Posts Tagged ‘Relational Ministry’

I met some visitors in church a few weeks ago. I like meeting visitors and making them feel welcome at church.

This couple had been believers for many years and were looking for a new church home. We talked about what they thought about the service and where they lived.

Then I noticed something about the way I was talking. It wasn’t like I had become rude or mean, but something was different. Without realizing it, I got a little weird.

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Students are surrounded by endless activities and under pressure from every angle to perform flawlessly, constantly.

What really works me up is when the institutions that provide all these activities are so focused on themselves, they don’t have the time, energy or focus to give students what they really need.

And youth groups aren’t immune to this institutional selfishness.

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Guest post from my amazing and beautiful wife, Christa.

I just finished another semester of graduate school in my quest to become a professional counselor. Most of my classes are a mix between counseling students and people that want to be youth pastors and pastors. Some of the students are currently in ministry and came back to school because they realized they were doing more counseling than preaching.

It can sometimes be tough to be the go-to-girl or guy when someone has a problem, but dealing with sticky issues is a part of youth ministry. There are a few simple techniques that can very helpful when you are having those deep conversations with students. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a lot of talk about relationships in youth ministry today, and I’m glad to see it.

Program-driven youth ministry (youth groups that rely on sermons and events to change teens’ lives) aren’t working. Relationship-focused youth ministries (youth groups that focus a majority of their energy on developing meaningful God-centered relationships with students) are our only hope.

But relational ministry has become a buzz word.

Everyone nods their head and agrees enthusiastically when you talk about relational ministry. You might even be nodding your head right now. But is it truly the driving force behind our ministries? What is that motivation deep down inside us that might be pulling us away from what we know is best?

How do we know if we are really committed to relationships in our youth ministry?

Here are a few questions to ponder that can help uncover our deeper motivations:

• What do you spend a majority of your time on?
• If someone asked about your youth ministry, what is the first thing you would tell them?
• Would you truly be content or satisfied at the end of the day if fewer teens came every week, but you saw deeper spiritual growth happening in the few students that did stay?
• Are you willing to give up anything and everything about your ministry—even the weekly meeting—if you found a model that made a deeper impact on your students?

We should  constantly reevaluate ourselves if we truly want to be focused on relationships. Numbers aren’t bad, but they can be meaningless.

Notice I didn’t say “we need to reevaluate our programs.” What we really need is to constantly examine and reexamine where we are spending our precious time and if we are spending our time on what we know will have the greatest impact.

Special note to leaders of larger groups (or leaders that want their group to grow): “Relational ministry” can’t always mean that you have a relationship with every student. Effective youth leaders have found ways to reproduce themselves in student and adult leaders (just look at Moses) while still emphasizing relationships all the way down the “leadership chain.”