Monthly youth leaders column

What’s happening in your youth ministry at the moment? What’s going well? What are the upcoming events? Who are the leaders and what do they do? If you are in the middle of the youth ministry in your church you could give answers to the questions without breaking sweat.

But what does the church as whole know about it? How much do the parents know about what happens to their children week by week? If you are on a staff team, how much do your colleagues know about the week by week work with young people? By reputation, youth leaders can be a bit defensive about the work they do and fail to connect with other parts of the church. Unless you are passionate about youth church and totally disconnected from an all age body of believers, you are, like it or not, part of a community of God’s people. You are not running a distant outpost where you put as much space as you can between your work and the rest of what happens in that community. I remember a Sunday School teacher who, when encouraged to see herself as part of a bigger picture, said: ‘This is my department; these are my children — what happens to them after here is none of my business’. She was horribly wrong. Children have a habit of growing into young people who grow into adults. We can’t stop it happening so we must see their path to spiritual maturity (surely our aim) as one task to which many groups contribute.

We may need to learn that, if our work is to be seen as both valuable and credible, we must communicate with others. How can this be done?

1. How is news passed?

Look at what happens in your church. Is there a church meeting or a PCC looming? Ask for some space and invite questions or follow-up time. My experience would suggest that church people both want to know and will pray more intelligently if they know. ‘Dear Lord, please bless the youth work’ becomes ‘please bless Jim as he leads a Bible study this Thursday’. It’s difficult to see answers to the first prayer — with the second, answers are more obvious. The weekly bulletin that so many churches have is a good means. It only needs to be a small box of information but it makes people feel that you want them to know what the children and young people are learning about once they’ve left the back door of the church.

2. More long term

Perhaps a leaflet which sets out your vision for the work with youth and children. One title I remember was ‘What on earth are we doing for heaven’s sake?’ It doesn’t need to be complicated — simply setting out your vision, what times you meet, who the meetings are for, who are the leaders and what you hope to achieve. Many Christians will pin that to a kitchen notice board or stick it in the back of their quiet time Bibles and pray regularly for you. In one church I knew there were a group of elderly ladies who would have struggled to be effective youth workers, but ‘prayed without ceasing’ for all the young people because they had ‘prayer fodder’.

3. House parties are significant moments in the life of the group and its members. You can get into serious spiritual battles and they need the support. When we took our young people away we made available to the church a full programme and a list of the people going on the house party. I would ask some trusted friends to pray specifically for an individual who we felt was in danger.

Let us not be isolationists — we are not pioneers tracking through the jungle of youth ministry on our own. We are part of God’s church and if we want the support of God’s people we must connect.

Any more good ideas out there for connecting with church?

Connected church

1. How is news passed?

2. More long term

Dave Fenton

Main Articles

Other articles