YTH Leaders Connecting In Mixed Small Groups

I learn so much from YTH leaders on a weekly basis. Whether that is at a YTH Camp, or when I visited YTH leaders at Stoneman-Douglas High School in Florida after the school shooting, talking on the phone late at night, or in my coaching and weekly conversations with YTH leaders.

One thing I have tried to do all of my ministry life is to stay current. There are many ways to do that - reading, conferences, taking university classes, meeting with professionals, media, and spending time with teenagers.

One of the things I have tried to do is re-invent myself every 2-3 years and to find a new way to do YTH ministry. It’s not a complete overhaul. It’s a shift or accent or addition to my spiritual or natural gifts. It happens by observing what others are doing in their work with teens, or talking with other YTH leaders, or by self-evaluation, or by listening to someone very close to me.

This happened to me a few years ago while driving to a Summer Camp with an intern who was with me for the Summer. We were having some great discussions and randomnly while we were talking he said to me, “You need to do spoken word.” I was like, “What?” That thought had never crossed my mind. Because I respected this young man so much and valued his opinion, I started writing Spoken Word’s and using them in my messages often.

Over the years, while speaking to YTH leaders, I have often gone through the same thing afterward. Learning new and fresh approaches to doing YTH ministry. And it happened again the last few weeks while slowing down and talking with YTH leaders!

Here are a few moments from my latest ZOOM session with about 12 YTH leaders from across the nation this week. I’ve recorded the manuscript from that session for this weeks blog:

Question #1

How do you engage and disciple kids in small group nowadays when it feels like the hardest thing to do is get their time?

I think one of the ideas that will change discipleship is connecting in context outside of the church. You can put into practice what you've heard about social media live sessions, writing letters so students get mail, or even online gaming at specific times of the week.

Let me say that one of the things we have got to do better is YTH ministry in context. What I would say is I think we've kind of created codependent students on the YTH group and codependent students on the service. So, anytime you can be in their setting for discipleship that's a win. Sitting with students one-on-one or one-on-two’s is a great way to connect. Maybe not every YTH leader can do this, but, it should be our default. In this setting, we are able to be more personal, have conversation, and become an editor in someone’s life because of proximity.

That could happen at the park, on a walk, at the school, a donut shop, going to meet at the school, or, you go to the grocery store because those are open right now during this shutdown! A YTH pastor said to me last week, “I don't even know where to meet right now with my kids”.

Aside from social media and other apps, we must get creative in times of crisis like this COVID-19 lock-down. And the same goes pre-Covid and post Covid. I think the best discipleship happens outside of the church setting because of attention in proximity and the face-to-face interaction of the smaller setting. In that solo or small group setting we get feedback, accountability, discipleship, and personal editing. An Editor is not always effective in large formats but can be effectively used in a more personal setting.

I can take you to so many conversations with teenagers over a mentoring commitment that I had with them usually lasting the whole school year with once or twice-a-month meetings not at the church. The students cannot get away from your words, be distracted by someone else, or dodge the conversation by not paying attention in that personal moment.

Aside from context or personal mentoring, another thing I'm really high on for discipleship with students is curriculum such as the Alpha Youth Series for elite creative discipleship. If you guys have not seen the program, it is elite. It is video work all online, it is free, has planned study guides, and the student’s create their own profile. l would tell a student that you really want to go deeper with, or, even your student leadership group, to listen to the weekly video and read through the study guide, and whenever you meet again you will all go over it together.

Question #2:

YP: I know there’s obviously not one YTH ministry model, but, like some of the larger churches who are doing mostly small groups, what do you think about that?

YTHOLOGY: One of the things we must get better at in YTH ministry is context. Some of those larger groups have a history. They tried the model where small groups may come together weekly and then every month or two these groups will do a larger gathering. There's some history with some interesting processes these larger churches have gone through.

This model of small group ministry has its negatives and positives. See some other posts on this blog that cover these extensively. Some have done this and then found out it wasn’t working so they have switched back to a YTH service setting. There has to be a balance. I’ve learned that whatever you decide to do, listen and then do it well.

With regards to moving to a mixed small group model, I don't like taking kids completely out of a YTH service setting - and I know that sounds so old-school man, but, I'm watching people that did this and who were strong in the small group setting who have told me they are going back to the YTH service and yet incorporating mixed small groups for discipleship. Think about it. We’ve focused on that small group only thing in YTH ministry for ten years - and look where it got us with our theology stats! A 4% biblical worldview in Gen Z. I think mostly because we haven’t done good theology in small groups.

I don’t want to miss only do YTH ministry in small group because we can miss corporate prayer, or corporate worship, or the moving of the Spirit, or laying on of hands in the corporate ministry setting. I know some disciplines don't value that, but, students do. They are so into the supernatural.

Our students are in school 35-40 hours a week. Is that what we want to do every time they come on YTH night also? Theology can be taught and caught. I think you can catch it and I think you can teach it in both settings. Sometimes small groups have become an excuse for not planning, no worship talent or vision, leaders who are negative on hype, and a host of other reasons for not doing a YTH service. Please check the other posts on this topic.

Why? Because I hear the kickback when I talk about worship, prayer, supernatural in the small group setting- leaders say, “We do worship in the small group”, or, “We pray in the small group.” My response is always, “Good, good, but, it's not the same - look at the Convention worship that you're in or look at the Camp worship that you're in, is that what you want once a year?’ I know you hear my bend on this. I think we need both the large group service setting and the small group setting for effective YTH ministry. We did small groups 36 years ago my first year in ministry. So, just think it through.

As far as middle school and senior high students in small group, I know it is popular to separate them. But teenagers are more mature than we think. They can handle depth in spiritual conversations. Look at their homework! Have you seen it lately? And they are expected to be on time in class, respect their classmates, do cohort learning with other students, and maintain good grades under pressure so they can get scholarship.

I believe YTH leaders are treating students too immaturely. It is much better to call middle school students up to a greater level of maturity than to simply water down a small group fearing they may not be able to understand Theology.

In a mixed small group setting, one of the best ways to increase learning for younger middle school students is peer discussion. The peer discussion that happens in small group can help apply theology, understand the discussion more, and build a relationship of older students to younger students.

We did all of our small groups mixed for these reasons. And watched the maturity level in our younger students become viral because of the exponential learning in that setting.

You can see the video or listen to the podcast on this website also!