What would you do if you could go back in time and undo something in your student ministry? Maybe you’d undo your youth group name, “BOB”—Bunch of Believers. Or perhaps you’d like a mulligan on that youth room color scheme that was so hip back in ’83 “when you could still throw a football over them mountains.”
Want to know what I would go back and undo? Sunday morning programs. No, not all the church services! Sheesh, I’m not that crazy. I’m talking about high school programming. Let me explain.
When I launched out as a youth pastor ten years ago, I inherited a Sunday morning high school program that was on life support. My superiors charged me with bringing it back to life so that’s what we did. By the end of my first year we had grown the attendance by 80%. At first, I assumed that this reflected how awesome our high school program was—and by extension how awesome I was as the youth pastor.
Our Sunday morning program was so epic that students liked it much better than the adult church services. I began to notice that the students would either sneak back into our junior high program the following hour or jump in their cars and hit up the local coffee shop. Very few of them were attending the adult church service. I was so blinded by the numbers and the positive attention I was getting from leadership that I never bothered to think through the ramifications of what was happening.
Even worse, when I heard students complaining about how boring the adult services were, I kind of liked it because what I was hearing was, “What you do is awesome. What they do is boring.” Call me a jerk, but I like to be awesome.
After a few years (I’m a slow learner) the flaw in my approach finally dawned on me—like a pile-driver to the face. I realized that when our seniors, who had been regularly attending our high school program but not the main services, graduated from our ministry they disappeared. Sometimes they found a church that better suited their tastes but more often than not they peaced out from church all together. This is one of the great regrets of my life.
When students walk away from faith, we as youth workers are quick to blame the student, parents or culture. “Well, I’m sorry but he shouldn’t have been hanging out with those guys.” “His parents were just clueless!” “Our culture is just so messed up, it’s practically impossible for kids to stay committed these days.”
Although it’s much more painful, I think it’s far more valuable to look in the mirror and to evaluate our structures and programs. The logical reason my students were walking away from church is that I was training my students to walk away from church. How? I was isolating them from the church services and community. When they graduated from my ministry they didn’t possess the tools or desire to integrate into the larger body. For many, this was the end of church.
So what would I do if I indeed did have DeLorean? I’m glad you asked:
- cancel Sunday morning high school programming
- encourage high school students to attend church with their families
- encourage students to serve in the children’s ministry/junior high/larger church body (if you have 2 or more hours of Sunday morning services)
- refocus high school youth group programming to Sunday night or Wednesday night
- build the high school youth program around solid teaching and adult mentor relationships
That’s it. Oh, and if you do happen to have a DeLorean…CALL ME.