7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Youth Ministry

Back to the beginning. I’m sure most of us have learned so much about life and our work through the years that we wish we could have known at the start. No matter what vocation we work in, a restart would be a game changer.

So, here are some things I’ve learned through the years that I wish I knew when I first started in youth ministry 40 years ago.

What would you do if you could go back and start youth ministry all over again?

Here are 7 things I wish I knew when I started youth ministry:

Serve Projects

I would have served in the community more.

Create opportunities for students to serve in multiple ways. It would teach young people so match about generosity to be in soup kitchens or shelters. Maybe it will help students to serve at home doing their chores! I think cleaning their room may spark a family revival.

And the community needs the faith of the church to help accomplish their humanitarian efforts.

Remember, both the millennials and Gen Z are highly driven by humanitarian causes. Tapping into this is a great advantage involving young people in the mission of the church.

Volunteerism

Volunteer at the Church

Young people must be encouraged to work in the church. Students can be guided with assignments such as filing, networking, correspondence, and sermon series planning.

Especially for part time YTH leaders who may still be at work or home and are not able to focus time during the week to these things.

Tapping into this generation's publisher and creative traits is critical at this time. With the extra time the students have, we can be guiding them to create message content for the ministry.

Gen Z and Aloha Gen do not have to be encouraged to create - they are entrepreneurs at heart. So, get them working on upcoming series content, images and illustrations, statistics, and other sermon material. This would be a great opportunity for them to create bumpers, videos, writing blog posts, or content for the youth service and for the YTH ministry platforms!

Volunteer at a hospital

Here's a very practical way to help at the local hospitals. Check with your hospital to see if you can bring in food for the hospital staff. Many elderly who volunteer or work at hospitals are not able to do so right now. You can also help by grounds cleanup or parking assist.

Elderly Care

With the elderly shut mostly in their homes, this is a great opportunity to do yard work, or get groceries, or pick up medication and deliver it to their homes.

Many churches can use the benevolence program to even help pay for this. Volunteering to work around the house or to deliver these kind of things to the door will be a huge help to the elderly. Make sure you pray for them or sing to them before you leave!

Social Media

Obviously, social media as we see today is evolving. Our students are online. So, if you do not have a footprint digitally, every YTH ministry must take this moment to create their Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, and YouTube platforms. There is no excuse right now.

Because the students are already familiar with these platforms, you could have the students create these accounts for the YTH ministry. All over the country there are great examples of this - just search student ministry or youth ministry on the socials.

Every YTH ministry should have at least a daily post or live footprint with the social platforms right now that either the YTH leader or the students are producing!

Spiritual Formation

Theology is more important than theater.

Discipleship and theology must always take center stage. And even in the emphasis of it, we can do more.

How are we going to do spiritual formation? This is the discussion in the church right now. Take some time to talk to other leaders and see what they're doing. It should be our default right now given the situation we are in concerning the drop in biblical worldview of young people.

Pitting these last two principles together, the internet has become our 21st century discipleship and evangelism tool for many of us. Now is a great time to create your strategy for online spiritual formation because this shutdown may be several weeks. You can create small groups online so students can connect with others with the new content created.

Encourage students to do S.O.A.P., read a Proverb daily, or to create a login account and watch the Alpha Youth Series videos and content. www.alpha.org

A Culture of Love

When is the last time you cried FOR a teenager? I’m not saying when is the last time you cried BECAUSE of a teenager! I mean real empathy and brokenness over their condition and their stories.

You spell ministry R.E.L.A.T.I.O.N.S.H.I.P.

I have always said that if you want to grow your youth ministry, you must spend more time with teenagers. We must build a culture of unconditional love in youth ministry. The world treats our teenagers with conditional love. The church should treat them with unconditional love.

I made it a point every week to tell our students that I loved them. Whether it was in a youth service or at an event or at their school. They always heard me say I love you.

Adult and Student Leadership Teams

Even though we developed both adult and student leadership teams, this is something that could have been done better.

You’ve heard the phrase, “The buck stops here.” I like to say that, “The buck starts here.“

Ownership is very important in any organization. When it comes to youth ministry, we secure the sustainability of the church by developing leaders. Especially young leaders.

Having A Mentor/Coach

All of us needs someone in our life that we are spiritually afraid of. Somebody who could challenge us spiritually areas that we did not challenge ourselves.

The hardest person to lead is yourself. So it really helps your natural and spiritual growth to have others who can lead us strongly.

Maybe a para-church leader, a local educator, a regional youth ministry leader or professional, or even a retired minister.

We all need people who can help us with our blind spots, our language, and our ceiling.

Finally

These are just a few of the things that I would make a major emphasis if I were starting all over again.

If you are a veteran, look at the kind of things that you have learned over the first 10 years in youth ministry and apply them right now moving forward. If you are just starting a youth ministry, I highly suggest making these a priority!