How do you intentionally prioritize the future of youth ministry?


Wayne Morgan - February 15, 2022
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"What got you here, won't get us there." The words were cemented with the image of the Choluteca bridge in Honduras. The structure was carefully built to withstand the fury of hurricanes, but the engineers did not anticipate was how a storm could reform the landscape.  In 1998, Honduras was hit by a category five storm that moved the Choluteca River. The once useful structure stood worthlessly next to the river it once spanned.

In many ways, the last few years has been a category five storm that none of us could have predicted. Our churches, families, communities, and more importantly students have been shaped in ways that we could never have anticipated. We need to begin skillfully and humbly to assess the damage to see if the structure of our ministry is still functioning, or if there are things that we need to readdress.

The stark reality is assessing a hurricane is more apparent than how we assess our storm.

GO check out the environment.

It's easy to get swamped with the busyness of ministry that we forget the Kingdom business to which we are called. It would be foolish to spend time and energy in maintaining a bridge that no longer connects two sides of a river. Much of ministry time leaders are expected to build/design/craft our ministry, but that isn't assessing the reformed landscape. We need to do as Jesus commands in Matthew 28:19-20, go GO to the people we serve.

In fact, this was Jesus' model of ministry. He spent time walking among the people he served. Maybe this makes you nervous. Perhaps this idea is TERRIFYING because you took a test, and it says that you're an introvert. GOING into the world of teenagers is daunting but here are a few ideas to help you intentionally GO:

  • The bump-and-run - go to where you know students are gathering. Walk through just like you walk through the lobby of the church on Sunday morning. No need to stop and have long conversations. The purpose is to GO, stop by to see students and say hello (Pro-tip: this can work well at the end of school events).
  • Visit their job - find out where your students are working and go visit. Be careful that you aren't be too sarcastic because some managers are super serious people.
  • Go to their travel games - ok... now you know I'm messing with your biggest pet-peeve, but if you spend the time to travel to an away sporting event, take other students and make it a day! I guarantee that parents will be impressed as well as the student that you came to watch.

Listen and look for the needs.

Where is your community asking for help? Some Christians spend all their time answering questions their communities are not asking. This makes them irrelevant. In many ways we are answering questions for former generations, but it's never been easier to use surveys to collect data from your current students. You can use survey monkey, poll everywhere, polls on social media, and a list of other places to help find out what questions your students are asking. WARNING - If your survey yields questions that you did not expect, do not look at these questions with offense! Think about it as surveying the damage of a storm and remember that God is using you to be part of their story. God is STILL fixing broken stuff! Use the questions to point people to scripture for guidance on the questions, prayers for wisdom, and use the questions as a space to help find resources for parents.

Empower students to help with the storm repairs.

I bet you're struggling to find good volunteers. What if there are spaces where we can empower student to lead instead? I heard someone recently say, "We trust 18-year-olds to drive a tank... we can't let them run the soundboard at church?!"

Yes, every space in your ministry cannot be filled with volunteers under the age of 25, but where CAN we allow them to serve? Maybe when we start asking questions, we will find out what our students CARE about and where they WANT to serve. Perhaps they are not serving in your ministry, but you can activate them to be messengers of reconciliation within your community. They may be able to tell you where the greatest area of damage has been done by the storm... and give you solutions on how to fix it!

As we look toward the future of youth ministry, one thing stands out to me during this past year: we can no longer look at a one-sized-fits-all approach to youth ministry. Just as each region of our country is hit with different storms, the way we bring help is also unique to each region. We cannot go into a hurricane ravaged area with snowmobiles thinking we are going to be helpful. We need to go, assess the needs, and begin to rally our students with the hope of the good news. Perhaps it is time to start doing what Jesus told us to do all along. And that begins with, Go!

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Wayne Morgan is the National Ministries Director for NNYM.

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