End Game: Why students are bailing on student ministry

Every youth minister I know is trying to find the next solution to their ministry problems: Students just stop coming and they don't know why. The students of this culture have gained a certain amount of respect for authenticity, and their smart too, so they have noticed that while church was not completely together to begin with, it was at least honest until it started trying to imitate culture, be aesthetically pleasing and make everyone happy. Students get enough false front, alterior motive driven agendas everyday in the culture that they wade through.

They don't need to be lured in to a youth group event by a pizza party and get broadsided with a message. They need an authentic community that they can be a part of. Teenagers are searching for something deeper, something that helps them make sense of it all, and someone to help them understand the things that they go through, as well as how to deal with them. When students don't have that sort of guidance at home, it is left up to the body of Christ to be that model, and mentor for them.

A great model of that is the family based church community; a community, with its primary building block as the family that provides a real live model of what the Christian faith looks like when it is actively lived out. A community that builds upon the foundation that the family provides is one that is well on track; but what happens when there is no family foundation? That is where the community steps in and provides the mentoring, nurturing, guidance and direction that is needed. This is the type of community that the world needs us to be. This type of community is similar to that of Jesus' model. Just as He took his disciples alongside him, and taught them, gave them wisdom, discernment, and understanding, so should we for those who have nothing else. Family based community: it's not just about youth, or adults, it's about the fullness of the body of Christ helping one another toward maturity and a greater love and understanding of who God is.