Youth Ministry Restart
I have been in youth ministry probably for about 10 years now, and never have I been more unconfident. Our church was able to acquire a storefront that is about 100 yards away from our town's junior high school. It's located in an area where teens walk to and from school, so basically I hit the youth ministry grand prize. I run an after school program and I'm working on adding tutoring.
If you’ve been in youth ministry very long, you would know that this is the ideal situation for many of our ministries. Here is the problem. I spent many years building my core group of teens, and let me tell you they are awesome teens, and I guess somewhere along the way I forgot what youth ministry really is, and what it is really like.
I let kids come for 2 1/2 hours after school twice a week, and here's what I found was happening. I had to hide our bean bag chairs, I had to remind them basketballs are not dodgeballs, and I had to remind them where the trash can sets. Then at the end of the day I was still picking up their trash. Walls were being scuffed, stuff was getting broken, and I was getting frustrated and tired. I am hosting 30-35 14-year-olds, most of whom are boys, so I guess I should kind of expect that stuff to happen.
The point is that I had to re-learn how to be a pastor. I had to love THESE kids and learn how to have patience, compassion, and mercy with them. My world was opened up to include teens whose parents may or may not really care about what they're doing, and may not even care much for them. I found myself taking three or four kids home every week, and I found them calling me during the week for rides and silly things. You know all those things we tell our core kids to do, because we know they won't take us up on it?
I mean, I'm doing normal youth pastor stuff, helping with “Big Church,” and now I am driving kids everywhere and being a maid?
Yet isn't this what youth ministry really is about? YES...but I was comfortable and forgot the point. God has blessed me and given me a unique opportunity, and my job is to hang with teens, teach teens, and love teens. I guess sometimes it takes messy, uncomfortable situations to help us remember what youth ministry is all about.
God has called me to love my whole town, not just my youth group. I thought I cared about the teens in town, but I didn't know what that meant until I took my youth group to them. My ministry is currently messy, weird, uncomfortable, hard, fast, and a lot of it is new. Believe it or not, I am excited and rejuvenated in my call to ministry. As long as I take this journey with God, then I am not alone, and he will be responsible for what happens along the way. My job? Patch the holes, fix the broken things, and cover up Fight Club before the senior pastor finds out. Just kidding! My job is simply to love teens and try to point them to God—nothing more nothing less.
Conversation
Good article Joe - thanks!
Good article Joe - thanks!
This is so true. Recently, my
This is so true. Recently, my wife and I have started serving at a church in a poorer area than our last ministry was in. We've had to realize that if we don't send out the church van to pickup the students for youth group, there will be no youth group! This at first was kinda weird, but now we've started to see that they hear about Jesus ONLY because we send the van and bring them to youth group. What more could you ask for? This is what ministry is all about!
Thanks for the
Thanks for the clarification!
It was a great article!
I thought the article was
I thought the article was well written. Too often we get used to our "churched" students and we forget about the students who have not been taught how to act in these environments.
Opening up a student center for anyone to come and hang out for 2 1/2 hours is bound to draw in students who simply have no where to go... what an opportunity to express the love of God to someone who may not just walk into our youth groups on Wednesday nights.
God has given you a great opportunity and this article excites me to go out and reach the unreached!
Thank You.
Hello Joe, I just want to
Hello Joe,
I just want to take an opportunity to highlight a few things here. I personally want to thank you for your commitment to the students in your ministry. Now-a-days this kind of commitment is rare. Too many people and church leaders want the kids to come to their youth ministry and get plugged in and grow, but all too often are those leaders going out and meeting those kids in their territory, but you seem to be doing that right now. Another thing I applaud you and give God the Glory is that you have made yourself available to these kids that God has called you to serve. This goes with commitment. Unless God is in the mix and unless He places that passion in someones heart, out of our own strength we wouldn't normally go out of our way like you have been doing. Now I have been in youth ministry long enough to understand that you are not taking these kids home with you because I can say I feel your passion and can understand the love for youth ministry. Anyway, I don't normally make comments but reading this article and seeing the transpency of your commitment and weaknesses, I felt that I needed to say, keep running the race. Many are called but few are chosen. You are going out and making disciple and not just waiting at church for them to come. You are appreciated and I thank you for your commitment and love for students. Be extremely bless my brother!
PS, I didnt mean I took them
PS, I didnt mean I took them to my home, that would be inappropriate. I took them to their homes.
I don't think he meant taking
I don't think he meant taking kids home with him-he meant he was just giving them a ride home. And that's just another way of simply loving kids and helping them out. Such as when he was talking about parents who may not care. This gave kids the opportunity to be at a safe place such as church and still have a ride home.
Dear Anonymous, In an
Dear Anonymous,
In an effort to be concise, I left out those things which may help you. The city in which I minister has two different churches that lead a bus ministry. The kids in our town our used to walking, riding bike, or being picked up for church. My church has rules on rides, and I feel they are good rules. No staff person is to be alone in a car with a member of the opposite sex. Driving kids should be done the same way as a church field trip. The kids I am driving have permission from their parents, they are all males, and I drop them off in groups so that I am not alone with anyone in a car.
We do have rules in regards, however I left them out due to article size. Everyone should be smart and protect themselves and work within the rules of their church. Me picking kids up for church would be the same as me driving my youth a concert, at least this is the way my church views it...
Thanks for the input, I hope this clears things up. With us its about a demographic, and doing what we can to reach our town.
I work for a larger Church.
I work for a larger Church. We have a lot of rules about what we can and can't do. I'll admit sometimes it's hard doing ministry while working around those rules. But, I also know the rules are there for a reason.
I'm uncomfortable that this youth minister takes 3 or 4 kids home with him every week? That seems inappropriate and it crosses a huge boundary line.
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