How to Crush Youth Ministry During The Week
When someone thinks of youth ministry, their mind usually goes first to Friday night. And fair enough. That’s where the bulk of the action is. But, we do a disservice to youth ministry if we restrict it just to Friday night.
Friday night is kind of like the cake. But the way we use the rest of the week can be a bit like icing. There’s extra stuff we can do that makes our ministry even more effective.
Some of this is stuff we should probably be doing anyway, stuff like prayer and prep. This is part of the cake. But there’s other stuff that, if we have the time, capacity and energy, can take our ministry to the next level.
Here’s some stuff that I’d encourage every youth leader to think about when it comes to during-the-week-ministry.
1. Pray
Prayer is the most important mid-week thing to do. We can put heaps of energy into our youth ministry, but ultimately, it’s God who makes stuff happen. We have to remember that. He is in charge. Not us.
Remember to pray during the week for your youth and for Friday nights. Set a reminder. Add them to PrayerMate. Do whatever you need to do to make sure you pray!
2. Prep
Make sure you do your prep. Prior preparation prevents pitifully poor performance. But it’s also just a way of loving your youth (and your fellow leaders). Each week you’ll probably be running a discussion group. And even if you have a co-leader, it’s still worth prepping. If your on games, make sure you prep well. If you’re on session, make sure you prep well. If you’re on talk, definitely make sure you prep well!
3. Text
I’m also a big fan of texting. If there’s a new person in your group, shoot off a text. If someone hasn’t been to youth group in a while, shoot off a text.
If they’re in junior high, just text their parents. Let them know how great it was to have their child on Friday. Ask how they found it. Or let them know that you’ve missed their child the last couple of weeks and that you’d love to see them again soon.
If the youth is a bit older (year 9+), shoot them a text but copy in their parents as well. Remember, it’s ok to text older youth as long as you include their parents. WhatsApp is better than normal texts for this. I have a bunch of WhatsApp chats in operation with my youth and their parents. It can be super helpful.
4. Call
If you want to go next level, give the parents or the youth a call on the phone. If you want to speak with a youth, call the parent and explain why you’re doing this, and then speak to the youth on the parent’s phone.
Calling can be a great way to connect. But it can also be weird. So just make sure you do what you can to minimise the weird-factor.
I personally don’t call up my youth. I do call their parents though. I find this can be really helpful to do.
5. Catch-up
Probably the best thing I’ve ever done in youth ministry is to catch up with my youth during the week to read the Bible and pray.
Why not see if you can meet up with one or two (I recommend two) of your youth three times a term for an hour to hang, read the Bible and pray? If two, you could catch up with them together.
You could just pick a book of the Bible (Titus? Colossians? 2 Timothy?) and read a chapter each time. Don’t underestimate the impact that this could have
At the church I grew up at, I took a crew of youth for four years, from year 7 to year 10. In years 9 and 10, I regularly met up with them outside of youth group. I finished up with these guys 10 years ago. But, of that group of about twelve boys, six of them are now either serving as members of a church staff team, or training at a theological college.
By no means do I claim to be the sole reason they have ended up where they are now. The reality is that there are dozens of factors that have led them to where they are now. But still, the fact that someone intentionally met up with these young dudes definitely had some impact. There was nothing magical that I did. I just teed up a time and location, read the Bible and prayed. Yet, again, I’m sure that it had an impact.
Not everyone will have the time, energy and capacity to do this. But if you can, I reckon it will produce wonderful fruit.
Just make sure that:
you are never alone with a youth (go to a cafe, or Maccas, or a room in their house where a parent is present, or meet up early at youth/church)
that you have written permission from their parents (text message is mine), and
that one of the pastors at your church is in the loop (flick them a screen shot of the text message).
6. Church
Last thing. Church. Be intentional about church for the sake of your youth ministry. Make sure you keep an eye out for your youth at church. When you see them at church, talk to them. Make an effort to greet them and hang out. If one of your youth doesn’t come to church, invite them along. If your church has multiple gatherings, but one is slightly more geared to youth, make that your main gathering. Be strategic about church for the sake of your youth.
