Recently, I attended the Orange Tour at Woodside Bible Church in Troy, MI. BTWs, if you haven’t been to the Orange Tour, it is a great one day experience. We took our entire family ministries team and loved it! And, Woodside Bible is a pretty cool church who I enjoy talking with because, like us, they are a large church attempting to figure out multi-sites.
Anyway, while I was at the Orange Tour, Reggie Joiner said something that has stuck with me. When he said it, I wanted to stand up and shout, “YES!” but I didn’t because I got scared. I didn’t come from one of those church backgrounds where people yell amen at the preacher or even clap. We grunted or perhaps nodded. Well, now I’m off-track.
So, let me paraphrase what Reggie said: We, in student ministry, often get caught up in the flash and bang of programming and environment. We focus on great videos, lighting, sound, games, and musicians. We tend to believe that these things will attract people.
Many of us, who don’t have access to the massive budgets of mega churches, feel that we can’t compete with the larger churches. They have their fancy youth centers, production engineers, and arena-quality auditoriums. If the flash and bang of programming and environment is what attracts students, then smaller churches might as well close up shop, right?
But, the truth is that none of us, mega or small, can compete with what people see on TV, YouTube or the theater. Our culture will always win in a war of technology and entertainment. Whether you are a mega church of 20,000 or a country bumpkin church of 50, you cannot consistently beat culture in a game of who is more technologically or artistically innovative.
There is, however, one way in which culture can never beat us. There is one thing that we provide that students cannot get anywhere else in our culture, and that is caring, spiritually mature adults who consistently love students and invest in them. It’s all about relationships. The vast majority of kids don’t have adults in their lives who are consistently there for them, whose motives are not exploitative in any way. These relationships are where we can win, and this is why a small student ministry can be every bit as effective as a meg church student ministry.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Recruit and Equip Pastors
Students have plenty of adults in their lives. It’s not that we just need more nice adults. What we need are pastors. We need adults who are spiritual mature who have the capacity and desire to walk alongside students and mentor them in faith. In our ministry, the small group leaders are the pastors. They are the ones who shepherd the students.
To be clear, this requires and immense amount of training, community and coaching. We imbed our small group leaders in community, train them on a bi-weekly basis and constantly meet with them for coffee along the way to encourage and guide them. The truth is, our staff invests far more in our volunteers than our students. This is one of the secret ingredients for growth in student ministry.
2. Think Long-Term
The kind of shepherding relationship we’re talking about doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years to develop. Most students don’t have adults in their lives who are consistently there for them so it takes a long time to build trust. We ask our middle school leaders to lead for 3 years and our high school leaders to lead for 5 (4 years in high school and 1 year beyond). The depth of relationship we are talking about here takes a long-term investment. You have to fight for longevity.
We’ve achieved longevity because our staff stick around forever and because we’ve created a culture in which the kind of adults who are want hate leaving. Give your volunteers the same depth of community and shepherding that students crave.
3. Focus on the Conversation
If relationships are the one way we can beat culture every time, then our entire focus should be on the conversation. Every event should be about groups and groups should be the focal point of all your programming. For us, the focus isn’t worship or even the teaching. It’s small group time. The teaching always points to a conversation that leaders have been prepared for. On retreats, mission trips and camps, small groups experience these things together. It’s all about the conversation.
So, whether you are a student ministry of 10 or 10,000, relationships are where we can win. We can offer students something incredible powerful and magnetic: a relationship with a caring adult who loves them and wants to invest in their lives. If you’d like to learn more on how to develop a student ministry like this. This is the book for you: Creating a Lead Small Culture.
photo credited to David Pacey via Flickr
