Hey Nicole, hope this question isn't out of your mind yet. We have used annual themes and semi-annual themes. And for our leadership team, this really helps them tie the year together, and assist the group through an exploration journey of sorts.
For example, this year our theme is "Going The Distance", based on 1 Cor 9:24. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." And then we broke it down, paralleling the life of a Christian to a marathon runner. Motivation, the prize, teammates, clothing, nutrition, warming up and chiseling, obstacles, perseverance, endurance, obsession, adrenaline rush, fatigue, finishing well. Pictures, theme ideas, scripture passages, events, guest speakers - lots of things quickly find their place! Having an overall theme opens the doors for creativity!
For me, a few ideas come to mind here. First and foremost, maybe it's not about pushing the age limit lower and lower, but rather about first addressing the issue of the council strongholds being willing to pass on the baton to a younger generation of leaders, and to walk alongside them (as a council member ex-officio, or similar). My guess is, without having this discussion first, and making this a council-wide priority, plugging in a 21 year old into the council room will have negative effects.
Second, I get frustrated when I hear about "youth representatives" on committees. This creates a two-tier system, which essentially minimizes the voice of the youth. Each person who sits at the table comes by nature as a representative of certain groups or demographics, but we name only the "youth rep" for our own agenda. How come we don't have the "working moms rep" or "over 80 rep" or "knitter's rep" at the table?
Last, never underestimate the potential having a young adult at the table can bring to the meeting. What would it mean to have someone constantly ask, "So, tell me, why exactly are we doing it this way?" might slow the meeting down, but it would quickly bring intentionality back to the purpose of your church. Not to mention the fact that there are some youth that simply have the gift of leadership, perhaps moreso than some of our existing members. What better place to develop that than within the church? We have a whole pile of children, youth, and young adults that love Jesus, love the church, and deeply desire to belong and invest in a local congregation. They want to pour back into the community that helped shape their faith. We absoutely must give them the opportunity!
Here are a few things that I've learned over the years:
SOME STUDENTS JUST WANT TO COME OUT FOR THE FUN STUFF - and I encourage them to come to the fun stuff! I can recall a discussion with one parent who lamented that their kid "only wants to come out to the fun stuff." I say, GREAT! Some students crave positive relationships with adults and peers who desire to be present in their lives, and the "fun stuff" is a great place for that to happen. We take our "fun stuff" very seriously, with events that focus on inclusion, encouragement, laughter. And while there might be little "God talk", the gospel is being preached through positive and powerful relationships. There are some that just aren't in the space to hold hands and sway to the latest worship song, and throw themselves into a small group to have their ideas about God and faith dissected and potentially rejected. That's ok. We have an opportuntiy to develop relational trust in our fun stuff.
SOME STUDENTS ONLY WANT THE DISCUSSION STUFF - and I encourage them to come to the discussion stuff! Messy games night? No thanks. Lively debate about justice, church, living your faith? Count me in! Some students thrive in intellectual idea sharing, debate, exploring ways to deepen faith and engage their world, and a discussion night is a great place for that to happen! Fortunately, there is no chance I will ever be able to out-entertain the entertainment industry, and there are some youth that understand that we're not about entertaining, but about loving God and engaging His creation, and we love to explore ways to do that.
SOME STUDENTS JUST WON'T COME OUT. And I really want them to, so that I can pad my numbers. But no matter how many backflips I do, they're just not coming. For me this is always a great reminder that I am not their savior. And they also probably don't like me. But even if they choose not to be involved in the community that I oversee, I want to make sure that they are connected to a community that will help them grow in their faith. Some of "my" students go to other youth groups. Some students who don't come are active in their school's Christian group. Some students take their faith and shine it in the locker room of the hockey team that they're a part of that runs at the same time as my youth group. And to each of them I say, great!
OUR YOUTH GROUP IS BIGGER THAN OUR CHURCH KIDS: Lately I've been trying to convince our students and community to answer the question "How big is your youth group?" with the answer "5000." There are approximately 5000 high schoolers in our community, and we want to start working on ways to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to be welcomed into our youth group. And while we don't want to get caught in the numbers game, I want to make sure that each person that comes in knows that they matter. And that they know that all other 4975 students matter too, even if they don't know we even exist. But, yes, I do get strange looks when I say that we have about 0.5% "active" youth.
IT'S A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: We've all had that event where only a small handful of students came out, for one reason or another. That doesn't make it a flop ("We ONLY had 4 youth come out, so we tossed our big event out and ended up playing euchre, what a drag!). That makes it a special moment to connect with those few, and solidify those relationships, ask more personal questions, and dig deep into the few that came out. I love those moments, and secretly wish our big events were flops more often. Maybe it's the introvert in me.
Numbers DO matter. Jesus' parable didn't end with the shepherd waiting for 2 of the 99 sheep to procreate to get that 100th back. But we need to get past the idea that faith growth only happens in youth group. We need to stop seeing the youth program and youth workers as the saviors of our children. And we - the entire church community - need to be faithful first to our calling to deepen our own relationships with Jesus first and foremost before we worry about the faith of our kids. Discipleship works best when those doing the discipling are deeply rooted in their own faith.
Two come to mind. First, the "free" car wash. Get businesses to sponsor your car wash. Make pamphlets to advertise those businesses. When customers offer to pay, tell them its free. We made over $3000 in one day.
Second is the non-dinner fund raiser. Everyone's busy, right? To busy to go to a fundraising dinner? No problem! Sell tickets for a non-event that won't be held on February 30. Make a fake menu that won't be served. Take a night to make a creative video of your students preparing for no one. Hilarity, and a quick $3-400.
Posted in: Theme for a Year!
Hey Nicole, hope this question isn't out of your mind yet. We have used annual themes and semi-annual themes. And for our leadership team, this really helps them tie the year together, and assist the group through an exploration journey of sorts.
For example, this year our theme is "Going The Distance", based on 1 Cor 9:24. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." And then we broke it down, paralleling the life of a Christian to a marathon runner. Motivation, the prize, teammates, clothing, nutrition, warming up and chiseling, obstacles, perseverance, endurance, obsession, adrenaline rush, fatigue, finishing well. Pictures, theme ideas, scripture passages, events, guest speakers - lots of things quickly find their place! Having an overall theme opens the doors for creativity!
Posted in: How Young Is Too Young For Council?
For me, a few ideas come to mind here. First and foremost, maybe it's not about pushing the age limit lower and lower, but rather about first addressing the issue of the council strongholds being willing to pass on the baton to a younger generation of leaders, and to walk alongside them (as a council member ex-officio, or similar). My guess is, without having this discussion first, and making this a council-wide priority, plugging in a 21 year old into the council room will have negative effects.
Second, I get frustrated when I hear about "youth representatives" on committees. This creates a two-tier system, which essentially minimizes the voice of the youth. Each person who sits at the table comes by nature as a representative of certain groups or demographics, but we name only the "youth rep" for our own agenda. How come we don't have the "working moms rep" or "over 80 rep" or "knitter's rep" at the table?
Last, never underestimate the potential having a young adult at the table can bring to the meeting. What would it mean to have someone constantly ask, "So, tell me, why exactly are we doing it this way?" might slow the meeting down, but it would quickly bring intentionality back to the purpose of your church. Not to mention the fact that there are some youth that simply have the gift of leadership, perhaps moreso than some of our existing members. What better place to develop that than within the church? We have a whole pile of children, youth, and young adults that love Jesus, love the church, and deeply desire to belong and invest in a local congregation. They want to pour back into the community that helped shape their faith. We absoutely must give them the opportunity!
Posted in: Revisioning Youth Ministry
Nice work Jason!
Here are a few things that I've learned over the years:
SOME STUDENTS JUST WANT TO COME OUT FOR THE FUN STUFF - and I encourage them to come to the fun stuff! I can recall a discussion with one parent who lamented that their kid "only wants to come out to the fun stuff." I say, GREAT! Some students crave positive relationships with adults and peers who desire to be present in their lives, and the "fun stuff" is a great place for that to happen. We take our "fun stuff" very seriously, with events that focus on inclusion, encouragement, laughter. And while there might be little "God talk", the gospel is being preached through positive and powerful relationships. There are some that just aren't in the space to hold hands and sway to the latest worship song, and throw themselves into a small group to have their ideas about God and faith dissected and potentially rejected. That's ok. We have an opportuntiy to develop relational trust in our fun stuff.
SOME STUDENTS ONLY WANT THE DISCUSSION STUFF - and I encourage them to come to the discussion stuff! Messy games night? No thanks. Lively debate about justice, church, living your faith? Count me in! Some students thrive in intellectual idea sharing, debate, exploring ways to deepen faith and engage their world, and a discussion night is a great place for that to happen! Fortunately, there is no chance I will ever be able to out-entertain the entertainment industry, and there are some youth that understand that we're not about entertaining, but about loving God and engaging His creation, and we love to explore ways to do that.
SOME STUDENTS JUST WON'T COME OUT. And I really want them to, so that I can pad my numbers. But no matter how many backflips I do, they're just not coming. For me this is always a great reminder that I am not their savior. And they also probably don't like me. But even if they choose not to be involved in the community that I oversee, I want to make sure that they are connected to a community that will help them grow in their faith. Some of "my" students go to other youth groups. Some students who don't come are active in their school's Christian group. Some students take their faith and shine it in the locker room of the hockey team that they're a part of that runs at the same time as my youth group. And to each of them I say, great!
OUR YOUTH GROUP IS BIGGER THAN OUR CHURCH KIDS: Lately I've been trying to convince our students and community to answer the question "How big is your youth group?" with the answer "5000." There are approximately 5000 high schoolers in our community, and we want to start working on ways to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to be welcomed into our youth group. And while we don't want to get caught in the numbers game, I want to make sure that each person that comes in knows that they matter. And that they know that all other 4975 students matter too, even if they don't know we even exist. But, yes, I do get strange looks when I say that we have about 0.5% "active" youth.
IT'S A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: We've all had that event where only a small handful of students came out, for one reason or another. That doesn't make it a flop ("We ONLY had 4 youth come out, so we tossed our big event out and ended up playing euchre, what a drag!). That makes it a special moment to connect with those few, and solidify those relationships, ask more personal questions, and dig deep into the few that came out. I love those moments, and secretly wish our big events were flops more often. Maybe it's the introvert in me.
Numbers DO matter. Jesus' parable didn't end with the shepherd waiting for 2 of the 99 sheep to procreate to get that 100th back. But we need to get past the idea that faith growth only happens in youth group. We need to stop seeing the youth program and youth workers as the saviors of our children. And we - the entire church community - need to be faithful first to our calling to deepen our own relationships with Jesus first and foremost before we worry about the faith of our kids. Discipleship works best when those doing the discipling are deeply rooted in their own faith.
Posted in: Donuts, a Dining Room Set and Red Paper Clips
Two come to mind. First, the "free" car wash. Get businesses to sponsor your car wash. Make pamphlets to advertise those businesses. When customers offer to pay, tell them its free. We made over $3000 in one day.
Second is the non-dinner fund raiser. Everyone's busy, right? To busy to go to a fundraising dinner? No problem! Sell tickets for a non-event that won't be held on February 30. Make a fake menu that won't be served. Take a night to make a creative video of your students preparing for no one. Hilarity, and a quick $3-400.