At one point in the past year, I was having a conversation with some of my students. Sam, a junior high, homeschool kid spoke up and said, “I’m tired of Bible studies.” As we continued the conversation, I began realizing many of my students felt the same way. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to study the Bible, but they didn’t want just to study the Bible. They wanted to get out and make a significant difference in the community. Like every good youth ministry, we’ve done service projects here and there. They wanted more. They wanted to be on the frontlines of changing our city, not just doing a touch-up here and there. They wanted to be missional.

So, we started dreaming. We quickly realized that if the youth group was going to make a significant impact on Terrell, Texas, it couldn’t just be the youth group. It had to include the full body of the church. In many churches, the adults are actively pursuing discipleship opportunities with students. That, however, is not the case with our church. While there is a large group within the church who have a genuine desire to change our town, those people are not knit into the fabric of the students’ lives. So, we knew we would have to take the lead. Here’s what we did.

We Built Bridges
If you’re like me, you’re guilty of bemoaning the fact that adults aren’t engaging students. However, an equally fair question is, “Are students pursuing relationships with adults?” Probably not. Our students’ first order of business was building a bridge to the church. We needed to break down some of the silos of our ministry.
The first challenge was to reach out and serve the adults. We did this through a Love ‘n’ Laughs Game Night. We hosted, and provided everything from food to prizes. We had a photo booth with props and played the “Oldywed Game.” It was a great win for building some bridges across generations.

After that first success, we built another bridge at the end of the summer. We partnered our student leaders with adult leaders for accountability partnership. The goal was for the adults to encourage the students to continue pursuing the calls God has laid on them to be community changers. This effort has had some successes and some failures, but has been a good step in building bridges.

We Invited the Church to Partner
With a few bridges built, we began inviting the whole church to join the youth group in reaching our community. Our first invitation was to join the youth group in our first, big, ongoing effort to reach a section of Terrell. One of our Big Dream projects was to hold six block parties for the community in the local park. Where I live, people come to the park to walk their dogs, ride their bikes, fish in the pond, feed the ducks, etc. Our goal was to love on those people, to make sure they were aware that we were there because we love Jesus, and to ask nothing in return. It was amazing to see people realize we were just there to hang out, let their kids jump in the bounce house and give out free snow cones. People really opened up to us.

We put the invitation in front of the church, and several adults from the church, whom I’d never met before, joined us in the park outreach. I met people in my church that I didn’t know! It was awesome seeing students working next to adults whom they had just met, and was encouraging to see the adults buy into a role in the outreach. We had two ladies who became our barbecuers. They would come, grill and then head home. They were thrilled to do it!

We Communicated Clearly
Youth ministries are notoriously poor communicators about what is going on, especially when it comes to service projects. These are often last-minute opportunities the group jumps on and handles. To truly engage the body, you have to plan and share what is coming up on the calendar.

Our mission project for this year is Simply Love. The goal of Simply Love is to engage the community in simple acts of love, appreciation and care with a different focus each month. This is the youth’s local mission for the year. Therefore, they are leading in coordinating parts of the project.

The biggest focus we’ve had so far was feeding families a Thanksgiving dinner. Our youth wanted to provide families who wouldn’t have a real Thanksgiving dinner with one they could have in their own homes. The students decided there were two ways we could do it: The students could do it all themselves, or we could partner with adults and make it a church-wide community engagement. You know which one we picked, right?

The way we communicated led to the project’s success. We planned to communicate in three simple stages. First, we made the whole church aware of what we hoped to do. We told the congregation our intent, how they could partner, and how the partnership would be facilitated. Second, we sent students to every Sunday School class and told them clearly what we were trying to do and how they could be involved. (If you do this, make sure you send students to the oldest classes first. They like to get started on time!) Finally, after the commitments had been made, we followed up with clear details and assistance if needed.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Sunday School class members came to me excited about being able to reach out to strangers with love and compassion. Senior citizens were standing around talking to high school kids, telling them about what happened. I fully believe clear, consistent and complete communication was a big factor in the success.

We Accepted Disappointment
No doubt you’ve experienced some measure of disappointment in youth ministry. I remember the first time I told students I was letting them dream, plan and implement a community engagement project. It was a huge flop! They spent weeks discussing, planning, reworking, organizing teams, making assignments and phone calls. Suddenly, spring break killed our momentum. The planned outreach concert idea died a quick and painless death, never to rise again. It was comically sad.

Yet it wasn’t for nothing. Now, when we begin talking about a new goal, everyone kind of laughs and reminds each other to not let this be “another concert.”

We Invited Dreamers
We invited students to continue dreaming (long after the concert flopped). We invited adults into our dreaming process. Dreaming naturally rubs off on others. I dream big, and I see that trait rubbing off on students. When we dream small, that rubs off, too.

In September 2012, our Big Dream was to raise $5,000 to build a clean-water well in the Amazon region of Brazil. Though this number felt very large, we began immediately to see God’s provision. As we made the goal public, someone immediately committed to matching the money once we raised $5,000. We worked hard, held fundraisers, and sold stuff to raise funds. As we neared our goal, someone else gave an additional $10,000 toward the project. Our little youth group wound up sending $20,000 to Brazil to build wells.

Through consistent communication, people were reminded of the mission, and God motivated people in the church to join the cause of making a difference in their world. The real truth is our church sent $20,000 to build wells. Our youth just led the way.

Our youth group is not unique. I see many of the same apathetic faces in my ministry that you see in yours, but the ones who have caught the vision realize they can make a difference. Vision-catching kids who love to dream big are in every youth group. They just need someone whose dreaming rubs off on others. Be on the lookout for where God is moving, then encourage your students to enter God’s mission. Lay the opportunity before your students and your church, and prepare to be amazed by how people respond.

Dustin Slaton’s passion is to see students become 2 Timothy 2 leaders, who will be a powerful force of leadership in the transitional church. He lives in Terrell with his wife, four children and a blind cocker spaniel. Connect with him on Twitter.