. It must be on your calendar and in your weekly youth ministry programming. The same is true with relational evangelism, student discipleship, and leadership development.
Too often our youth ministries are full of the sand and gravel of goofy games, fun videos, and pizza parties. As a result, we have little room left for the bigger rocks that can make a deeper impact. Don’t get me wrong. Games are fun, and pizza is fine. But unless you program in the big rocks first, the weighty stuff of youth ministry can easily get left out of the programming jar.
Our proclaimed values are either true youth ministry priorities or empty platitudes, depending on whether or not we program them. I’ve seen this with youth ministries across the country, especially in the area of evangelism.
While many youth leaders say evangelism is a big priority, our weekly programming usually doesn’t reflect that. Perhaps we do a quarterly outreach meeting, but our biggest priorities get programmed into our weekly meetings, not our quarterly ones. If I tell my wife she’s a priority but talk to her only once a quarter, then she’s not a priority at all. If I say evangelism is a priority but push it only once a quarter, then it’s not a priority at all.
Free Resources to Rock Your Ministry
If you’d like to learn how you can make evangelism (and six other rocks) a bigger priority in your weekly youth ministry programming, then click here to download a free e-resource. Also download this free PDF filled with practical ideas from youth leaders to help you advance the Gospel and put the big rocks in first!
For a successful youth ministry, start programming your biggest priorities into your weekly youth meetings. Rock on! Â
