Innovative Student Ministry in the 21st Century
Josh Joines
I remember being raised in a denominational church. I thank God for my Christian heritage and upbringing, because I was taught core Biblical truth and doctrine, however, during my teenage years, I totally disengaged from the church. Why? Because it was incredibly boring!
The youth group that I was a part of went through countless transitions of leadership, and as youth leader after youth leader left, the quality of ministry provided to us as teens left too. I remember one particular Wednesday night in the spring of 1995 when I looked around the paneled walls of the church fellowship hall staring into space due to the incredibly boring presentation of the most exciting story ever told, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I hated youth group. Nothing about it was relevant to my life.
During my nine years as a pastor to students, I’ve learned that successful student ministries in today’s culture know how to stay culturally relevant with their presentation of truth.
Students are in search of truth and we as student pastors must be effective at keeping students robustly engaged in the discipleship process.
How can we do that?
Be creative. Everyone can be creative. It doesn’t take money to be creative so don’t allow your budget, or lack thereof, to stifle your creativity. If your idea requires money that you don’t currently have, be creative on how you could raise the money. Maybe you could start a concession stand or solicit sponsors for your youth ministry within the community. In return you could provide coupon books for their ministry or highlight their goods/services in your youth group. Just don’t allow yourself to get an attitude that says, “I never get what I need.” Be proactive. If you’ll do that, God will do His part.
God is a creative God. Look at the world around you and have you taken a look in the mirror recently? God is very creative, and you can be creative too.
One of the venues that demands our creativity if we are going to reach this generation for Christ is our weekly gathering of students. Our weekly service should be a place where students want to bring their friends because it is so awesome!
Recently I spoke with a youth pastor about his weekly meeting. He told me that they had a few kids and they would sit around and just talk. I was like what?! Don’t continue to limit your creativity by the size of your youth ministry. Put as much energy and effort into it as you can possibly give. Why? Because 10 kids deserve a great experience just as the 100 kids do.
So take your weekly gathering very seriously and get outside the box with it. Instead of just sitting around talking, show a video, light some candles, have a big event night and theme it out. Just do something! The students will appreciate the effort.
When I was a teen I remember my youth leader asking us to bring our friends to youth group, but I was so embarrassed at the thought of bringing my friends because the youth group was boring. I realize now that some youth pastors expect the kids to just bring their friends just because they should. Instead of accepting the responsibility of producing a great service, they blame the kids for not showing up.
The only reason I went to youth group was because my parents made me go. There was nothing creative about the room, the message, the service, the music. As a matter of fact, I remember one guy singing a Kumbaya for praise and worship! But that doesn’t have to be the case with you. You can be creative.
Make time for creativity. Put a time into your schedule to simply brainstorm and envision what God could do in your ministry and get out of that box!
Learn to take ideas from today’s pop culture. Whether it’s spending time at the local book store looking at magazines or watching teen oriented channels on TV at home, constantly be on the lookout for new and exciting ideas that you can implement. MTV.com is always sharing ideas. Take a concept, put a spin on it and wham! You have a new series or big event that is completely in tune with what this generation is encountering every single day.
Students appreciate it when you attempt to be creative. Even if your idea bombs, which I have had several that have, they are somewhat compassionate toward you because they know you are trying hard to create something they will enjoy. They want you to be successful in creating a great experience. That’s exactly what they want. They just don’t know they want it. With a creative, upbeat experience you’ll be able to set the tone for your ministry and kids won’t be able to stay away.
The message is sacred, the method is not. I’m sure that you’ve heard that before. We must always be willing to adapt our methods to best reach our audience. Instead of sitting down and just talking out of your heart, try putting together a structurally sound message that is engaging that has great stories that capture their hearts. Use an object lesson that really drives the point home. We have students text in their questions “live” during a service and we’ll answer them on the spot. The entire time, I am using the word of God and technology in a way that maximizes ministry! Students love to text. If you can’t beat them, join ‘em. In other words, they are going to text in your service anyway, might as well be for a great cause.
Be relevant. Be life giving in your approach to ministry. One question I try to ask is: What kind of youth group would I want to attend if I were a teen? What would the experience look and feel like?
1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
A great worship gathering for students is one in which they hear, see, and touch the goodness of God.
Recently I had a great talk with a new youth pastor who was 2 months into the job. He was so eager to learn how to be a great youth pastor. When I asked him about his service, his head dropped. I asked him what was wrong and he let me know that he just did not understand how to make a great service happen. He had no idea.
First you need to ask yourself a few questions as you approach a service.
• What kind of time constraints are on you?
• Is this a mixed service with junior high and high school students present?
• What kind of audio / video equipment do I have to work with?
These questions must be considered, because it will help you in the design of your service rundown.
What is a service rundown? More than just a bullet point list of things to do in our time, we have developed a detailed agenda down to the minute. I’ve learned that the more detail, the better. So we plan down to the minute. I used to have a problem with this when I was a young youth pastor, because I wanted to allow time for “the Spirit to move”. I look back know and I was using the Spirit as an excuse to be ill prepared.
God can speak to you in your office a week and a half out from your service as to what needs to be in your service. He can give you wisdom and insight on the service you are designing.
Service rundowns are necessary because they eliminate dead time. Have you ever been in a youth service and it seems like no one knows what to do next. Not an inviting atmosphere is it? Dead time kills youth services. It’s over once dead time arrives. Why? You have lost their attention and stated to them indirectly that they are not worth a well planned service that is seamless. You’ve also communicated to them indirectly that you don’t take your job seriously or you aren’t able to do your job well. Both of which I am sure are not true, but that is exactly what they feel.
Use different Creative Elements to engage.
Creative Elements consist of videos, skits, object lessons, and special songs. These elements, 3-5 minutes in length, are presented right before the message is shared in order to drive the point home by connecting visually with the students. Sometimes the creative element is incorporated into the talk instead of the beginning of it.
We never have a service without some form of a creative element. We have even created our own creative team that meets every month to plan the creative elements for the upcoming series.
Get a creative director. I have had several throughout the years, and I can say that a creative director doesn’t have to be the most creative person, but rather able to gather creative people together. Your creative director needs to be geared administratively where he/she can take the ideas, record them, and put them on a timeline where the idea can become reality.
You have people like this in your student ministry. I would encourage you not to use a teen in this position. A young adult with free time can be a huge asset to your team.
With numerous sites available that have videos ready to download, searchable by key word, even a novice with media can wow the crowd.
We also produce our own video elements without a paid staff person! Wow! That’s right. Our entire student media department is driven by volunteer help. I cast the vision, recruit to the need, and turn people loose to use the gift that God has given them. I know that you have teens that are tech freaks! If you can provide a small computer and video camera, watch what they can do for you.
They’ll create artwork for your message, slide support for your points, and create a consistently good look for every service.
I want to make sure to mention this important point: don’t try to hide your spiritual message in your creativity. I can’t tell you how many times that I have visited other ministries to find them using creative elements, and after the presentation, I’m left wondering, “what did that mean?”
Empower your students and together you can create the service you know they want. You can do it. Get out of the box and get everyone else out too. You’ll be glad you did.
So don’t be afraid to push the limits with creativity. Just remember, you really only have 3 types of resources to accomplish your goal and must ask yourself the following questions when getting creative?
• Do we have the time to pull this off?
• Do we have the talent to pull this off?
• Do we have the money to pull this off?
A “no” to any of these doesn’t mean you scrap the idea, but it does help you stay realistic in your approach. Start small and grow in your creativity. The key is to be consistently good.
In closing, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Students hate it when:
• Leaders try to act like teens in their speech and appearance. Recently I was speaking at a camp where I encountered a youth worker that was trying to be funny and witty way too much. He was using teen lingo and I just wanted him to stop. As a matter of fact, I almost told him to quit youth ministry. Stop wearing so many Christian t-shirts and stop saying stupid things. Let the kids be the kids and you be normal. Be relational.
• Youth Pastors preach too long. At camp, I always preach longer than usual, but my usual message delivery is 28 minutes. Why? Because that’s not too long. I believe that if you cannot say it in 25 – 30 minutes then you are attempting to say too much. One big idea, scripture and story support with application is all you need for a great talk.
• Services are unorganized. Want your students to never come back? Just get up and act like you don’t know what’s next. Be organized and excellent. Do the best with what you have and encourage everyone on the team to take the same approach. It isn’t easy to have a great service. It takes hard work and team work. Sometimes a service practice is exactly what you need to iron out any wrinkles.
• The service doesn’t live up to the hype you promoted. There is a video I saw that mocked a youth pastor promoting a celebrity sports figure was going to be in the next youth meeting. The students were pumped but totally disappointed to see a cardboard cutout of the sports star on the stage with a voice coming from behind the curtain. If you are going to say it’s awesome, it better be awesome. Otherwise, awesome will mean terrible, and your students will grow to know that.
• They are humiliated from the pulpit. I’ll never forget the time I was in a service when an “old school” youth pastor called a kid out in the crowd for having some wild hair. I kind of thought it was cool. However, the youth pastor asked the kid to stand and began to laugh at him and poke fun at him. That was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Why? Because that kid has feelings and no one should be humiliated. This is an easy card to play when you want a laugh or two, but it is very destructive in the long run. The students will not trust you and will not like you.
• They are forced to participate in goofy games and songs. The song “Lean on Me” should be banned from every youth group in the world. Sure, there are always a few corny kids that like doing motion songs, but the cool kids that attract students to your group don’t like it. As a matter of fact that is completely ok with me. I hate motion songs and I know the kids do too. Don’t use your position of authority to spread pain. Just kidding.
Here’s the key: have fun, be cool, but most importantly, be meaningful!
Josh Joines is the Pastor of Student Ministries at Faith Family Church in Victoria, TX. Josh is a speaker at camps, conferences, and the Director of the Significant Church Youth Pastor’s Network. He and his wife, Kara have two little boys, Caleb and Tyler. Check out his site at joshjoines.com.
