I mentioned that this week, I was going through a series about the Timeless Truths of Youth Ministry. Today is the first part of the in-depth look, and todays Timeless Truth is that Youth Ministry will always be about pointing students to Christ.
There are a lot of changes going on in the church today as we see somewhat of a passing of the baton from the older generation of Church Leaders to the Younger generation. I don’t mean in my specific church, and I don’t mean younger generation to mean people like me. But across the board, we are seeing new Church Leaders rise up. I remember being at Liberty when Jerry Falwell passed, and seeing the baton passed on to his two sons, Jerry Jr. and Jonathon. There was a bit of immediate change at both the school, and at Thomas Road Baptist Church, the place Jerry had Pastored for 50 years. Jonathon was a much different speaker than Jerry, and it took a while to get used to the difference. But his message was the same.
And its the same in Youth Ministry. The way we deliver the message may change, but the message never will. This is easily understood, and should be a given. It’s easy to get distracted by all the frills and gimmicks that we do in youth ministry in an attempt to bring kids in, but the overarching purpose of a healthy youth ministry is always going to be to point students to Christ. This can play itself out differently depending on the context and make up of the group. One church’s youth program may focus on doing a lot of fun events that get kids plugged into the church body who normally wouldn’t come to church, while another church may choose to instead focus on doing a lot of service projects that get kids interested in serving. Though these activities can also be present in unhealthy churches who aren’t point students to Christ, if the purpose of those events/projects is clear and laid out and understood by the group, then these are both very healthy options.
The point of it is that in both of those churches, the leadership of the youth program knows where they are going as a group, and what the students in that specific group need. What works for one church to point students towards Christ may not always work elsewhere. This is why its vital for student pastors to be leaders who know what their students need to get to the next level of spiritual maturity. Sometimes those fun outreach events are just pure fun, but other times, they serve a distinct purpose of being a tool to point towards to a relationship with Christ.
What you can do|
…| Know the the things you want students to know, and then let the students know them. If you have a purpose statement, make sure the students AND parents actually know it too. A purpose statement is worthless if your the only one who knows it.
…| More than just knowing the groups purpose, sit down with your current calendar and really evaluate what the purpose behind each event (event’s meaning anything on the calendar, parents meeting, youth services, small group nights, bowling nights, whatever). Determine your benchmarks for the year and see how the events are helping get students to those benchmarks.
