Intentional Youth Ministry
In the last few weeks, in different conversations with youth workers, I’ve come face-to-face with the same concept. I keep going back to it, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. The concept can be summed up in one word:
Intentionality
Are you intentional about the things you are doing in your youth ministry?
What if you took everything you do in your youth ministry in a given year (and I do mean everything: every event, every small group class, every service project, every activity . . . EVERYTHING you do in your ministry), listed it on a dry-erase board, and went activity by activity asking one simple question:
Is this the most effective thing I can do to help my students grow in their knowledge of Christ and apply this knowledge in the living out of their lives?
My hunch is that you might be left with some questions.
Aren’t we guilty of sometimes doing things because that’s the way we’ve always done them? Or because that’s “just how it’s done” in youth ministry? We support so much of what we do with tired arguments:
“I did it in my old ministry and it worked great.”
“The church up the road is doing it and their ministry is huge!”
“The parents/students/pastor expect me to do it.”
But what if you measured everything you did by its effectiveness at helping grow teenagers into disciples? What if you were so intentional about your ministry that you did nothing that wasn’t in line with your purpose?
Maybe the problem is that you really haven’t articulated a purpose yet. Our good friend Richard Parker wrote a great post about using a purpose statement as a measuring-rod for your ministry, here. But I want to speak to this a little differently.
I like to try and boil down any argument, or discussion, or topic to its most essential point, and then think about a solution on that level. (This is almost always a bad idea when it comes to relationships and spiritual things. But, what can I say, it’s how I’m wired.) So, if you indulged me and allowed me to think about the purpose of your youth ministry in its simplest form, it would be something like this:
The purpose of youth ministry is to help teenagers develop into disciples of Christ.
Could we go deeper? Sure. Could we flesh this out more? You bet. In fact, there are a million great books that do just that. But it’s a good definition for the purpose of a 500 word blog post. And, however you slice it, however you want to break it down, the process of discipleship can’t happen without two things:
- A deepening knowledge of God through His Word
- The bold, Spirit-empowered living-out of this knowledge
Seriously, it’s almost that simple. (Of course, the expression of these two aims can be quite complex . . . which exactly why you need to be intentional about what you are doing.)
So, ask yourself sometime:
- Is my big Wednesday night event the most effective way for me to use this time to help teenagers develop into disciples of Christ?
- Is my small group time, in its current structure and make-up, the most effective way for me to do Bible study to help teenagers develop into disciples of Christ?
- Is the way I recruit and train and incorporate volunteers the most effective way for me to use adults to help teenagers develop into disciples of Christ?
If we’re not asking these questions, we run the risk of having ministries that at best, miss opportunities to disciple teenagers, and at worst, serve only as entertainment. Intentionality is key.
How intentional are you in what you do?
Andy Blanks is the co-founder of youthministry360. Andy has worked in youth ministry for 12 years, almost exclusively writing, designing, and developing curriculum. Andy is a teacher at heart and loves to challenge teenagers and youth workers alike through his writing and speaking.
Share your thoughts with the youthministry360 community:
- What are the challenges to sticking to the “status quo”? Why is it easier to do what we’ve always done?
- Have you walked this road and made changes as a result? We’d love to hear the results.
This is some good stuff. As a 20+ year ym veteran one of the most common detractions form being intentional is being habitual. Over time routines and habits of ministry create blindspots to what is working and not working. If the check list is checked off – things must be working. As time has proven, youth minstry is not as effective as we’d like to believe when done this way.
We need to become for liquid in our approach while remaining solid in our truth. Just as a river flows around rocks and boulders and twists and turns heading for its endpoint, we ought to do so also. We need to keep our eyes on the big picture of what we are doing so that we can “intentionally” adjust and flow forward wiht the relaity of Christ into this generation rather than creating dams that hinder the flow with habits of ministry and long held but no longer true ideas of culture.
Thanks for the good insight and challenge to be better.
Great stuff, Virgil. Thanks for stopping by. We’re excited about having your voice as part of the ym360 community.–Andy
I have walked this road. It is a journey worth taking.
The results are always two-fold: Positive and Negative.
Positive: When intentionality is behind the plans, it helps the Youth Pastor manage the plans and stay focused. I have noticed that if one is being intentional, there is a vision behind the intention! This means it is unlikely the same old routine. This fuels positive change, which can cause a boom (in a good way) with your students and workers.
Negative: It’s not the same old routine! Let’s face it, some people resist change. A wise man once told me that “You will destroy what you do not understand.” Remember, it is NOT always parents and seniors that fight the change. I have lost committed kids because they didn’t like the fact that it took more than one vehicle for our students to go somewhere. This is because we were intentional about reaching lost kids!
Be intentional! Stay the course. It will bring clarity as well as credibility to your ministry.
David, Good insight as usual, my friend! Thanks for sharing.–Andy
Andy,
Great post. I had a conversation with two friends who are youth workers, one showed me her schedule and it was just filled with events. I often had the conversation with them, “Why do you do what you do?” and it’s left with the reasons you have listed in the post. I think the challenge comes from breaking an old habit, an old culture. Like David mentioned above, change is hard. It can become a process filled with pruning. I think we need to always encourage one another to be intentional and support one another if any conflict arises.
Chris, I sometimes think about the personal, one-on-one time we miss by filling our calendars. Nothing against events! or programs! If they serve our purpose, they can be very effective. But, as you alluded to, if they don’t, they are not only distractions, but wasted ministry opportunity.
Thanks for checking in, as always! We’re fans of your blog and your perspective on youth ministry.–Andy
[...] Intentional Youth Ministry – Andy Blanks [...]
Thanks for the shout out, Bill!