Students need to know youre not just a good person, but someone who can do what they say they can do. Are they 10%ers? Once you have the volunteers, regularly communicate with them. Its interesting to me that you never see the word revival in the New Testament, perhaps because it should be the normal Christian life. I've been there. Write job descriptions that clearly outline the scope of staff and volunteer position responsibilities. rather than the entertainment value of your meeting. The second thing I did: I loaded up a van with my core leaders (there were about 12 of us) and took them to a one-day seminar on The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren. Start taking prayer walks or shutting your door for 30 minutes a day or whatever you have to do to start making intercessory prayer a personal priority. Use the prayer-soaked word of God to keep Christ before the dying, to help them fight the fight of faith, to keep believing that even this final, painful push will be rewarded by God's grace. There is nothing wrong with fun at youth group. The answer is a resounding YES!. Instead of running from pain, find God at work in the middle of the pain and see what you can learn from it. It worked out pretty well. Trust your young congregation with full and unabridged lessons from scripture and you will find that real leaders with real hunger for righteousness will come out of your congregation. We must get them going to their friends, family, classmates, teammates and co-workers with the good news. Acts 4:31 gives a micro recipe for revival, After they prayed the place where they were meeting was shaken. Ministry is God-given responsibility. Too often churches are tempted to just put them in a 12 week course that ends up exegeting the excitement to evangelize right out of them. Transformed world. So, I am putting my notes, along with some extra commentary, for anyone who would like to use it with Apr 18, 2023 | New Resource, programming, small groups, Youth Worker Training. We felt like we were drinking from a fire hydrant, but at least the water was refreshing! Trying to beat the world at its own game is a losing battle. Once your 10%ers get 100% on board with this vision, theyll inevitably impact the others. Make prayer for teens the first thing you do as a staff. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. This being a difficult time in most teenagers' lives, it is more important than ever to get a good youth ministry program started. Before I came to my current church, they had been on a 15-year plateau followed by a near-death experience due to a leadership conflict. I am from Africa in Burundi. Get kids moving. 4. Copyright 2023 SimpleTexting, LLC. A Guide to Yellow Candles: Benefits, Spells, & More, What Does It Mean to Dream about the Same Person? Over 7,000 contacts have subscribed to Milestones texts in the past two years ago. Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full pricewine, food delivery, clothing and more. people eventually pass away. Text out your daily devotionals and Sunday teachings, and encourage kids to text their concerns or prayer requests to your staff. Attendance didnt explode. I didn't want to go to . The sign of a healthy youth group, big or small, is students who know their need for Jesus. Humility. "I've never known a pastor who didn't understand this," Moss says. Reason #2 - Teens' and twenty-somethings' experience of Christianity is shallow. Others are choked out by worldliness. Start recruiting adults at least six months before a new year of youth group ministry. Go with the growers and pray for the others. In a plant, you get to write the rulebook. If youre not willing to lose some kids, youre not giving yourself a chance to gain any. Empower youth to rewrite hymns and prayers in ways that are meaningful to them. Dont make your decisions on the basis of your feelings, which depend on changing circumstances and are unreliable. But its also systems, structures, programming, and facilities. I think we can agree that the goal of starting spiritual disciplines in the first place is to And Get Your FREE Youth Ministry Diagnostic Sheet Today! Revival starts with stopping a mindset that sabotages you and follows up with a new perspective that invites change to both you and your youth ministry. Hopefully, you will never have to do one. Whats most important is the ministrys impact on students lives, which will continue into the future whether or not the people who are currently working in your ministry are still there. 3. If kids are only required to show up, play whatever game youve come up with an then sit and listen to you speak for 15-20 minutes, its no wonder your youth ministry is in trouble. More tips and tricks can be found here. Are you interceding on behalf of your teenagers? That is less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish. There are no short cuts to discipling students and thats why I want to come alongside you with the best ideas, resources and strategies to give you the best chance of developing life-long followers of Jesus. The only things I lacked were skill and knowledge! Begging kids to bring their friends lowers the standard of your youth ministry. Was it the fast? How to REVIVE Your MinistryIs your ministry dying? In our newfound reason to unite, the instinct to separate falls away, social media is transformed from platforms that are destructive into opportunities for gospel witness, and we begin to love people well enough to tell them the good news of Jesus, even as our own fears are cast out (1 John 4:18). Which programs help your students grow the most? I have found that it was a culmination of several factors over time. They say that the average attention span is around eight seconds. But those precious few seeds that land on good soil will produce 30, 60 or even 100xs what was sown. Yes they need sound doctrine. single-parent family, foster family, adopted family, etc.). Youth who are incredibly unstoppable in every aspect of life. I was always taught Summer Jump not Summer Slump. In other words, its well and good (and even advisable) to have grown-ups presiding over the ministry, but bring in your college-aged or younger adult church members to work with the students, too. But by focusing on creating an involved, inviting culture that communicates the way your young people want you to, you can make leaps and bounds in engaging the students in your church community. We may spend an inordinate amount of time and energy focusing on things that, while important, don't help usher . They left Jesus because they didnt want to put the mental or spiritual work to understand. Move beyond being an inwardly focused church. Before making any significant change, listen to peoples concerns and adjust your plans as necessary. We huddled up right after the seminar, and I told them, I dont know how to do everything we just heard in that seminar, but Im willing to give my life to learn it. Find some volunteers and give them a room and a time. While not ideal, restarting your ministry can lead to a new, exciting and fruitful season that revitalizes your ministry and helps even more people come to know Christ. Sometimes, as a youth pastor, you will inherit a hot mess or a dumpster fire. Is the gospel youre presenting good news or has it been muddied up by terms that are unclear or inaccurate? Keep in mind that systemic changes must be built deliberately over a course of years for even the best content to reach students well. Set expectations for problems to be solved gradually over the course of years instead of pursuing futile quick fixes. In fact, a 2020 study by the Springtide Research Institute found that only 8% of participants between the ages of 13 and 25 who are part of a religious group say they have a trusted religious leader they could turn to if needed. Chris has been the Lead Pastor of Foothill Church in Glendora, California since 2006, an 80-year-old church that has seen great change and growth by Gods grace in this time. Drew Wilkinson is the Head of Marketing at SimpleTexting. Is prayer a big part of your youth ministry program or do you use it as fairy dust to sprinkle on your meetings but then depend on the latest, greatest curriculum to produce the real change? For all press inquiries, emailpress@acts29.com. But do this in a grace-filled way. Brian Moss is the senior pastor of Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, Maryland. 9 Dynamic Ways To Revive A Dying Youth Ministry Updated 11/23/2022 Many youth ministries are in decline and dying. We learned the hard way that you reach who you are, not who you want. Acts 4:31 gives a micro recipe for revival. Clearly communicate the direction in which the ministry is heading so your next youth pastor will help take it there instead of in another direction. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Six in 10 (61%) senior pastors say youth ministry is "one of the top priorities" of their church's ministry, and 7 percent say it is the single highest priority. The story of how a fatherless street kid overcame violence, chaos, and confusion to become a radical Christ follower. Intercession isnt just the domain of old ladies and crazy intercessors we sometimes meet. If not, it might be time for a shake up. ", Philip Ryken: Defining and Proclaiming Our Shared Gospel Message, 10 Things Pastors Often Keep to Themselves, Sharing the Gospel Even With a Stranger, Bible App for Kids Celebrates 100 Million Installs Worldwide, How You Can Support Easter Services With Prayer, 20th Annual Outreach Resources of the Year: Theology and Biblical Studies, Nine changes dying churches must make immediately. Sometimes, as a youth pastor, you will inherit a hot mess or a dumpster fire. In addition, his articles and reviews have been published in a variety of journals and magazines. I've been there. Kids will always have choices. Here are 5 action steps you can take to unleash the force of revival in your youth ministry. All rights reserved. Encourage the friend base to grow. It was a real fixer-upper if you know what I mean. The church is declining numerically, but no one seems concerned. Although we call them spiritual disciplines or habits, we cant let the check list mentality creep into our walk with God by becoming legalistic about it. This is part four in my series9 Dynamic Ways To Revive A Dying Youth Ministry. I have not always been Pentecostal. Have you equipped them to do just that? Whos with me? They unanimously agreed to do whatever it takes to become a healthy, outreach-oriented church. Base your decisions on biblical principles that remain the same no matter what your current circumstances. Structure, Plan of Organization & Funding. Similarly, Coastal Cathedral was able to increase its volunteer turnout by 100%. When Ive taken over a ministry like this, which has been multiple times, I have developed some comeback steps that I think might work for you. If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/a\/aa\/Lead-a-Successful-Youth-Ministry-Step-01.jpg\/v4-460px-Lead-a-Successful-Youth-Ministry-Step-01.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/a\/aa\/Lead-a-Successful-Youth-Ministry-Step-01.jpg\/aid136190-v4-728px-Lead-a-Successful-Youth-Ministry-Step-01.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"